Free Game of Fear by Robin Perini Page B

kids run away at that age, but it was obvious my father obsessively tracked certain ones.” He sat back and sighed, shaking his head. “I always thought he was traveling down a rabbit hole. Until today.”
    Deb sagged onto the couch next to Gabe. “Why today specifically?”
    “Because the few disappearances he starred in the files were all supersmart kids who supposedly ran away, often with an equally brilliant friend.”
    “Oh God. Ashley. Justin.” Deb reached forward and grabbed Shannon’s file. “I need to read these.”
    “Wait—”
    She flipped open the folder and gasped. Spread out before her were the horrific crime scene photos from Shannon’s shooting.
    “Oh my God.”
    Gabe snatched the folder from Deb’s shaking hand and closed it. “I didn’t want you to see those.”
    “This can’t be related to Ashley.” Deb sat stiff, her entire body screaming don’t touch me .
    Gabe ignored the message. He put his arm around her, and even though she pulled away, he tugged her closer, stroking her back, cursing his stupidity. Even her tour in Afghanistan hadn’t prepared her for the gruesome photo of someone who looked so much like her sister.
    The problem was, if Patrick Montgomery was right, Ashley Lansing’s chances did not look good.

    Ernie clutched the latest package in his hands. His jaw throbbed and his eye had swollen shut. Gasmerati’s thugs had given him another beating. Just for fun. He was tired of this life.
    He limped down the narrow hallway as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to give anyone else a chance to pummel him.
    Wishing he could just get the hell out of Denver, but without so much as a twenty to his name, Ernie sighed. No one would give him a job, except doing this crap for Gasmerati. He hitched up his pants. He was so hungry they hung loose. The food Gabe had given him had been the only decent meal he’d had in days. He’d never collected on his tip, but he might have to. Going near the bar terrified him, though. He still didn’t know who had been lurking in the shadows outside Sammy’s.
    “I knew we had a leak!” Gasmerati’s bellow boomed in the hallway. “Why did it take this long to find out the traitor’s name?”
    Ernie froze, his swallow so loud the gulp echoed around him. God, did they know about him? He sent a furtive glance right, then left, and plastered himself against the wall. If Jeff meant Ernie, he was dead. He couldn’t run far enough to escape the mobster’s thugs.
    “I want Grace O’Sullivan silenced,” Gasmerati said. “I don’t care if I’ve known her all my life. Luke Montgomery has run too many newspaper articles using inside information. I can’t believe she’s the one who betrayed us. Her husband is our damned hit man. Call him. We’ll see if he’s really loyal. Hell, I might throw in Montgomery, too.”
    Ernie tensed. Gasmerati was putting out a hit on Grace O’Sullivan—and possibly Luke, too? Gabe would pay big bucks for this.
    “We should have known it was her,” another voice chimed in. “She had the hots for Steve Paretti before she—”
    “Don’t speak that traitor’s name in my presence, Sly,” Gasmerati said.
    Ernie shuddered. Sly made Gasmerati look like a choir boy. As Gasmerati’s enforcer, Sly enjoyed his job too much. Ernie did all he could to avoid the muscle man. Everyone did.
    Gasmerati’s voice turned harsh. “Family doesn’t betray family. Find out who she called at WITSEC,” he ordered. “First the FBI looking into my business and now this. I want anyone involved silenced. I refuse to be brought down by a damn woman.”
    Footsteps thundered toward the door where Ernie listened. Panicking, he hurried out the side door. He quietly shut it, then limped away, praying no one had seen him.
    The Montgomerys would want to know about this. If Grace was Luke’s snitch, and the Montgomerys wanted to save her, they’d pay. Maybe enough to get him out of Denver.
    For the first time in years, Ernie had hope