She knew she didn’t have to say anything more; no one knew better what it meant to be in trouble and have Josh Redstone on your side.
“You said he’s been in for two years.”
“Nearly, yes.” Guessing what his next question would be, she answered before he had to ask. “His lawyers managed to keep him out for over three, but two years ago his appeals ran out and he was sent to prison. And he was just denied a parole hearing. He thought he should get one sooner than the sentence specified, because…he’s special.”
Tony smiled at that. It was a smile Lilith thought she wouldn’t like to see aimed at her; there was nothing of civil discourse in it, and a great deal of that feral wildness she’d seen flash in his eyes before.
“Good,” was all he said.
“So you see why he can’t be behind this. I appreciate Josh’s concern, but—”
“You can arrange for anything from behind bars. In fact, it’s probably easier. A constant flow of people with criminal mindsets, it doesn’t take much to find one who’s about to get out and willing to do you a favor for a price. Or one who knows somebody who will. And I’m guessing your ex still has the price.”
She wondered if he spoke from experience. She knew Josh hadn’t pressed charges for his attempted robbery all those years ago, but it didn’t seem likely that that had been the first foray into crime for the boy he’d been, the street gangster she’d heard about.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “He still has all the assets of the Huntington family. His father died four years ago, and controlling interest in all their varied enterprises passed to Daniel.”
“Somebody must be helping him run all that.”
“I’m sure the family attorney is dealing. He’s very efficient.” She grimaced. “As was his criminal attorney. Anyone less than Detective Drake, and the trial might have had a very different outcome.”
“Remind me to find her and thank her someday,” Tony said, almost under his breath.
Lilith found that curious; it had nothing to do with the current situation, and certainly nothing to do with Tony himself. “Really, I can’t believe—”
“If he was out, would you believe he could do this?”
Lilith didn’t have to think about that. “Yes.”
“And being denied even the possibility of early parole would really set somebody like him off.”
Wearily now, she conceded the fact. “Yes. He could never accept that he’d been convicted. Couldn’t believe a Huntington would actually be put in prison.”
“The pendulum has swung a bit,” Tony said.
Lilith’s brow furrowed. “How do you mean?”
“The public perception of justice has shifted. Nowadays you’re more likely to get hit hard the more prominent you are. Decade or two ago, he’d probably have gotten away with it. Or at least gotten a lesser sentence.”
Lilith knew that was likely true. And wondered again just how he’d gained his knowledge of the legal system.
“I’ll need to know what his weaknesses are. What will set him off, or oil his jaws.”
She blinked. “What?”
“What will get him talking. Or make him mad, if I need to.” For the third time, that fierce, wild look flashed in his eyes. “I’d like that.”
“You…you’re going to see him?”
“Easiest way to find out if he’s behind this. He’ll deny it, sure, but if I rattle him enough, he might give himself away.”
“He’s a very practiced liar,” she said.
“So am I, when I need to be,” he said negligently.
I’ll bet you are, Lilith thought.
The idea didn’t please her much.
Tony tapped a finger restlessly on the steering wheel of his car. As he had been since they’d left Redstone ten minutes ago. “This is a mistake.”
“Perhaps.”
“You don’t need to do this. If you’d just tell me—”
“You said you wanted to rattle him. Make him mad.” She gave him a wry grimace of a smile. “I can do that better than anyone.”
“How can you want to see him?” Tony asked, barely masking his incredulity.
“Believe me, I don’t. I have no desire to ever lay eyes on that man again. But I swore I would never cower from him again, either.”
He admired her fortitude, but said, “It’s not cowering.”
“It is if there’s anything to Josh’s suspicions, and he’s really behind this. If,” she added, “there really is a ‘this.’”
He didn’t tell her that, while he’d been doubtful at first, the moment he’d learned about her ex he’d become as convinced as Josh that there was more to this than just a couple of accidents.
Or perhaps he simply wasn’t willing to risk her life on the assumption they’d been mere coincidence.
“I’ll handle this,” he said firmly. “It’s my job, remember?”
“And it’s my problem.”
He tried another approach. “Would you let me interfere with your work?”
“If it was your area of expertise, yes.”
“Exactly.” He thought she had just proved his point, but she’d said it too quickly and easily; Lilith Mercer was no fool, and her steely determination was well-known around Redstone.
She proved his unease well-founded with her next words. “And Daniel Huntington is my area of expertise, not yours. If you want to push his buttons, I’m the one who knows what they are.”
And just that easily, she had him. And he was going to be stuck in a car with her on the drive that would likely take nearly an hour.
The Redstone name carried a lot of weight in most places, and between Josh himself, John Draven and Josh’s mysterious right-hand man, St. John, Tony guessed there weren’t many places where one of them didn’t know someone. In any case, one phone call had netted them permission to see the prisoner Daniel Huntington as long as they got there within the next two hours. Tony guessed whoever the contact was, he got off duty then.
“You’ll need to change,” he told her.
She drew back slightly. “What?”
“Your jeans. You can’t wear them to visit. Too close to prison blues.”
She stared at him, clearly wondering how he knew that, and for some reason he didn’t even try to understand he felt compelled to go on, as if in some perverse way he wanted her to be even more aware of the differences between them.
“You can’t wear some shades of green, either, because it’s too close to the guard uniforms.”
“I…see.”
“It’s my world, Lilith.” It hit him then, what he’d been trying to do, to make her keep the distance between them, because he wasn’t sure he could. He didn’t want to keep doing it, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “I know a lot of people in Chino. Gangsters I ran with. Gangsters I ran against. A couple of them are there because they killed my little sister in a drive-by.”
She looked at him just long