Lure (A Hitman's Bait 1)

FOURTEEN

“Movealittlefaster, boy. Take it all off.”

When I got orders that the next hit was Leo Bernard, I’d spent weeks digging up any information I could find on the man. I might be a contract killer, but I didn’t just take a life all willy-nilly. Nor did I accept every contract that came my way unless it was from Pinelli. Not that I was a saint and only killed bad men, but I had some principles about how I conducted my business. Those same principles had kept me in business this long despite the attempts that cropped up every so often to dethrone and replace me.

It hadn’t taken long to discover Leo Bernard was the kind of man even a priest would have no qualm about killing. He preyed upon young boys and girls, taking their innocence, then returned to lead a normal life. I would have offed him already, but the act needed to be done here at this secret residence where he carried out all his sexually deviant acts.

“I’m going in,” I said into the comm.

“Now?” Liam asked. “Have you found the evidence yet?”

I gritted my teeth. I’d already had to endure half an hour of that bastard talking dirty to Kit, asking him what kind of sexual acts he liked, and spelling out in details what he was going to do to Kit’s body tonight. If I didn’t get this part of the job over with now, I might blow everything before I got Kit out of there.

“No, not yet.”

“Then why are you going rogue? Kit’s handling things in the bedroom to give you time.”

Dammit. I hated when he was right, but how was I supposed to be downstairs, riffling through this man’s office and not do anything about Kit getting naked for that bastard just one floor above me?

I spun around in the office, using my flashlight to comb the shelves I’d already been through. Bernard’s wife had been certain he kept the CDs here, but I was having doubts.

“Like what you see, Daddy?” Kit purred, and I stilled. Bernard had told him earlier to call him Daddy, but this was the first time Kit did so. I didn’t like it at all.

“I love what I see, boy. Now take that thong off and get on your knees on the bed. Daddy needs to put his seed inside you.”

My heart pounded in my chest, and sweat popped up on my forehead. I started for the door and stumbled. What the hell? I stepped back and felt it. The unevenness of the floor.

“I think I’ve got something.”

“What?”

“I’m checking it out.”

I grasped the end of the rug and peeled it back. Bingo. A hatch in the floor. I dropped to my knee, blocking out Kit’s gasps and what sounded like a sharp slap.

The hatch lifted without a creak, revealing a shallow compartment with a black box in the middle. I picked up the box, closed the hatch, fixed the carpet back, and walked over to the desk. I set the box down with the code panel facing me. If his wife had been wrong about the code, then I would have no choice but to take the box with me. I wouldn’t sit around and fiddle with potential codes until I had the right one.

“Harder, Daddy,” Kit begged, his voice husky.

My hand shook, and a thick vise clamped around my heart. I shouldn’t have left him alone for two weeks, but I’d needed the time to think. To process what had happened between us. Taking a job in Colombia to pick off a drug dealer who’d pissed off the Pinelli family had seemed like an excellent opportunity to get some thinking done, except now I was back and no closer to knowing what I wanted from Kit.

It was sure as hell not him having sex with a dirty old bastard like Bernard.

I punched in the code his wife insisted he used for all his security passwords. The case opened with a click.

“I have it,” I said into my comm. “I just need to find the right one.”

The CDs were all labeled and neatly organized, just like she’d said. Videos of the sick son of a bitch taking advantage of teens. I confirmed the one she wanted specifically and slipped it into the inside pocket of my jacket.

“Meet me at the back door.”

“Roger that.”

Once I was out of the office, the sounds of smacking didn’t just come from the microphone hidden in Kit’s earring. They also rang out in the house.

“Look at that peachy little ass ripe for breeding,” Bernard said in a hoarse voice. “Just about ready for Daddy’s big cock. Beg me to put it in. Beg me to fuck you.”

Liam was waiting at the back door. I practically shoved the CD at him and took off back down the hall.