Run to Ground

Hank Summers had half his body hanging off the edge of the roof and if Eliot had any say in the matter, the rest of him would be following soon. He was almost glad their con had gone topsy tervy on them because it allowed him to get his hands on him.

“She owed me,” Summers spat, yelping as Eliot used his grip on his shirt to shove him a little farther out on the edge. “They all do. She’s not even really my daughter. I paid for her for years. They owe me this.”

“You raised her,” Eliot growled, hand twisting in Summers’ shirt.

“Not since I found out she wasn’t mine!” Summers yelled, his anger momentarily cutting across his fear. “Not since the divorce!”

Nate finally prowled forward, hands tucked in his pockets, and said, “Mr. Summers, I’m going to make things very easy for you to understand. The cops have been made aware of your…financial indiscretions and of the fact that you’re in town. You have ten minutes to get to the airport and out of town. And if you don’t go, if I find out you’ve come anywhere near either of the Summers sisters, you’ll wish we’d thrown you off this roof.”

Eliot bared his teeth, then spun them and shoved, watching as Summers fell, then continued to skitter away before he regained his feet and fled at a run.

“I can’t believe we’re letting him go,” Eliot growled, discontent.

And Nate smiled that shark smile of his. “Sometimes you have to let the rats run to ground, Eliot. It’s the easiest way to catch them.”

Eliot felt a cold shiver and almost felt sorry for Summers. Almost, until he remembered Dawn’s wide blue eyes and the havoc that’d been reeked over the past few days. Then he wished he’d hit the man a couple more times.