“We can manage without her.” Jonah’s voice and manner were completely believable. And yet, Hallie’s truth sense told her that he was lying. He needed Rhodda for some reason. Hallie’s mind spun faster. What had Donall said? Words to the effect that the radio had needed to go to Reunion because that was where Rhodda was and no one else could do that work. Having seen what Rhodda’s father, Devin, was capable of, Hallie suspected that Rhodda herself was a formidable electrician and engineer.On this island, with the limited resources available, she could understand why Jonah might need Rhodda’s expertise.
Nicholas gave a short bark of laughter, with no humour in it and then, without knowing it, confirmed Hallie’s guess. “Really? I might not know what goes on in your house, or your business, but there’s no one else with her qualifications on the island.”
“What do you propose?” Jonah asked, in the silky smooth voice that made Hallie want to back away, slowly, and not turn her back on him.
“Another trade, of sorts,” Nicholas said, a small smile on his mouth. He thought he’d won. “I have a little, ah, local trouble. Help me out with that, and I’ll hand over the woman and lend you Rhodda for a while.”
Jonah’s mouth curved up in a smile that sharpened Hallie’s urge to move away. “What kind of help do you need, Nicholas?”
“Nothing much,” Nicholas said, in a careless voice, looking at his fingernails. “I need someone taken out. The Reunion defectors are proving troublesome. But they’ll come to heel if their leader is gone.”
“The man, Donall, is it?” Jonah asked. The casual mention of the name told Hallie that the governor paid close attention to his neighbours, and she wondered if Nicholas had realised that. Or if he would care.
“That’s right.”
“Can’t deal with it yourself, eh?” Jonah asked, but not as if he was expecting an answer. His pale eyes were staring at Nicholas’ face.
Nicholas’ lips tightened, then he brought out a smile that looked forced. “We all have our strengths.”
Hallie felt sick. The two men were calmly discussing the murder of another human being as if it was a simple business transaction. The two men who were posturing were each awful in their own way. She didn’t know how Jonah might treat thepeople in his orbit, but she did know that Nicholas had kept the people of New Hope living in primitive conditions and then tried to starve the Reunion settlers he’d had dragged from their homes while they refused to work for him, separating them from their children. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d also kept those children cramped together in a cage. An actual cage. Hot fury burned the disgust away. The people on this island had come here to escape the high-handed arrogance and ill-treatment at the hands of the elite, only to find themselves bullied by their fellow humans. She wanted to put both Nicholas and Jonah in the cage where she and Girard had found the children and leave them there.
But the two men weren’t done.
“And you will deal with the Conclave Investigator, I suppose, and in a way that won’t bring the full attention of the whole Conclave down on us?” Jonah asked.
“I have some ideas,” Nicholas said, the forced smile replaced with a more genuine one that promised unpleasant things. Hallie was sure he did have ideas, and that none of them involved Girard surviving to tell the Conclave anything that he’d learned on the island. She wanted to take Girard’s hand and hold it tight to reassure herself that he was alive and well and to silently promise she’d do what she could to make sure he stayed that way. But Nicholas wasn’t done. He seemed to want to share some of his own cleverness. “These storms we’ve been having are so dangerous.”
“That is true,” Jonah said, apparently perfectly serious.
If they hadn’t been discussing Girard’s potential death, Hallie would have laughed. She didn’t think that either Jonah or Nicholas had any idea of the capability of the Conclave Investigators’ forensic team. A supposed accident caused by the storm wouldn’t hold up for long once Isoud Sabard and her people got involved. And with the death of one of his teamat stake, Peredur Roth would have every resource of his office brought to bear. Once the falsehood of an accident had been stripped away, the whole island - including Jonah - would find themselves under the full weight of Conclave scrutiny.
That was no comfort at all, as Girard would be dead. And most likely, so would she, if Jonah had his way. Although she suspected that Jonah didn’t have anything as benign as an accident in mind for her death. With morbid curiosity, she wondered how Jonah was intending to dispose of her, if she wasn’t going to be found next to Girard’s body?
It seemed that Nicholas’ mind had been travelling in the same direction as he frowned slightly at Jonah. “Can you guarantee that whatever you’re going to do with the woman, it won’t come back on us?”
Even as her stomach turned, Hallie realised that Nicholas thought he was in charge. At least in this little bit of the world. He thought he ruled the island, controlled what went on.
He was quite wrong. From the single conversation she’d observed, Hallie was quite certain that Jonah could destroy Nicholas Rigg and all his petty ambitions. Jonah would most likely enjoy it. But for some reason, the governor was content to let the principal play in New Hope and exert his control. Just as long as the two men kept their operations separate.
“Come, now, don’t be insulting,” Jonah said, the hint of smile lifting his mouth, his eyes seeming paler and colder than they had been.
“Very well,” Nicholas said. “Do we have a deal?”
“I believe we do. Where is the man you want dead?” Jonah asked.
“In the town hall. That’s-”
“I know where it is,” Jonah interrupted smoothly. “Are Rhodda and the woman there?”
“I’ll have them brought to you,” Nicholas said, lip curling. “Wait outside the gate just before dawn. They’ll be delivered there.”
“Very well,” Jonah said, echoing Nicholas’ earlier comment. He stood, casting a long, dark shadow that touched Hallie and Girard, silently watching. “Do not fail in this, Nicholas.” The words were spoken calmly, almost off-hand, but Hallie could feel the depth of the warning beneath them.
Once again, Nicholas seemed to fail to recognise the sheer weight of danger in front of him. “I could say the same for you.”
Apparently content with having the last word, Nicholas got to his feet and extinguished the oil lamp.
With no more words, the two men turned and left, the wooden door of the barn creaking open and closed, their footsteps fading away. There was nothing in the weight of their footsteps, or the way they had moved, to suggest that they’d just been discussing the death and disposition of three people, and shuffling Rhodda between their territories like a game piece who would do what she was told. A chill worked its way across Hallie’s skin and deeper into her core. She had come across some truly unpleasant and ruthless people in the past, but there was something quite different, quite horrifying, about listening to how casually Nicholas and Jonah had spoken about their plans. As if nothing could stand in their way or stop them.
