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

HUNTER

Itappedmyfoot and listened to Barney showing more restraint than usual as we questioned a suspect in a case we’d been working on before I’d teamed up with the FBI. I glanced at my watch and rubbed a hand across my mouth. The suspect was clearly lying his ass off about knowing Justice Pyor, the man we were looking to build a case against for some murders tied to illegal distribution of drugs. Pyor was a business executive, though, who ran nightclubs and invested in the city. Time and again, we caught men working for him, but none ever ratted him out. Whatever the bastard had promised or threatened them with, they remained steadfast that they didn’t work for Pyor.

“And you haven’t had any contact with Pyor?” Barney asked. “Even though we have someone placing you at a meeting with him?”

The man shook his head. “They must have mistaken me for someone else. Look at me. I work at the fish market. What would an important man like Mr. Pyor want with someone like me?”

I surged to my feet, grabbed the man by his collar, and yanked him up.

“Cut the bullshit. We all know you work for Mr. Pyor. We know you smuggle the drugs into the fish, and that’s the use he has for someone like you. Two people are dead, caught in the crossfire when Pyor’s shipment got stolen. You give Mr. Pyor a message the next time you speak to him and inform him he needs to find a new distribution site. We’re on his ass, and he might have stayed one step ahead of us all this time, but it won’t be long now until his luck runs out.”

I released him and stalked past Barney, whose jaw had fallen slack.

“Barney, are you coming or not?”

He climbed to his feet, but I didn’t stick around long enough to hear the end of his apology for my behavior. I got in the car and banged my head on the steering wheel. The door opened and closed.

“Jesus Christ, Hunter. What the fuck got into you?”

I grunted, put the gear in Reverse, and backed out of the driveway.

“Since you’ve been back from working with the feds, it’s like you’re a totally different man. There I was, trying to keep my cool after you’re always begging me to behave, and you’re going all Hulk on a potential witness.”

“He wasn’t going to tell us anything, Barney. Neither we nor the DEA are any closer to getting our hands on that prick. He gets to live it up while fucking up the city because he has the money to buy people and keep himself out of prison while the truly vulnerable have no option but to depend on the justice system to swing in their favor.”

Silence fell between us, and I cringed as the words reverberated in my head. What was happening to me? I was losing my shit. All I could think about was Cosmo in that jail cell with a cellmate who’d exacted a promise out of him to keep him safe. Knowing Cosmo and how much he needed someone to control him didn’t make the situation any better. What was he giving for that protection? I knew exactly what, and it made me see red with rage on his behalf and envy of the man who got to touch him. Something I would never be doing.

I wanted to go to him, to see for myself that he had survived the night. Jail was a tough place, and a guy like Cosmo would be considered for only one purpose there. He was so beautiful and delicate… so innocent and sweet. They would take all that away from him, make him into one of them. How would he even survive it if a group of them… I pulled over the car and stopped so suddenly the car lurched forward. Barney cussed a blue streak.

I jumped out and barely made it to the sidewalk before I was throwing up. Mother fucking hell.

Barney gave me privacy, which I appreciated. The last thing I wanted was him hovering over me while I was puking, my guts knotted up with anxiety and fear over a boy I shouldn’t be giving a second thought.

When I was finished, I grabbed my water bottle and rinsed. I heaved a sigh and stared up at the clear sky. The sun had no business shining so brightly when Cosmo had gone through so much trauma and through no fault of his could still end up in prison.

Fuck. There was no way I couldn’t know if he was okay. I’d planned to stay away, keep as neutral as possible while I paid for his lawyer with the money Petra and I had been saving up for our dream vacation before she was killed. I hadn’t been able to touch the money in all these years, but what was a better cause than helping someone who didn’t deserve to be in jail? We didn’t know Cosmo’s last name. He didn’t even know it. I’d been scouring the missing persons’ database trying to find him, but it could take months. If I came up with anything at all.

“What’s going on with you, man?” Barney asked when I hopped back into the car. “Something is bothering you.”

“Must have been something I ate.”

“This has nothing to do with food. You’ve been antsy and not yourself since you got back.”

My phone rang, and I dug it out of my pocket. I frowned at the screen. Knight. We hadn’t spoken since he tried hooking up. I hadn’t expected him to get in touch. I declined the call and put the phone in the cupholder. It rang again, and this time, I ignored it.

“Who are you avoiding?” Barney asked.

“Nobody.” Barney picked up the phone. “Goddammit, Barney.”

“It’s the FBI agent. Why are you ignoring his calls?”

“Because I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You used to tell me everything. What’s with all the secrets? I can’t get a read on you anymore, and you’ve never lost your shit questioning someone before. It all has to do with this fed, doesn’t it?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “You’re not going to believe this, but he asked me out.”

“What?”