Daddy's Adorable Assassin (Daddy's Little Deviants)

“We caught someone who helped to crack the case. He was found with evidence on him and has been in lockup all this time, feeding us tidbits of information that led us to that farmhouse.”

“You have a witness?”

“Yeah. It’s all confusing. It turns out he’s their kid, and it’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated about it?”

“I think since the killer’s dead, they’ll want to put him on trial, just to have a face the public can associate with the crimes.”

“So?”

“It’s not a good idea. I don’t think they should try him at all.”

“Why’d you think that?”

“We found evidence, Barney. Evidence of the way they treated their kid. They abused him in so many ways—abuse that he took for care. He can’t… he can’t function as a normal twenty-year-old would because they didn’t teach him to be independent. They want to charge him with accessory after the fact, but he wouldn’t last a day in prison.”

Barney frowned. “What’s it to you? If we dig into the past of all the perps we’ve sent to the slammer, they have some violent backgrounds too. You’ve never cared about their past and how it affected their actions. Why does this one matter?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Instead, I gathered my cell phone and keys. He had a point. It wasn’t my job to analyze anyone’s background and make excuses for the heinous crimes they committed. Cosmo shouldn’t be any different. But he just was.

“What’s really going on here, Hunt?”

“Nothing. You’re right.” I shook my head and forced a smile to my lips. “I think I got affected because he’s little more than a kid.”

An image of a naked Cosmo in the shower stroking his cock, the water streaming down his perfect little body, flashed through my mind.

Do you think I’m pretty?

How could he think he was anything but? And how had they dared make him feel like he wasn’t?

“Hunt?”

“What?” I knitted my brows. “Forget about it. I shouldn’t have said anything about the case. I need to go.”

Together we walked out of the house, and I locked up. His Harley was parked beside my Tahoe, where I’d left it when I got home from my visit to the facility at that ungodly hour.

“You off today?” I asked him.

“Yeah, you weren’t answering, so I thought I’d drop by and see that everything was good.”

“It is. Catch you later.”

I opened the door and hopped in. Barney tapped on the window, and I wound it down. “Yeah?”

“Wanna catch up over beers and a burger later? There’s a basketball game on tonight.”

“Sure. Why not? Will call you later. Barney, this will all be over soon, and I’ll be an annoying pain in your ass again.”

Barney rode out first, and I followed until we turned in different directions at the intersection. The closer I got to the facility, the tenser I became. I’d expected Knight to call me about the time we had the meeting with the governor, but he hadn’t. And he hadn’t answered my calls.

The usual security guard at the entrance wasn’t there. Unease settled inside me as I parked and got out of my car. I took in the handful of cars in the parking lot. Why were there so few today? I hurried down to the basement where Cosmo’s room was. The elevator doors lifted, and I stepped out.

What was going on? My stomach tightened, and my heart beat sped up. This floor was never empty during the day. Agent Ellis was usually on standby if Cosmo needed something. No one was here.

Cosmo.

I raced over to the room, punched in the code, and slipped inside. The bench they had turned into a bed for Cosmo was back to its original condition. No light blue blanket. No colorful sheets I’d brought him. The books, the toys, they were all gone.