“What do you think?”
Jock shrugged. “I’m no expert. I have to yield to MacTavish.”
“But MacTavish was never out in that mist, like you were, was he?”
He gazed at her face and smiled. “No, he wasn’t. How did you know I’d followed you?”
“Your boots. They were coated in mud when I caught sight of you right after we got back to camp. But you disappeared, and they were clean later.”
“Very observant.”
“Did you flip a coin to see who was going to follow us?”
“No, I was the logical choice. I didn’t give anyone else an opportunity to argue.” He took another drink of coffee. “It might have been blundered, and I never blunder.”
“No, we had no idea you were anywhere near.” She made a face. “Though I doubt if we would have known anyway. That mist is horrendous.”
“Yes. It’s … unusual. I was barely able to track you.”
“I don’t see how you could do it at all. We couldn’t see anything.”
“I’ve been trained to track in all situations and weather conditions.” His lips twisted bitterly. “It was part of my schooling as a superassassin. That was why I was the logical choice. What’s a little mist to someone like me?”
“You didn’t have to follow us. We made it just fine.”
“Correction. I did have to do it. I could see how Cara felt bound to stretch her limits, but I had to be there to make sure that exercise didn’t hurt her.”
“It was all about Cara?”
“No, don’t be foolish. You and Jane are important. I would have gone anyway. But Cara is … she’s too young to know— She’ll get in trouble if someone doesn’t watch out for her.”
“Jane and I managed to bring her back in one piece,” Eve said dryly.
“No insult intended,” Jock said. “You did fine.”
“Thank you. But you’ll still be there to keep us from screwing things up for her.” She shrugged. “It’s to be expected. She appears to feel the same about you.” She got to her feet. “And I believe I’ll go check on Cara now and see if she’s okay. She was a little quiet after she came back from the north bank.”
Jock looked down at his coffee. “I noticed.”
“Yes, of course you did.” She hesitated. “No matter what you think, that little trip into the mist was good for her. She learned … something.”
“I’m not arguing.” He got to his feet and threw the remainder of the coffee in his cup into the fire. “Learning is necessary. You just have to live through it.” He started toward Caleb and MacDuff. “Now I have to go and see if MacTavish’s equipment is going to work.”
“You didn’t answer me. Do you think it will?”
“No.” He didn’t look at her. “I’ve never seen a mist like that one. The light will bounce off that fog like a ball against a wall. We’ll need something better. But MacDuff wants to give it a try.”
Eve watched him join the other two men, then went into the tent to talk to Cara.
No questions.
No urging for confidences.
Just a silent affirmation that she was there if Cara wanted to talk.
She had no idea exactly what had gone on between Cara and Jane in that mist. She wasn’t sure if Cara knew. So it was best for Eve to be silent and wait to be told.
“Hey. I just talked to Jock.” She smiled as she stood looking at Cara, curled up in her bedroll. “They’re going to try to see what those superlights are going to do tonight. Want to come out and sit by the fire and wait until they come back?”
* * *
Eve waited until the camp had quieted down and Cara was asleep that night before she called Joe. She was tired and bewildered and wanted to touch base. She wanted to hear his voice.
“Things are fairly crazy here,” she said when he picked up. “Don’t say anything. We’re all safe. It’s just that we took our first journey into woo-woo land and I have no idea where I’m fitting into this.”
He chuckled. “Some would say that you should be an expert in that area. I take it you meant you went into the mist. Accomplish anything?”
“No, Cara heard music. Jane had a flashback to a Cira dream. I was merely stumbling along in that mist and trying to keep everyone from tumbling into the lake. The three of us had flashlights, but they were useless. That mist is crazy.”
Silence. “Three? The three of you were alone out there?”
She knew that would be his reaction, but there was no way that she would have kept it from him. “Cara wanted it that way. It was kind of a rite of passage for her. Or something like that. It was fine.”
“It’s not fine.”
“It was my decision. I thought it was worth it. I still think it was.” She changed the subject. “And it turned out we weren’t alone. Jock shadowed us all the while we were on that north bank. Amazing. How do you shadow anyone when you can’t even see them?”
“Don’t do it again,” he said sharply.
It struck her the wrong way. “My decision,” she repeated. “MacDuff had guards in the hills, and there was no report of Salazar or his crew anywhere in this part of the Highlands. I have to do what I think is right, Joe. I didn’t call you to listen to you tell me what I should do.”
“Then why did you call me?”
“I don’t remember. Something about love and missing you. Maybe about talking about where we’re going to send our kid to college? That seemed to be important at the time.”
Silence. “That is important.”
“Then can we skip the lectures and concentrate on that?”
“In a minute.” He added roughly, “I have to know what’s going on. It’s driving me crazy not to know what’s happening with you. I’m sitting over here and not able to—”
“I try to let you know what’s happening. It’s all fairly run-of-the-mill and pretty boring. Nothing to do with Salazar or Franco. We went for a walk in the mist. Then MacDuff, Caleb, and Jock went for a walk in the mist. They were experimenting with some high-powered lights, which turned out to be a complete failure. MacDuff is contacting some lab in London to explore using infrared technology. He thinks he can get some kind of apparatus up here by late tomorrow and—”
“Okay. Okay.” Joe said. “I don’t want to hear about that damn mist. I just want to know that you’re not going into it alone. I don’t like the idea of Jock’s being able to creep behind you without your knowing it.”
“I’ll take it under consideration.” She added, “But your nerves are pretty ragged, or you wouldn’t have gone on the attack. What’s happening with you, Joe?”
“Not a damn thing. Toller’s man is being discreet but letting me know that he’s ever-present. I saw Salazar’s guy staking me out when I went to the precinct this morning.” He added with leashed ferocity, “I feel like I’m in a box. I’ve got to get out.” He drew a harsh breath. “I’m in touch with Burbank, Manez’s contact at Scotland Yard. He says that the word is that Salazar is on the hunt and gathering a team together from the local Mafia.” He paused. “He’s going to be ready once he finds out where you and Cara are. I can’t wait for that to happen.”
“You’ll do what you think is best,” she said. “Just as I am, Joe.” She tried to laugh. “But I really don’t want to have to come back there and bail you out of jail. It would be really difficult keeping Cara under wraps if that happened.”
“I just wanted to let you know. I’m trying to hold back. I won’t do anything rash, but the situation is becoming … volatile.” He suddenly changed the subject. “What about Harvard?”
“What?”
“You asked what school we should send the kid to. Harvard is good.”
She was glad that he had chosen to switch gears. The conversation had gotten too heavy. “Too snooty.”
“I went to Harvard.”
“The defense rests. Your parents were snooty, and you just managed to escape the curse. If you’d grown up in the slums like me, you’d have a
better perspective on education. But you still insisted on Jane’s going to Harvard.”
“Only because she wanted to go.” He paused. “I believe we have a little time in which to make up our minds, don’t you? What made you think of it anyway?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “Yes, I do. I was thinking of Cira’s little boy and how he’d not had a chance to chase his dreams. Thinking about the future is important even though sometimes that future never comes to be. I guess I’m feeling the need to plan for Cara, plan for our child. Maybe it’s the nesting instinct.”
“Cira’s son…” Joe’s voice was thoughtful. “A little boy … Do you know, I never even thought that we might be having a son. Somehow, I thought the child might be a girl.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you? You lost your Bonnie. Maybe some kind of cosmic justice?”
“I haven’t had time to think about the sex, cosmic justice, or anything else.” But she was thinking about it now. “And I think that you’re going down the wrong road. This isn’t my child, it’s our child. It will be what it will be.”
“You don’t want to know whether it’s a boy or a girl?”
“No. Do you?”
“Maybe.”
“Then maybe we’ll find out. We’ll talk about it. It’s your child, Joe. Our child.”
“Yeah.” Silence. “But first we’ve got to make sure that our child is safe. So take care of yourself. No stumbling around in the fog and falling into the lake. It’s not good for the kid.”
“Point taken. I’ll remember.”
“I mean it, Eve. It’s been too quiet. I’ve got a hunch that everything is going to explode.”
“You included,” she said dryly.
“Probably.” He paused. “I want to be there to take care of you, take care of my child. I love you, Eve.”
“Likewise.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll call you tomorrow, and I promise it won’t be to tell you that I went strolling in the mist.” She hung up.
Everything is going to explode.
She had felt a chill when he’d said that. It might be a hunch, but she believed in Joe’s hunches. His instincts were infallible most of the time.
Everything is going to explode …
CHAPTER
12
MACDUFF’S RUN
The blood gushed onto Franco’s wrists as his knife sliced across the guard’s throat. More a sentry than a guard, Franco thought, as he wiped his hands on the man’s shirt. He’d had a soldier mentality and endurance, too. He hadn’t told Franco what he’d wanted to know until he’d cut off both his thumbs.
He pulled the guard’s body into the bushes and carefully hid it. Then he started across the courtyard to the small side door facing the ocean. MacDuff’s castle towered over the surf, and Franco had verified there were sentries on that side, too. But he could avoid them if he moved fast enough. And then all he had to do was get inside and find the target.
It was about time. It had taken too long, and Salazar was growing more impatient. None of MacDuff’s people would talk, and it wasn’t until he’d concentrated on the local village pub that he had hit pay dirt.
He’d spent a few hours schmoozing the employees, telling them he was a tourist who had been told about this castle and had come to see for himself. It had not been easy, but he’d finally found a young waitress who had told him enough to get him started.
It was true that MacDuff was not at the castle at present.
But his assistant, Rob MacTavish, was there and was an old and trusted employee.
He had known that he would have to make do with MacTavish. He only hoped he was as trusted by MacDuff as he’d been told. No problem getting to him. Franco had studied the positions of the sentries on that first day and could use one of them to get him to MacTavish.
It had all gone smoothly. Now Franco had the security alarm code from the sentry to get him into the castle.
And he knew where to find MacTavish.
Ten minutes later, he was moving quietly through the halls toward the study. Someday he’d have a place like this, he thought as he looked up at the high-arched ceilings. Only his castle would be new and lush, and there would a pool where all the women would be—
He reached the study, and paused outside the oak door. It was so thick and well made he couldn’t see any light around the edges. But he could hear the sound of music. MacTavish evidently liked Madonna.
He braced himself. Move fast. Be prepared for anything.
Take him down.
He exploded through the door. He was across the room in seconds.
MacTavish jumped to his feet, his blue eyes wide and alarmed behind wire-rimmed spectacles. “What are you—” He whirled and was reaching into a top drawer in the desk.
Franco’s machete sliced into his hand as he reached for the gun.
MacTavish screamed.
It was done. He had him.
Franco was behind him, freeing the knife from his hand and pressing it to MacTavish’s stomach. “Don’t move. Do exactly what I say.” He pushed him back into the chair. “We’re going to talk. I’m going to ask you questions, and you’re going to answer.”
“Who are you?”
He stuck the knife into his shoulder.
MacTavish screamed again.
“You aren’t listening,” Franco told him. “You don’t ask the questions, old man. I ask the questions.” He turned the knife in the wound. “Does that hurt?” MacTavish was groaning, biting his lip in agony. Franco felt the familiar surge of power and pleasure. “We’ve just started. Now let’s have a talk about MacDuff and Jane MacGuire.”
* * *
“I know where Jane MaGuire is,” Franco said triumphantly when Salazar answered the phone five hours later. “I wasn’t able to talk to MacDuff. He wasn’t at the castle. But he had an assistant, Rob MacTavish, who had everything at his fingertips.”
“And what is that?” Salazar put his phone on speaker, so that Natalie could hear. He pulled the rental car over to the curb. “What’s everything, Franco?”
“MacGuire is with MacDuff and some friend, a Jock Gavin.”
“What about Eve Duncan?”
“MacTavish didn’t know anything about Duncan. I don’t think MacDuff told him about her.”
“Then he didn’t have everything at his fingertips, did he?” Salazar asked sarcastically.
“He had enough. MacDuff has been planning a hunt for some kind of treasure for the last few weeks. Jane MacGuire was scheduled to go along. MacTavish ordered all the equipment for him and made arrangements with his property caretakers at all his properties.”
“You’re sure MacGuire didn’t cancel at the last minute?”
“No, MacTavish e-mailed MacDuff some notes and photos that Jane MacGuire wanted to see just last night.”
“What notes?”
“Something about a lake on the property where they’re searching.” He paused. “MacTavish said that he didn’t think anyone would cancel out on a chance of getting a share of that treasure MacDuff was hunting. MacDuff has been gathering information and making plans for years, and he told MacTavish when he asked for the information that he thought he was very close, that this time he was going to find it.”
“Eve Duncan,” Salazar said impatiently, to bring him back to the subject at hand.
“I know. I’m sure she’s with Jane MacGuire,” he said hurriedly. “But you should listen to me. MacTavish thinks MacDuff is close to finding that treasure. It could be worth millions, maybe billions.”
“Billions?” Salazar repeated. “Treasure hunt? It sounds like some kid’s game.”
“That’s what I told MacTavish. He said that they’re searching for a chest full of ancient coins brought over from Herculaneum.” He paused. “One of them was said to be one of the pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray Christ. It was supposed to have been found by some professor a couple years ago, but the Vatican refused to accept it as authentic. That means it c
ould still be part of the treasure. That could be very big money.”
“Maybe,” Salazar said. “But we can’t deal with that right now. We’re going after Eve Duncan and the kid.”
“Don’t be impatient,” Natalie suddenly spoke up. “Franco is right, we shouldn’t discount the possibility of raking in that kind of money. You did very well, Franco.”
Silence. “A woman?” Franco said warily. “You have a woman there? Even if she’s your wife, you shouldn’t involve her in—”
“I’m not his wife,” Natalie said softly. “I’m Natalie Castino. Do you know who I am?”
An instant of shocked silence. “Yes. I’ve never met you, but I’ve seen you.”
“I want you to know that I appreciate your hard work. I look forward to meeting you. I think with a little thought and planning, we might be able to snatch that chest of coins right from under MacDuff’s nose.”
“It will get in the way,” Salazar said flatly.
“Not if we work it right.” She smiled at him. “You have power and a good deal of money in all your Grand Cayman accounts. But Franco and I have to think of the future, don’t we, Franco?”
“It’s … a lot of money.”
“Of course, it is. And we should take a little time to see if MacDuff is as close as MacTavish said. You made sure that he wouldn’t have lied to you?”
“He didn’t lie.”
She chuckled. “And you have a reputation for making it impossible for anyone to do that. Even my husband was impressed when he heard about you.”
“Was he?”
“Absolutely. Now where is this hunt going on?”
“Gaelkar. It’s in the Highlands.”
“And that must be where we can find Duncan and Cara. Suppose you set out right away, and we’ll meet together and talk.”
“Salazar?” Franco asked.
“Come ahead,” he said shortly. “I’ll talk to you on the road.” He hung up and glared at Natalie. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Exploring possibilities. There’s a possibility that I won’t be able to use you or my husband to give me what I need. You both have your own agendas. It would be very convenient to have a fortune of my own.”
Hide Away: An Eve Duncan Novel Page 23
