I hadn’t nailed down the death part, hadn’t wanted to think of how I would prefer it to go. “Bullet isn’t my preferred, but I don’t like knives either. Maybe suffocation? They say drowning doesn’t hurt.”
“Jesus,” he whispered. “Just. Don’t. I meant how do we kill him?”
“I thought Death could do it. If not him, Bathin. Maybe Rossi?”
“Beheading?”
“Rossi says it usually works.”
Ryder was still, even his thumb stalling. I knew I should move away. I didn’t want to, but life was made up of lots of don’t-wants that turned into gotta-do’s.
“If we do this, we do it with Rossi right here at our side. And your sisters. Have you called Than?”
I eased back, took a step, but stayed close enough my fingers still rested at his waist. He shifted his hands to my hips.
“You’ll do this? You’ll let me get killed?”
“I’m not committed to it, no. But I can see the…rules of the tie you have to Lavius now that you pointed it out. It’s fuzzy, but there is room in how the connection is implanted for the vulnerability to be exploited.”
“So you don’t think Bathin is lying?”
“Oh, I’m sure he’s lying. But I think the connection could be a weakness for Lavius.”
“That’s…not what I thought you’d say.”
“I heard Rossi. As soon as he breaks the wards on the book to kill the spell on Ben, Lavius is going to be all over us. The way I see it…we need to strike, without putting the book in his grasp, and without limiting Rossi from being able to kill him.”
“Right,” I said, disappointed that he hadn’t put up more of a fight for me staying alive. “That’s logical. The one thing Lavius wants is the book. If we can keep that out of play and still have a way of killing him, then problem solved.”
“Problem not solved. I’m not going to let anyone kill you, Delaney.”
I just stood there staring at him. Because what should I say to that? I’d just wanted to hear those exact words. But they were the wrong words now. They weren’t the words that would solve our problems.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said.
There. That was the truth.
Ryder lifted one hand and cupped the side of my face. I leaned into that contact, his thumb stroking up the line of my cheek.
“We’ll make a decision together and stick to it this time, okay?”
“You and me?”
“Well, and a few others.”
That’s when I heard the tires on the gravel approaching us. I shifted away from Ryder, far enough we weren’t touching and I could pull my gun if I needed it.
Two cars came up my drive. One was Myra’s cruiser. No big surprise. The other was Rossi’s VW bus in all its restored-to-original turquoise and white.
“You already called the cavalry?” I asked.
“Nope. You did when you went around asking people to kill you. Never turn to a life of crime. You’d make a really sloppy criminal.”
I slapped his arm and he chuckled.
Myra got out of the cruiser, and so did Jean, who looked angry as a wet hornet with crutches and a cast.
Rossi’s van opened and Brown stepped out, dimples and good looks fitting seamlessly with the summer day and plans of murder.
