Page 79 of What Doesn't Kill Her

He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket—of course, the American aristocrat Nils Brooks would have a handkerchief on him—and mopped at the bleeding. “I needed you, and what with having a kid and all, I was afraid you wouldn’t do it.”

“I ought to cut off your balls.”

“You got up here alive!” He made it sound like she’d been skipping all the way.

“Barely! With my kid and all in tow!”

Nils sat up cautiously. “You can’t blame me for your daughter stowing away.”

“I can blame you for everything.” Kellen heard the rattle of stones behind her as someone descended the path.

“Do I get to hit him now?” This time, Max wasn’t yelling. This time, his voice was low and vibrant and oh so completely different from last night’s meltdown. This time, he was ready to kill.

She stepped back and let Nils scramble to his feet. “Nils is a dirty fighter,” she said.

“That’s right. Defend your boyfriend from me.” Nils balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to attack.

She looked him in the eyes. “He’s an ex-football player with a reputation for foreign bar fights. Take him on if you want.”

Nils hesitated. Exchanged a long hard stare with Max. Stood flat-footed again. “Where’s the Triple Goddess?”

“Zone’s got her. There were four mercenaries, and she was left behind.” Max used a tough guy voice Kellen had never heard from him before. “I rescued her.”

Diverted, Nils paid no attention to the tough voice. “The mercenaries didn’t grab her when they had the chance?”

“Before anyone touched her, one mercenary killed the other three,” Max said.

“He wanted the head for himself,” Nils declared.

“Maybe. But he knows where the head is, the outlook isn’t impervious to attack, and there’s been no attempt to retrieve it.”

While Kellen listened to the men rehash the events and try to make sense of them, the events of the past weeks flashed through her mind. Everything at the winery had been calm, normal, boring. Then Roderick Blake had shown up, climbed on the roof, knocked a tile onto the ground where it blasted into shrapnel, and everything since had been skewed by pain, fear and a sense of putting a puzzle together...while blindfolded.

She was missing a crucial piece. It was almost in her grasp, and if she had one moment of peace to think, she knew she could—

A great spattering of stones rattled down the trail, and Rae arrived at a run. “Hi, I’m Rae Di Luca. You must be Bills Brooks! We’ve been waiting for you. Daddy wants to shoot you. Mr. Zone said he’d watch. Mommy said you’d give me a ride in the helicopter. I’ve never ridden in a helicopter before!”

“Hi, Rae. I’mNilsBrooks.” Nils knelt on one knee in front of her. “I can’t take you for a helicopter ride right now, but—”

“You can.” Kellen nudged Rae out of the way and knelt, her posture a mirror of his. “Max and I have to get down the mountain. There are killers out there hunting for...for the head. I am not subjecting my child to danger when the treacherous son of a bitch who put us in this situation is in front of us with a way to get her out and get her home.”

“Mommy!” Rae was reproachful. “I thought you liked Bills Brooks?”

Kellen answered Rae, but she never took her gaze away from Nils. “I trust him to care for the head, and you. There’s a difference.”

Nils stared at Kellen. Looked up at Max, then at Zone who had silently arrived. Nils nodded, stood, brushed the dirt from his knee. “I guess you’re going for a ride, Rae Di Luca.”

“Cool! Where are we going?”

“You’re going home,” Kellen said. “To the winery. Your grandma will be excited to see you.”

“Di Luca Winery in the Willamette Valley. You think you can find that, Brooks?” Max’s voice still held that soft sibilant threat, like a snake giving warning of a strike.

“I can find it.”

“Good,” Max said. “You’ll take our daughter there. You’ll deliver her into the hands of her grandmother. Then you can fly with that head wherever the hell you want and do whatever the hell you want with it. Don’t call us again. Ever. About anything.”

Kellen watched Max out of the corners of her eyes. She had pegged him as a man who was kind and gentle, intelligent and businesslike, devoted to his family and friends. She hadn’t realized that devotion included a threat and a promise of violence in defense of his loved ones.

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