Page 73 of Scythe & Sparrow
“No.”
Leander turns, his grin menacing. “The way I see it, ‘no’ is not really an option, Dr. Kane.”
He’s right, of course. I know it. And there’s no sense in arguing with a man like Leander Mayes. I can only hope to negotiate. “How long is this contract?” I ask.
“Seven months. Approximately …”
“I’ll do this contract for you,” I say, every word clear and careful and confident despite the intimidating darkness that settles across Leander’s face. “And after that, we’ll discuss something that works for us both.”
“Works for us both?” he repeats.
I shrug as though I’m unbothered, though my heart is pounding in my ears and my throat tries to close around my words. “You want to be sure you’re completely satisfied with the service I provide … right?”
We both know I could kill his team, killhim, and they wouldn’t even see it coming. And even though I just issued an unspoken threat, something about the gleam in Leander’s eyes tells me he likes it.
“Excellent,” he says with a startling clap of his hands. “We leave for Croatia tomorrow.”
“Croatia?But—”
“Oh, did I not say this position required some travel?” Leander’s lips peel back to reveal his shining veneers. “Oops, my bad. But don’t worry, Dr. Kane. You’ll be provided with all the equipment you could possibly need. And a nice bit of cash too. I’ll double what you’re making now.”
I pause, reeling. “But my clinic … the hospital—”
“My team will take care of all that, don’t worry.”
“My house—”
“That too. It’ll be well looked after until you’re ready to sell.”
“You expect me to just … leave? But I have a life there.”
“Do you, though? Sure, some people in Hartford will have questions. And it’s my job to make sure the answers are ready. But do you really think they’ll wonder why the reclusive Dr. Kane suddenly decided to take to the road after years spent as little more than a ghost among them?”
My heart stutters like it’s taken an arrow to its chambers. I open my mouth, but no words come out. Not even a breath of air.
“Oh, and one more thing.” Leander straightens. He faces me. The silence is as heavy as the scent of blood and death in the room. “This isn’t the kind of job where you want strays to follow you home. And you can’t have anyone from home trying to find you either. It’s for safety’s sake, you understand? So you can’t tell Rowan and you especially can’t tell Lachlan. The last thing I need is for him to have another reason to be irritated with me. I’ve given him enough already lately.”
I know my brothers, and so does he. If they felt that I was in danger, they would travel to the ends of the earth to find me. “Okay,” is all I can manage.
Leander’s smile is that of a man who knows he’s won. He takes a slow step toward me. Another. And another. He claps me on the shoulder and lets his hand linger there as though his touch is reassuring. His gaze pans across the floor before meeting mine once more. His smile might be a touch pitying when he says, “And you can’t tell Miss Evans. You wouldn’t want to put Rose of all peoplein danger, would you? Especially not when I’ll be trying to look after her best interests. The Sparrow is not the easiest person to keep out of trouble, after all.”
With a final pat on my shoulder, Leander walks away, leaving me feeling as though my heart has just been torn from my chest and incinerated before my very eyes. I’m still staring at the floor, blinking away a sting that won’t subside, when Leander knocks on the wooden frame of the door.
“I’m famished,” Leander says from the threshold. “I’d really love a hot dog. How about you?”
I blink and blink, but that pain just won’t leave. And neither will Leander. Not until I follow him down the stairs as he makes a call to bring in a search dog to find Matthew Cranwell’s prosthetic eye. Not as we open the door to the cool October night. It clings on as we find one of the closed food stalls on the silent fairgrounds and Leander breaks in with a snap gun.
I make Leander Mayes a hot dog.
And when he’s finally done, his point proven about how thoroughly he now controls my life, he arranges for a private car to drive me to Rose’s apartment.
Familiar Boston streets pass by the window. And I feel like a ghost in this city. Because my life is in the hands of the devil.
And my heart has burned to ash.
UNTETHERED
Rose
