Page 41 of Fatal Thrill
She nodded. “Don’t take any chances, okay? I need you to come back tome.”
He’d been on far more dangerous missions, but now wasn’t the time to remind her of that. She simply needed reassurance. “Our baby needs his uncle and grandfather. I’m going to bring them bothhome.”
“Her,” she corrected with a grin. “She needs bothheruncle andgrandfather.”
His fingers grazed her belly, so flat right now it was hard to imagine it holding his child. “I hope she likes four-wheeling and icefishing.”
“Whodoesn’t?”
Jaya had probably never been ice fishing in her life. He grinned, imagining her purple-streaked hair flying in the wind. “I’ll be back as soon as Ican.”
Colton rolled his eyes as they walked out. Jon looked back and saw Kieran standing guard with Eamon on the second floor roof. He gave Jon a nod and Jon lifted his chin inreturn.
Colton climbed into the driver’s seat, grinding through the borrowed truck’s gears with a few choice swear words as they lumbered over potholes down the longdrive.
“You sure you don’t want me to drive?” Jonteased.
“It’s not easy getting used to the steering wheel on the wrong side, but shifting with my left hand? Total crap,man.”
Colton did not, however, accept Jon’s invitation to changeplaces.
In the daylight, it was easy to see the beauty of the landscape. While it was January and the temperatures were near freezing along the water, snow was scarce and the ice from the previous night’s storm had already melted. The castle’s long drive led to the gate, passing by the rows of stone fences and the sheep, now scattered aboutgrazing.
They hit the road and headed for town. On their right was a long line of cliffs. Waves crashed against the jagged rocks with enough force to send spray up into theair.
The road was narrow and winding but traffic this early was light. They passed more sheep, a few cows, geese, and a horse in the various pastures and front yards on the way. Farmers waved, as did a couple women standing near a gate, when Colton and Jon wentby.
“Friendly,” Jonsaid.
Colton avoided a large pothole. “Or maybe they just recognize Kieran’struck.”
“He doesn’t seem particularly sociable tome.”
Colton flipped on the radio, searching for music. “But he’s a native, right? You know small towns, everybody knowseverybody.”
That could be an issue if anyone started asking around, yet, somehow Kieran managed to keep a black site covert while hiding in plainsight.
Jon didn’t know much about small towns, but he did know reclusive behavior and Kieran’s job required a certain level of that. “You think the owners of the B&B know anything about Sean andFinn?”
Disgusted with the local selection of stations, he flipped the radio back off. “Guess we’re about to findout.”
The Red Hen was a cottage on a hill with a pub named Kilroy’s on one side and a tall-steepled church off to the north on the other. Colton parked the truck near the pub and they watched the cottage. Jon liked to get the feel for a place before he barged in and started askingquestions.
Colton fingered the gun in his lap. “We’re about to tip our hand and let whoever took Finn know we’rehere.”
“Pretty sure we did that last night when we ran those two guys off theroad.”
“If there are multiple entities after that cross, we might be walking into more than just the two of us canhandle.”
“I’ve already requestedbackup.”
“Who?”
A couple of tourists walked out on the front porch of the Red Hen, the woman wrapping a scarf around her neck and rubbing her hands together before they started down the steps and walked to a line of shops near the wharf. “I don’t know who Beatrice is sending, but we should have more hands on deck bytonight.”
“Should we wait until then to stir thepot?”
Colton was never one to be cautious and they were on the clock. Jon slanted a glance at him over the rim of his travel mug as he sipped coffee. “Youworried?”
