Viper stepped over and crouched down in front of her. She never moved a muscle as he looked her dead in the eyes and said, “I’m Viper, and this is Hawk.”
Her eyes skirted over to me for a split second. Then her attention went back to Viper as he told her, “We have some questions for you. I figure we’ve got two ways we can go about it—the easy way and the hard way. Personally, I’d just as soon go about this the easy way. How about you?”
She nodded in agreement.
“Good.” As he reached for the duct tape, he told her, “I’m gonna remove this, but don’t make me regret it.”
After he carefully pulled the tape from her mouth, he stood up, towering over her. “You got a name?”
“Delilah.”
“Okay, Delilah. You gonna behave if I remove those restraints?”
“Yes.” With his pocket knife in hand, Viper reached around her, and the second he sliced the plastic, freeing her wrists, Delilah asked, “Where’s Danny?”
“Oh no, sweetheart,” he growled. “I’m the one asking the questions.”
“And I’ll try and answer them.” Without showing any sign of fear, she held Viper’s gaze. “I just want to know if my brother’s okay.”
“Damn, Rafe was right. You are a feisty one,” Viper grumbled as he shook his head. He was clearly as surprised as I was that the girl didn’t seem the least bit shaken by the situation she’d found herself in. Hell, even I would’ve been a little unnerved if I was in her shoes, but she came off cool, calm, and collected. She was either one hell of an actress, or she was too fucking pissed to realize that her life was on the line. A part of me wanted to warn her, to tell her that we were the kind of men who wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet in her head, but before I got the chance, Viper looked down at her and said, “Danny’s alive ... at least he is for now. That could change for you both if you two don’t give us the answers we’re looking for.”
She flinched slightly at his response, then let out a deep, aggravated breath. “Then we have a problem.”
“And what’s that?”
“I don’t know anything about what Danny’s done or why we’re here.”
“Don’t tell me you really expect me to believe that shit.”
“I don’t have a death wish, and I don’t want anything to happen to my brother, so there’s no reason for me to lie to you,” she snapped back. “It might be hard to believe, but I’m telling you the truth.”
“Okay, I’m gonna just assume for the time being that you are actually telling the truth, and you don’t know anything about what your brother was up to.” Viper crossed his arms. “Let’s try to figure out what you do know. Where are you both from?”
“Here in Tennessee ... about thirty-five minutes away. A small town called LaGrange. We moved there about fifteen or so years ago.”
“What about your folks? Where are they?”
“My mom still lives in LaGrange. I don’t know about my father.” She shrugged as she continued, “I haven’t seen him since my mother left him.”
“What about friends? Does Danny have anyone in particular he hangs with?”
“I don’t know. At one time, he had a few guys he ran around with, but honestly, I’m not sure if he still talks to them anymore.”
“Does he leave town a lot?”
“Danny’s almost thirty years old. He doesn’t exactly check in with me to let me know when he’s coming or going.”
“What about a job?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say he doesn’t have one, but I really can’t say for sure.”
“You don’t know anything about who his handler is or where we might find them?”
“Handler? I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her expression softened as she lowered her head and explained, “I know it sounds bad that I don’t know more about what’s going on with my brother right now. I love him dearly, and I’d do anything I could to help him, but I don’t know every detail of his life. If I did, I’d tell you.”
Viper didn’t respond. Instead, he simply stood there, studying her as he tried to determine if she was telling the truth. After several moments, she glanced up at Viper with tear-filled eyes and asked, “What’s this all about? What’s a handler? Is it drugs ... or something else?”
“Best if we keep that under wraps for now.”
Her voice trembled when she asked him, “Are you going to hurt him?”
“That’ll be up to him,” Viper answered honestly. “Actually, that goes for the both of you.”
Her beautiful blue eyes widened with panic as the severity of the situation started to sink in. Involved or not, her life was on the line, and depending on how things turned out with Danny, there was a chance she wouldn’t make it out alive. That was a realization that didn’t sit well with either her or me. Her lip quivered as she asked, “You aren’t going to let me go?”