“She’s running from him?” So, it seemed that Chisholm and his team had been involved in an extraction when Rickard had killed them. They’d come for the woman and found something much worse than they—and maybe even his wife—had ever anticipated.

“Looks that way. I’ve got someone over at Chisholm’s office going through his records to see what we can find out.”

“Who’s looking for the woman?”

“The police are. But at the moment they’ve more on their plate to worry about.”

I took out my SIG and ejected the depleted magazine. Fed in a full one and racked the slide.

“I’m going out.”

Walter looked at me. “We have work to do here, Hunter.”

I was never that great a detective. Every man in the room was a far better investigator than I was. Let them find out who Rickard really was, then point me in the right direction. That’s where my special skills lay. I was more concerned with finding Alisha before her husband did.

“I’m going out,” I repeated.

Chapter 25

25

This corner of Liberty City wasn’t a safe place to hide for someone like Alisha Rickard. It was ironic that Rickard had originally found her in this neighborhood, but since she’d been with him, she’d undergone a major transformation. Now she simply did not fit. For one, her clothing and salon-perfect hairdo picked her out as someone no longer from these parts. Her designer purse, and the probable weight of cash or credit cards she carried within it, marked her as an easy target for any of a number of people willing to take it off her. Then there were the men who watched her with the eyes of pit bulls. They thought only two things about her: flesh for the taking or an obvious police setup. Neither boded well for the young woman.

Except Rickard would not allow anyone to harm her.

She was his alone to hurt.