“No problem. But not because you want it. The son of a bitch betrayed me.”
“Remember that when you see him.” It was time to get off the phone and let Millet concentrate his venom on his prey. Roland wanted him to be primed for the kill by the time he reached that cottage. “Remember I expect my turn with the MacGuire woman. Let me know when you’ve secured her.” He hung up the phone.
Everything was falling neatly into place. When Weismann had reported in that he had located Jane MacGuire and that she might have picked up the tablet at the bank, he had known it could be a bonanza. If Weismann managed to do as Roland ordered, then Millet would find nothing but a live Jane MacGuire and a few other dead bodies. Then Roland would be able to meet with Weismann and get the tablet.
But things didn’t always go as they should, and a wise man always had to have insurance. If Weismann had failed, then he
couldn’t afford to have him use that lying viper’s tongue to try to make a deal with Millet to save his neck.
He would have to die quickly . . . and in silence.
“I’M NOT GOING,” LINA SAID FLATLY.
“This is my home. Do you know how hard I’ve worked to say those words?
My home
. Not my father’s, not my husband’s. My home. I’m not giving it up.”
“And I’m not letting you stay here and be butchered,” Jane said fiercely. “I won’t be responsible. You can come back when this is all over, but you can’t stay now.”
“You insult me. You’re not responsible. I’m responsible for my life. No one else.” Lina glared at her. “Now get out. Maybe these people will follow you and leave me alone.”
“It’s not likely, Lina,” Jock said. “First, they’d torture you to find out if you know where we’re going. Then they’d kill you because you translated Adah’s ledger, and you know too much.”
“Do you think this is the first time this has happened to me? People come to me when they want confidentiality. I give it to them. I run the risk.”
“You’ve never run this high a risk,” Jane said. “I won’t have you join the body count.” She added desperately, “Come with us. We can’t leave without you.”
“Then stay. I don’t care. That’s your prerogative,” she said grimly. “But get your own AK-47. You can’t have mine.”
“I couldn’t have gotten you a more desired present, could I?” Caleb had come into the cottage. “But you shouldn’t be so selfish.”
“It wasn’t a present, it was payment,” Lina said.
“And now you’re causing me to rue the day. If you didn’t have the weapon, this discussion wouldn’t be taking place.” He was
walking toward her. “Because you’re not stupid. You wouldn’t try to defend your castle without that gun. So I guess all I can do is try to persuade you not to do it.”
Jane stiffened. Persuade. She had a vision of Weismann lying in the toolshed, face contorted with pain.
“No, Caleb.”
“Be quiet, Jane. This is between Lina and me. We’ve worked together for a long time.” He stopped only two feet away from Lina. “I brought you and Gavin here. I took the chance of leading Weismann here so that I could gather him in. I’m the one who has to take care of the fallout.” He stared into Lina’s eyes. “What can I say to persuade you to go with us, Lina?”
“Nothing.”
He sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
He was turning away, Jane saw with relief. Thank God. She had been so afraid that he would—
“Forgive me,” he said softly.
No!
Jane took a step forward.
Too late.
Caleb had turned in one catlike motion and leaped toward Lina.
She had barely time to lift her arm before the edge of Caleb’s hand came down on her neck.
Her eyes turned glassy, her knees gave way, and she started to slump.
He caught her as she started to fall to the floor. He glanced at Jock, who had leaped across the room toward him and was in attack mode. “She’s okay. It was the quickest way to solve the problem.”
Jock stopped, and said grimly, “You almost had a bigger problem.”
“I took that into account. Grab the AK-47. Let’s get her out of here. I want her in the car and out of the valley before she regains consciousness.”
“Excellent idea.” He turned and picked up the weapon. “I’ll go start the car.”
Jane was at the door, opening it for them. Gavin ran past her toward the road. “I thought you were—”
“I know what you thought.” He passed her and carried Lina across the garden down the road. “I hate to be predictable. Come on.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.” She turned back to the room. “I have to get Lina’s computer and all the printouts.”
“Hurry.”
She grabbed the computer, pulled a garbage bag from beneath the sink and started throwing the ledger and printouts into it. She added the box with the tablet and even scraps of paper from her wastebasket.
What else? Dammit, they were taking away Lina’s life. She didn’t know what was important to her.
She opened the desk drawer and scooped the contents into the bag. Passport, some official-looking documents.
“Jane!”
“Coming!”
No photo albums in this room. That was what Jane would take first in the event of an emergency. She ran to the closet in the bedroom and threw clothes haphazardly into the bag.
She was out of time to search any longer.
She picked up the garbage bag and ran out of the cottage.
Caleb was in the backseat with Lina slumped against him.
She jumped into the passenger seat beside Jock. “Is she okay?”
“At the moment,” Caleb said. “If we can get the hell out of here. Drive, Gavin.”
“I believe that’s what I’m doing.” The car was skidding on the rutted dirt road as Jock pressed hard on the accelerator. “Maybe we’ll get lucky. It could be that we have a time margin that’s not as—”
Rotors.
A roar of sound coming in fast from the south.
“Helicopter,” Jock said. “On second thought, I don’t think that we should count on luck.”
The helicopter is almost on top of us, Jane thought in panic. The blue spears of light coming down from the aircraft were blindingly bright as it descended toward them.
“They’ve seen us. Turn off the headlights.”
“It’s a little late.” He increased speed. ‘Why don’t you take care of turning off their headlights, Caleb? That AK-47 is on the floor back there. A well-placed shot should—”
A bullet splintered the corner of the windshield!
“Move.” Caleb was rolling down the window. “It will take a couple minutes for them to turn around and come back, but they’ll line up for a clear shot at us.” He had the AK-47. “Line me up for a shot at them, Gavin. I can’t be accurate with this car moving like a bucking bronco. We’re not going to have much time. If I don’t get the gas tank the first shot, we’re going to have to get out of this car before they blow us to kingdom come. Their firepower is probably a hell of a lot more sophisticated than this automatic weapon.”
“Here they come,” Jock murmured, his gaze on the sky. “Low and fast. Tell me when I should slow down.”
“Not slow, stop.” Caleb was sighting. “On three. One . . . two . . .”
The copter was so close the roar was drowning out Caleb’s voice, Jane realized. But she could see his lips move.
“Three!”
Jock put on the brakes.
An instant later Caleb fired.
He must have missed, Jane thought. The copter was over them, passing them.
No, it was listing drunkenly to one side and dipping!
“I couldn’t get the gas tank. I was in the wrong position. But I got the rotor engine. That should bring them down.”
“Which means they’ll be after us in a heartbeat,” Jock said dryly. “Lina’s car is parked at the cottage. They’ll have transport. We have another thirty miles before we get out of this valley.”
Jane’s grip tightened on the plastic bag. “Then let’s get through that pass and on a decent highway before they catch up to us.”
MILLET CURSED AS
he jumped out of the helicopter. “Medford, take the men up to that cottage and see if one of you can find a car.”
“Right.” Medford gestured to the four men jumping out of the aircraft. “Fan out and look sharp.”
Look sharp for what? Millet thought bitterly. He gazed at the taillights of the BMW, and his fingers clenched into fists. He had been so close. “Son of a bitch!”
He still had a chance if they could get their hands on a decent car.
His phone rang two minutes later. Medford.
“We found a Volvo parked in back of the cottage. We’re jumpstarting it now.”
“Hurry. Is the place deserted?”
“Almost.” Medford paused. “We found Weismann in the toolshed. He’s tied up and he’s . . . I don’t know. Something.”
“Bastard.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“What do you think? I want you to get down here with that damn car.”
“What about Weismann? Should I bring him along?”
Shoot him on sight, Roland had said.
But Millet didn’t take orders from anyone. He’d do whatever he liked with Weismann.
But what he didn’t like was having to drag a wounded man along with him while he went after Jane MacGuire. What he didn’t like was leaving him to be picked up by his buddy, Venable. Roland was worried about his own ass, but the chances of Weismann’s incriminating Millet were much greater. He should have known that Weismann would try to double-cross him when he sent him to get that tablet from Adah.
Two-faced prick. A bullet in the brain was too good for him.
“Hell, no,” he said harshly. “Burn the bastard. Torch that toolshed. Torch the whole damn place.”
“LINA’S STIRRING,” CALEB SAID.
“Maybe you’d better take the AK-47 up there. It might be too accessible when she comes out of it.”
“Take your chances,” Jane said. “You’re the one who knocked her out.”
“You were being too polite. It wasn’t going to work with Lina. She wasn’t going anywhere.”
“So you gave her a karate chop.”
“It ended the discussion.” He met her gaze. “And admit it, you were glad I didn’t use more ‘unusual’ methods. You were ready to jump me.”
“Hell yes. I’d just seen what your persuasion did to Weismann.”
“I was in a hurry, and I didn’t give a damn. I would have been careful with Lina. If I’d chosen to do it.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because I didn’t want to tamper with her. I know Lina. I like her. It wasn’t fair to take the advantage. I don’t intrude with personal relationships unless I can’t do anything else.”
“Your code again?”
He shrugged. “When I can go along with it. As you saw tonight, it’s a very loose code.”
“Exceptionally,” Jock said. “Almost nonexistent.”
“And you didn’t seem to be overly worried about it.”
“I was too busy watching and sifting through your weird vibes.”
“I’m glad you held your—Shit!”
His hand closed on Lina’s wrist and jerked her hand away from between his legs. “Dammit, are you trying to tear off my balls?”
“Yes,” Lina said fiercely. “You bastard. You
hit
me.”
“And I guarantee that you hurt me just now more than I hurt you.”
“Good.” She straightened in the seat. “And I’ll hurt you again. As soon as I get a chance.” Her eyes were blazing in her white face. “I didn’t think you’d—I don’t trust many people, but I thought that you were—”
“I didn’t have time to argue.” He paused. “This seemed the least intrusive way to move you.”
“Well, it won’t do you any good. Let me out. I’m going back.” She glanced out the window. “We haven’t reached the pass yet. It will only take a couple hours to hike back home.”
“And you’ll be welcomed by Millet and his men,” Jane said. “A few things happened while you were unconscious, Lina. They’re not far behind us.”
“Let—me—out.”
“Okay.” Jock stopped the car. “Get out, Lina.”
“No,” Jane said sharply.
“You can’t convince her. She has to make the decision.” His gaze was on the rearview mirror. “Or have it made for her.”
“You’ve already tried that,” Lina said as she opened the car
door and got out. “And I don’t appreciate it. This is my life. I don’t want your protection or your pity. I take care of myself. I won’t have—My God.” She was staring at the southern sky, which was glowing orange-red in the darkness. “Fire.”
That’s what Jock was staring at in the rearview mirror, Jane thought as she got out of the car and joined Lina on the edge of the road. That’s why he stopped the car and let Lina get out. The hillside was wreathed in smoke, and the cottage and outbuildings were being devoured by flames. “It’s your place, Lina,” she said gently.
“I know that,” she whispered. “I’ve driven this road hundreds of times, and knew I was almost home when I reached this point.”
Jane put her hand on Lina’s arm. “I’m sorry. It’s senseless destruction. There was no reason for them to do it.” She added bitterly, “But that doesn’t seem to matter.”
“I could have stopped them.”
“No.” Jock got out of the car. “Those are trained killers, and there are too many of them. You might have slowed them down, but this wasn’t the place to stand your ground. If it had been, we’d have stayed.”
Her gaze never left the burning cottage. “I’d have found a way.”
“Headlights.” Caleb suddenly said, his gaze on the valley below. “Get going, Gavin.”
Jock got back in the car. “And this isn’t the place to stand our ground either, Lina. We can’t risk Jane. Will you come with us?”
Lina didn’t answer.
“I’m not going to knock you out again,” Caleb said. “But Jane is wasting time she doesn’t have on you. She’s not going to leave you.”
“That’s her decision.” Lina glanced at Jane, then turned on her heel. “Oh, hell, I’ll go. For now. Get in that car. Let’s get out of
here.” She jumped in the car. “But if that car has any speed, it could overtake us in ten minutes if you keep on this road.”
“You should know. It’s your car they stole.”
“Then it has the speed. I made sure of that when I bought it.”
“According to the map, there’s no other road,” Jock said.
“There’s a road. Go straight ahead.” She turned to Caleb in the seat beside her. “And you’ll never be in the position to knock me out again. I trusted you enough to let you near me. I won’t do that a second time.”