Noah ran a hand down his face and over his chin as he took in the case.

“What changed your mind?”

“Does it matter? You have what you want. Name your price, Noah.”

Noah placed his hand on the briefcase and Hunter slapped his over his brother’s.

Their eyes caught and didn’t let go. “My conditions.”

Noah eased his hand away.

“You leave here, retrieve Hayden, and meet my pilot.”

Noah gripped the back of a dining chair. “And where are we going?”

“Someplace safe.”

A flicker of humanity passed over his brother’s face. Had Hunter not been watching, he would have missed it.

“Safe?”

Hunter’s next words were slower than a turtle marching across the desert sand. “Your son’s life has been threatened . . . all in an effort to get to me. You take this money and your son and you both disappear. I’ll contact you when it’s safe to move on with your life.”

“And if I don’t agree?”

“Then you take this, give it to Sheila . . . split it . . . burn it for all I care, but Hayden comes with me. Today.”

To say Noah was stunned would have been an understatement. His jaw dropped, his eyes were tiny specks of confusion.

“You’re willing to take my son?”

Hunter made sure he articulated every syllable of his next words. “Hayden is already mine. I’m a week away from taking permanent custody, and neither you, nor Sheila, will see one penny.” It was a bluff. But Hunter had to try.

A weak smile started on Noah’s lips. “Always impatient. I don’t know how you managed to get so far in business when you show everyone your cards.”

Hunter slammed his hand on the table, causing everything on it to jump.

“My wife’s car was blown up yesterday, Noah. She escaped with her life by less than a minute. Someone out there with bigger balls than yours is willing to take out your son because you told the world he’s mine. Either you leave with him, now, or I take him and keep him safe. Make your choice and make it now! I don’t have any more time to fuck with you. Fair warning, Noah. If Hayden comes with me, he’s mine. You’ll never see him again.”

Noah turned white.

Hunter looked at his watch. “I have a car coming in five minutes.” He swept the car keys across the table until Noah had to catch them or watch them fall to the floor. “I have a bodyguard and a private investigator watching your son. Both are ready to take him on my call. What’s it going to be, Daddy?”

Noise from behind him had Hunter turning around. “What’s it going to be, Noah?”

Sherman Blackwell stood, scruffy faced and more than a little worn around the edges as he fixed his eyes on the two of them. How much of the conversation he’d heard, Hunter couldn’t say . . . but from the look in the older man’s eyes, it was enough to understand the severity of the situation.

Noah grasped the briefcase and opened it. Inside were stacks of hundreds . . . it paid to have business associates who owned casinos, where cash could be removed and IOUs given.

Noah took two stacks of bills, shoved them in his pocket, and closed the case. He tapped his hands alongside it and said, “For Sheila. I’ll keep her with me until I hear from you. If I leave her here, there’s no telling what she’ll do.”

With the briefcase in one hand, the keys to the Jeep in another, Noah stood.

“Go to John Wayne Airport. I’ll call my people.”

“Who’s Neil?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll be in touch.”

Noah hesitated as he passed their father, and then disappeared behind the door.

Sherman crossed the room, opened the fridge, and pulled a beer he didn’t need from the box. “What’s this about a wife?”

Chapter Thirty

Hunter finally pulled into the gates as the sun was setting.

Gabi was livid.

He stepped from the back of the car and opened his arms to all the activity. “What’s going on?”

With one hand on her hip, and anger in her words, she told him the only reasonable thing she could. “Chaos! Chaos I’m dealing with alone because you’re too busy to bother.”

“I had something to take care of.”

Gabi rolled her eyes and twisted away.

Neil and company had descended on her home like locusts. The garland around the door had been stripped away; the Christmas tree in the living room nearly decimated as they searched for God only knew what.

Neil . . . Lord only knew how Gwen put up with his quiet tight ass. The man offered nothing.

While a team looked over every strand of lights, every inch of garland . . . every decoration she’d had the staff place a few days before, Neil and a few others were inside poking in every nook and cranny of the house.

Before she could make it back inside, the man of the hour met them both out the front door.

“We found bugs that don’t belong to us.”

Gabi stood motionless.

Hunter wasn’t. “Where?”

“Inside the TVs. Audio for the guest room, the master bedroom . . . video with audio in the living room.”

The hair on Gabi’s arms stood up. “Someone has been listening to us? Watching us?”

Hunter was livid. “How did this happen?”

“Sophisticated equipment placed inside the televisions. The technology isn’t something I’ve seen before. My equipment didn’t pick it up. And my stuff picks up an out of place ant.”

Gabi grabbed Neil’s thick arm. “Do you think the deceased boy placed the bugs?”