the people who hire them and most of the people they’re sent after have lots of money too. Except me.” He gave a mirthless grin.
“But even that sort of money won’t buy everything. There isn’t enough of it, there never would be, to stop someone like him. Once he took the job, it was a matter of professional pride for him to finish it. His reputation is everything to him—he’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect it. The stone walls and the shutters will slow him down but they won’t stop him. Nothing will stop him.
“I can keep ahead of him. I have done this far, I can keep doing. For a while longer, anyway. Maybe I can run far enough and fast enough that he’ll never catch up with me.”
“And maybe you can’t,” said McKendrick levelly.
“That isn’t your problem,” insisted Horn. “Keeping yourself, and Beth, safe—that’s your problem. And the thing about castles is, you pull up the drawbridge and immediately you’re out of options. All you can do is sit there and wait to see what the other guy’s going to do.
“Mr. McKendrick, what you did back there was a hell of a thing. You risked your life for someone you didn’t even know. You risked losing all this”—Horn gave a jerky wave, encompassing the whole of the McKendrick estate with one unsteady gesture—“for a stranger. Whatever happens now won’t alter that. Don’t keep tempting fate until the old bitch bites your hand off.”
McKendrick went on looking at him much too long, and Horn couldn’t read his expression. Something was happening behind the cool gray eyes, but Horn couldn’t tell what, or even if it was good or bad. But he knew that if McKendrick had been going to back down he’d have done it then, while the images of violence were vivid in his mind’s eye. Once he started to think about it, he’d convince himself there were alternatives—that he was a clever enough man, a rich enough man, to find alternatives.
Horn gave up. He let the air out of his lungs in an audible sigh, weary and defeated. Without the starch of adrenaline his whole body sagged. He reached for the coffee. He’d done his best. His only consolation was that if Hanratty’s man could find a way into this little fortress, Horn could find a way out. He murmured, “Maybe you should go after Beth. She was pretty upset. I probably shouldn’t have said what I did.”
McKendrick gave a disparaging sniff. “She overreacted. I know she was fond of the boy, but it is four years ago. She’s a grown woman. It shouldn’t still surprise her that shit happens.” He buttered a slice of toast, poured himself more coffee, and only after he’d finished his breakfast did he stand up. “Help yourself, will you? I’m just going upstairs.” He headed toward the hall and the massive stone staircase.
“Tell her I’m sorry,” said Horn in a low voice. “For what it’s worth.”
“Oh, I’m not going after Beth,” said McKendrick shortly. “She can come back when she’s calmed down. It’s time I saw to William. I won’t be long.”
“Who…?” began Horn, but McKendrick had gone.
CHAPTER 4
HE’D HAVE GIVEN a lot for the chance to stay here, for just a few days, to catch his breath and catch up on some sleep—proper sleep, not snatched with one eye open and one ear cocked. But it wasn’t an option, and he never for a moment thought it was. As soon as McKendrick’s footsteps had faded on the stairs, Nicky Horn was up and through the kitchen door, looking for the way out.
He found the back door. It was locked. It wasn’t like most people’s back doors, locked if at all by a mortise with the key left in it. There was another keypad. The kitchen windows were also locked, sufficiently ajar to admit the air—it smelled of mown grass and wet earth—but only a fingertip.
He turned away, meaning to try his luck elsewhere, and found Beth McKendrick standing behind him. She hadn’t a dagger in her hand—he checked—but there were plenty in her eyes. Horn took a step back.
“Looking for the milk?” asked Beth coldly.
“Looking for the emergency exit,” admitted Horn.
She managed an icy little chuckle. “What, aren’t you enjoying our hospitality? I’d have thought it would make a nice change. I don’t suppose you get asked out much.”
He understood her hostility, but he wasn’t a patient man by nature. “Okay,” he said shortly, “so we’ve established that you don’t