Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
PAIGE
Footsteps and voices sounded in the hall outside the kitchen.
Griffen fastened the last butterfly bandage on my arm and looked to the door. I followed his gaze and saw Wren poking her head in, a grin on her face, a lock of sandy hair falling out of her stubby ponytail.
“Got him,” she said cheerfully. “Ryder’s dragging him into your interrogation room.”
“We have an interrogation room?” Ford asked.
Griffen gave us a wry grin. “The interrogation room is otherwise known as the old storeroom. I’ll be there in a second,” he said to Wren.
“Cool,” she replied, leaning against the doorframe. “You get shot?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow. Her voice was casual, as if she was asking if I was hungry.
“No,” I said. “Glass.”
She nodded sagely. “Better than a bullet.”
“Are we going to talk to this guy?” Ford asked, looking to Griffen and Eli.
“Hawk and Ryder are securing him,” Wren said. “They’re waiting for the rest of you before they start asking questions.”
Ford looked to me. “You’re not going in there.”
“Fine,” I said, too furious to say more. I didn’t want to talk to the assassin. I wanted Ford to stop being an idiot, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’ve got her,” Wren said easily. “I’ll check the rest of these wounds. You guys go ahead.”
Eli, Griffen, and Ford marched out of the room, headed, I guessed, for the storeroom. I knew it as a space lined with shelves filled with extra serving dishes and linens. Apparently, Hawk’s people put it to a different use when needed.
Wren picked up the bag of wipes off the center island and came closer, taking one of my hands in hers and efficiently scanning my arm for more cuts. “I think Griffen got everything,” she said. “So, what did I walk in on? Seemed tense in here.”
I didn’t want to talk about it, but I sensed an ally. And maybe I was too frustrated to keep my mouth shut. “Ford’s being an ass,” I said. “He thinks if I’m anywhere near him, I’m going to get killed. So, he dumped me.”
Wren rolled her eyes. “Men. I’m assuming he didn’t ask for your input?”
“Of course not,” I said, mollified that she got it so quickly. “He already decided how to solve the problem, so my thoughts weren’t necessary. Jackass.” Sarcasm and a friendly ear didn’t ease the ache in my heart, but it still felt better than staying quiet and doing what I was told.
“Well, come with me,” she said, handing me the pack of wipes.
“Why? Where are we going?” I asked as I followed her out of the room.
“Just because he doesn’t want you in the storeroom doesn’t mean you can’t watch,” she said, pushing open the door to the surveillance room.
One of Hawk’s team looked up from the cameras. “How come you’re not in there?” he asked Wren.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I track. I don’t talk. Ryder and Eli are much better at this part of it. Probably Griffen and Hawk, too. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see what happens. And I think Paige deserves to be a part of it.”
“I agree,” I said quietly.
Wren pulled up an empty chair and shoved it my way. “Sit,” she said. “Use the wipes to get the rest of the blood off your leg.”
I started to say I was fine, but she shook her head. “The adrenaline’s going to wear off soon, and you’re going to feel like crap. Headache, exhausted. Those cuts are going to start hurting. Anybody give you any Advil?”
I shook my head.
“When this is over, make sure you take some. For now, finish cleaning up, and we’ll watch. Turn it up, would you?” she said to the guy running the surveillance system.
He nodded in agreement and hit the volume button on the keyboard.
The three of us fell silent as we watched the action in the storage room.
The guy Ryder shoved into a chair was tall and wiry, dressed in camouflage so dark it was almost black.
His brown hair was cut brutally short, his eyes flat and guarded.
That was really all I could make out from the way he was angled in the chair.
Ford leaned up against the wall. Eli stood by the door with Hawk. Griffen pulled up the chair across from the sniper, Ryder standing behind him.
“You want to tell us what you’re doing here?” Griffen asked congenially, as if they were having a chat over a beer.
“I’m here because your people grabbed me and dragged me here,” the sniper said, sounding as reasonable as Griffen.
“Fair enough,” Griffen agreed. “Then why don’t you tell me what you were doing up in a tree on my land, shooting into my brother’s window?”
“Trying to kill him, obviously.” The sniper tapped his foot on the stone floor, looking bored.
“Obviously,” Griffen agreed. “It would be helpful if you could tell me who sent you.”
“Bounty. But you already know that.”
“It was the assumption,” Griffen agreed. “Better to have it verified.”
“Fine. I verified. You going to let me go? I promise I won’t do it again.”
“Not entirely believable,” Ryder said, his arms crossed over his chest, his short hair sticking straight up as if he’d been running wet hands through it. “But how about we make that a little easier?”
“Are you going to shoot me?” the man in the chair asked, sounding for the first time a touch apprehensive.
“Too much cleanup,” Hawk said curtly.
The assassin didn’t seem to find that answer reassuring. “Look, I was just doing a job.”
“Then you might want to spread the word that the job isn’t worth it. We’ve stopped everyone who’s come. Including you.”
“Yeah, I get you,” the man in the chair said. “If you caught me, my guess is nobody’s getting through.”
“Exactly,” Hawk confirmed.
“But you’ve got to understand, I can tell everybody you’ve got Silas’s team on the job along with your own people, and the smart ones will stay away. But some of us are too stupid and greedy, too arrogant. They’ll still come. It’s a hell of a bounty.”
“Then,” Ryder said, “you might want to add that the man who posted that bounty doesn’t have access to any of his funds.”
The man’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, that is a problem.”
“Yes, for you or anyone else who succeeds in killing the target. No one’s getting paid. Not a penny.”
“That might slow down the takers,” the man in the chair agreed. “Nobody wants to go to this much trouble, risk ending up in your hands, only to walk away broke.”
“Just to be clear,” Griffen said, “anyone who puts a bullet in my brother isn’t walking away under any circumstances.”
“I heard you played on the right side of the law,” the sniper said.
I thought that might get a reaction out of Griffen, and I watched with interest.
“Usually,” Griffen agreed, his eyes the icy green of a frozen sea.
“But you’re talking about my brother. There’s a lot of acres of mountain out there.
Not hard to lose a body.” He rolled his shoulders back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m already—” Griffen paused, as if searching for the right word.
“Displeased,” he said finally, “that one of my employees ended up bloody because of the window you broke when you tried to shoot my brother. I’m tempted not to let you walk out of here just for that.
However, if you spread the word that the bounty won’t be paid, and anyone we catch on our land won’t ever be seen again, we’re willing to let you go. Just this one time.”
“Deal,” the man in the chair said immediately.
“I knew it was a long shot considering who you are, and that Hawk Bristol is running your security. If I’d known you had any of Silas’s people here too—” He glanced to Ryder and then Eli.
“I wouldn’t have touched this one, even for that much money.
You let me leave, I’ll make sure everyone knows there’s nothing here for them, and you’ll never see me again. ”
“Fine.” Ryder walked around to the back of the chair and grabbed the sniper’s bound hands. He cut him loose from where he was strapped to the seat and hauled him to his feet. “Let’s go. You can tell me where you left your vehicle. We’ll drop you there and escort you to the county line.”
We watched on the screen as, one by one, they filed out of the room. I turned to Wren. “Thanks. I feel better, I think, seeing that.”
“No problem,” she said. “For the record, I can’t speak for your guy. I don’t know him. But civilians tend to overreact when people they care about get all bloody and cut up. Still, ‘overreact’ is the operative word there. You look fine to me.”
I nodded, though I felt anything but fine.
“But,” she said, her eyes dead serious on mine, “did Eli say anything when Ford dumped you? That you should stay away from him to keep yourself safe?”
“He did,” I admitted, grudgingly.
Wren gave a decisive nod. “I’d listen to Eli.” She cocked her head to the side. “I’m assuming Griffen agreed, too?”
I nodded.
“Then there you go. Your guy may be a jackass at the moment—probably freaked the hell out, considering you both almost got shot. That one—” She nodded her head at the hall, as they escorted the sniper past the open door.
“I know him by reputation. He’s one of the best. You got very lucky.
Do what they tell you. We’ll get this thing wrapped up.
Then everyone can go back to living a normal life.
And you can decide what to do about Ford. ”
Hawk ducked his head into the room, interrupting the conversation. “Ryder wants you,” he said to Wren.
“Gotcha,” and she was gone.
He looked to me. “You’re good to go,” he said. “Take some Advil before you go to bed. We’ll check that cut in the morning.”
“It’s fine,” I said automatically.
All the same, he nodded. “Keep the blinds closed on your window. Nobody’s aiming at you, but we’re not taking any chances. Understand?”
I nodded, suddenly exhausted. “I’m going to go to bed,” I said quietly, trudging up the flights of stairs and down the long hall of the guest wing.