“Take me back,” Seth repeated to the guard.
Hector studied him. Even with months inside, he looked good. Body fit, his prison blues wrinkle-free like he had them ironed, his hair cut neatly. Hector tried to find some hint of Sadie in him but it wasn’t there. Seth Townsend was tall, dark-haired with some distinguishing gray and his body was made up of lean, muscled bulk. He was impressive, had a presence that was both magnetic and menacing, even in prison. How this man made Sadie, Hector couldn’t begin to guess. If he hadn’t seen the photos of Sadie’s mother, he would have thought she was adopted.
“We gotta talk,” Hector said.
Seth’s gaze sliced to him but he was silent.
“I wanna cut a deal,” Hector went on.
Seth’s eyes flashed and he smiled. It was not an amused smile, it was a triumphant one. He walked further into the room.
“You want to cut a deal,” Seth repeated.
“Yeah,” Hector replied.
Seth put his hands in the pockets of his pants and rocked back on his heels.
“All of a sudden, I want to cut a deal too,” Seth said.
It was Hector’s turn to stay silent.
Then, as if Vance nor the guard were in the room, Seth offered, “I’ll make it worth your while to stay away from her.”
Hector showed no reaction to this and remained silent.
“Good enough to fix up that house of yours, trade up to a better car, even afford a decent haircut.”
Exposing his knowledge of Hector’s living arrangements and vehicle mixed with the inference that Hector was beneath Sadie’s notice, Hector knew Seth was trying to rattle him.
Considering he left Sadie naked and asleep in his bed, Hector remained unrattled.
Seth watched him closely then said, “No? Then I’ll make it not worth your while to stay with her.”
“This how you scared away Tracy and Brent?” Hector asked about Sadie’s only two boyfriends. She didn’t need to tell him about them last night, he already knew. He’d dug them up as a matter of course during the investigation and knew all about them.
“They took the first option,” Seth replied without remorse.
“I’m waitin’ for option three, the one where, once you get out, you invite me to Thanksgiving dinner,” Hector returned casually.
Seth showed no response.
“We done with this topic?” Hector decided it was time to move on.
Seth shrugged.
“Sadie’s bad business has to stop,” Hector continued.
Instantly Seth retorted, “You are clever. You come up with that on your own?”
Hector ignored him. “You can carry on and fuck it up or we can work together.”
Seth’s eyes went hard. “You have got to be joking, Chavez, no way in hell we’re working together.”
“Then I got a choice,” Hector replied immediately. “Vance here has been diggin’ around Elizabeth’s disappearance. Vance is pretty good at findin’ shit out. So good, he found out she was whacked by Mickey Balducci. You remember Mickey Balducci?”
Hector watched with some degree of surprise as Seth showed a reaction. Before he could control it, pain sliced across his face. The one thing Seth had given Sadie was the ability to put up an impenetrable defense. This was a first.
Still, Seth didn’t respond.
Hector kept at him. “Vance can share with Sadie what he knows or we can let her go on thinkin’ you did it.”
That’s when Seth Townsend’s magnetic, menacing, invulnerable aura cracked. His body jerked and his face went pale.
“She thinks I did it?” he whispered.
Hector nodded and Seth’s hand came out of his pocket and up slightly as if it was going to tear through his hair. He realized quickly what this would expose, dropped his hand and he looked out the window.
Hector opened his mouth to speak when his cell went. He decided to give Seth a moment to reflect, dug it out of his back pocket and looked at the display which said “Sadie Calling’. His eyes cut to Vance, he flipped it open and put it to his ear.
“Sadie,” he answered and he felt the air in the room grow dense.
She was whispering, voice panicked, “I got up. You weren’t here. I was going down to the kitchen to find you. I was on the landing, looked downstairs and I saw a man’s legs on the couch. They weren’t yours. Hector, where are you? Someone’s in the house.”
Fuck, he thought, anger gripping him at the fear in her voice.
Without hesitating and without giving a thought to his audience, he bent his head, stepped away and turned so his side was to the room.
“Calm down, mamita, that’s Bobby. He’s lookin’ after you today. Didn’t you see the note I put on the pillow?”
He heard her take a deep breath and then he heard her move. Finally, she sighed.
“Blooming heck, I’m sorry, it’s right here. I didn’t see it.”
“You okay?” he asked immediately.
“Yes,” she replied and she sounded okay, in an instant totally over her panic. Will of fucking steel. “Where are you?” she asked.