“Who did you recognize?”
Evston murmured a pair of names. Ex-convicts, she realized with a clench of her heart.
“I realized it just before the hunt.”
“Could’ve been trouble. I was unarmed.”
“I wasn’t,” Evston said. “And you’re never unarmed. In the dark woods, there’s no better weapon than you.”
“I could’ve been distracted by the banquet of available pets.”
Evston shook his head. “I know you, brother, the way I know myself. You’d never let me down.”
“You may find yourself let down if you get rolled out of this bed during the night.”
Evston chuckled. “We’ll make it work. Squeeze her between us.”
“Yeah, that will make it work.”
* * *
Evston woke when Brandesecrawled over him to get out of bed. He thought she was going to the restroom, but she crawled to the chest of drawers and pulled her dress on from a position on the floor.
“What are you doing, firebird?”
“Listen,” she whispered.
He heard a scraping sound at the window. A moment later, Rocurt was up and out of bed. He stalked to the wall with the window and looked out through a crack in the fabric that covered it.
Someone tried the handle of the door. Rocurt raised three fingers, then added a fourth. Evston crossed to the chest, grabbing Rocurt’s weapon and tossing it to him. Then he retrieved a pulse stunner.
“Go over there, Brande.” Evston said, pointing to a place on the floor next to the bed that provided the greatest distance from the entry points.
She crawled across the floor, but didn’t stop where he’d pointed. She slipped into the bathroom and a moment later there was a male shout.
Evston sprinted to the bathroom and found a man halfway into the room through an open window. He was bleeding from a puncture wound in his shoulder, but wasn’t moving to stop the blood because Brandese held a blood-soaked blade to his throat.
Evston pressed his weapon against the man’s chest and squeezed. His body jerked and then went limp. Evston gave him a shove back through the window and then closed it, securing it.
Someone rapped on the door, and moments later a chair crashed through the front window.
Evston and Brande both came out of the bathroom, but Rocurt held up a hand for them to stay back.
“Send out the fawn,” someone called. “I would’ve caught her in the woods if someone hadn’t knocked me off the path and down a hill.”
“And we know you used a signal to find her. A com picked it up. Send her out. We’ll use her for a day and give her back.”
“It’s only fair.”
“Hey, hey,” someone called in a lower voice. “I can’t find Glick.”
“Do you have our man?” someone yelled. “Let him bring her out.”
“He’s here! He’s back here, and he’s down!”
“There are five of us, and only two of you. Be smart!”
Rocurt pointed to his wrist. Evston crossed to the chest and tossed Rocurt’s com to him. He slid it on his wrist without ever taking his eyes off the activity outside. Footsteps grew closer.
