“Scared of a little show down with the locals?” No-knot taunted.
“If you’d ever actually been in a fight, you’d understand,” Knot answered, disgust clear in his voice. Not a happy partnership, Hallie thought. “Come on, this side’s clear. Let’s check around the back of the sheds.”
“There won’t be anything there,” No-knot said, sounding like a sulky teen. So much so that Hallie wondered if she’d got his age wrong. Always possible, but she thought it was more likely he was still young enough to be headstrong.
“We still need to check,” Knot said.
The two men kept walking, heading for the outbuildings behind the main house.
Regular boats and intermittent power. Good things to know. Hallie wondered if she’d be lucky enough to have another pair of chatting patrol men come along soon and spill more information in front of her, or if she was going to need to go and find out more for herself. Somehow, she didn’t think she was going to get that lucky again.
She watched the pair as they headed to the outbuilding closest to the forest and then snaked around the back. They were making their rounds, however casually. Hallie thought she could hear No-knot complaining even as they moved away, out of range of her senses, and couldn’t help but think that if they stopped talking there was a greater chance that they’d actually find something. She also narrowed her eyes at what Knot had referred to as the sheds. She’d told Girard that she could stay outside. And in reality, there was no chance of her getting into the main house. But the sheds were closer to the trees and she might be able to see into one, find out what was there. It would give her more information to report back to Peredur. With the risk of coming across another patrol, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk actually going up to the buildings, but she did want a closer look.
Hallie slid backwards, making her way down hill a little more, out of sight of the space around the buildings, and then carefully got to her feet, making her way slowly through the trees, heading for the outbuildings. She found more trip-wires and a couple more of the spring traps and made her way around them. At length she reached a point where she could see the backs of the outbuildings.
The first thing she noticed was that there were no lanterns there. It didn’t seem like the sort of oversight that Vinny orJonah would allow, so Hallie stopped in the line of trees, and took a closer look at the buildings. She was expecting to see something like the trip-wires or traps. Instead, she saw a tiny red dot under the roof line of the second outbuilding. A motion sensor of some kind. She didn’t think it would be a camera. A motion sensor connected to an alarm seemed far too sophisticated for the set-up she’d come across so far. It was more likely to be a light. A basic security light that probably ran on batteries. She’d already learned that Jonah’s base had power from time to time, and access to a boat, which meant they might be able to bring in more technology.
As much as she wanted to learn more about what Jonah was up to, what was important right now was that his set-up meant she couldn’t approach the outbuildings from the back. And if she tried to go in the side or the front, she would be spotted. As distracted as Knot and No-knot had been, she was quite sure they’d notice another person walking up to the building, at least in daylight. If she tried at night she might get lucky and find a dark spot between the lanterns she could use. Night was several hours away. Hopefully, Girard would have found her by then and they would have made radio contact with Peredur.
Frustrated and aware that she was tired and getting cold, her thoughts going in circles, Hallie crept back through the trees until she found a spot where she was concealed by a large shrub, shadowed by two tall, old trees. The shrub provided a little protection from the winter weather, at least, and she found a moment to be glad she was outside here rather than at Vertiger with its freezing temperatures and snow, and wearing clothes that Cotovatre had provided, ensuring she had layers of protection against the cold. She could see the back of the house, the outbuildings, and along the side of the house from here. It was probably as good a spot as any to settle for a bit and makesome plans. On that thought, she drew out the water bottle and another protein bar.
As she was finishing the protein bar, mind turning on various ideas as to how she was going to get access to the prisoners, she heard the sounds of engines. ATVs. Looking back towards the front of the house, she saw the glint of metal through the trees. There must be a road up the hill. Possibly the trail she’d seen earlier, when she’d been driving the ATV away from New Hope. It hadn’t looked like a properly made road, even a dirt one. More like a rough path that the ATVs could manage. That made sense. Jonah would want the valuable vehicles close by, not parked at a distance from his base.
Even though she thought she was fully concealed, she huddled down a bit further, pulling her jacket up again to hide most of her face, and keeping her head low as the ATVs came into view at the front of the building. They disappeared behind the far side of the house from where Hallie was hiding and then came into view at the back of the house in the open space in front of the outbuildings. Despite the daylight, floodlights switched on along the back of the house and front of the outbuildings, bathing the whole area in brilliant white light, making Hallie very glad she hadn’t tried to get closer to the buildings. She hadn’t anticipated that extra security measure.
The floodlights were harsh, even in daylight, and made Hallie’s eyes water, but they did let her see more detail of what was going on. Even better, when the ATV engines were cut, she found she could hear almost all the conversations as well.
Jonah and Vinny had been driving the ATVs, with Vinny’s sidekick sitting with him. Neither of the ATVs was the one that she and Girard had borrowed. Hallie hoped that meant that Jonah’s men were still looking for Girard, that he’d managed to evade them completely. As they got out of the vehicles, a group of men came out of the back of the house. A couple of themtook charge of the ATVs, wheeling them away. The rest stayed, standing in a semi-circle, all their eyes and attention on Jonah.
Hallie recognised a couple of the men from her and Girard’s encounter in the forest, and saw Knot and No-knot in the group. She didn’t see Shorty, the tall man who’d accidentally shot and killed another one of Jonah’s thugs. A chill went through her as she wondered just what kind of punishment Jonah would have decided was appropriate for the death. It had been an accident, but it had also been born from Shorty’s stupid handling of his gun.
As her eyes travelled over the group, her heart sank. There were more men here than she’d expected. She and Girard had encountered a half dozen in the forest, including Vinny and his perhaps brother. Then she’d seen Knot and No-knot, so she’d known that Jonah had more than a half dozen men. But she hadn’t imagined this many. There were at least twenty. All of them armed. The single gun at her hip was not going to do much good against that small army. Even if she could bring herself to deliberately kill people with it.
Her attention caught on one particular member of the group. A young man with cool-toned, deep black skin and tightly curled black hair. The angles and planes of his face were shockingly familiar to Hallie. Devin had been an old man when Hallie had first met him, his hair already grey, but the young man standing amid Jonah’s thugs was the very image of what a younger Devin must have looked like. He could only be a relative of the old man. Hallie’s breath caught in her throat. Rhodda’s son? The age seemed right. And having a son following Jonah might explain some of the woman’s odd behaviour. Hallie wished the woman was nearby so she could give her a shake. Knowing that Rhodda had a son and that he was part of Jonah’s group would have been useful information to have much earlier.
Even Rhodda’s son, and Devin’s grandson, was just a distraction from the leader of this group, though.
Jonah stood in the middle of the open space between the back of the house and the outbuildings, bathed in the blinding white artificial light. The floodlights all focused on that spot, Hallie realised. She’d bet money that he’d either organised it that way, or had chosen to take advantage of the focal point when he’d first seen it. All eyes were drawn to him. Even Hallie found it difficult to look away. His pale skin glowed almost silver, his blond-streaked brown hair looking almost bronze. He looked more than human.
And he was in a foul mood and dangerous with it, if Hallie was any judge. The planes of his face were set in a hard expression, eyes glittering as he looked around the group of his men.
“Is Kris back yet?” he demanded, voice carrying clearly through the space.
There was an awkward shuffling among the men that Hallie would have found amusing in other circumstances. The armed thugs didn’t want to further anger their boss. And Hallie’s stomach sank further. Jonah had more people - she doubted that this Kris, whoever he was, was out alone.
“No, sir,” Knot said, after Jonah had sent a furious glare around the group. “No sign of him or the other ATV.”
Jonah spat out a curse that made Hallie’s brows lift. “Blondie, you and Red take the bike and go find them. I want thathochlenbrought here.”
“Dead or alive, boss?” Blondie asked, eyes gleaming with what looked like eagerness at the thought.
“I need to know what he knows and who he’s told. So I need him alive and able to talk. And you’d do well to remember what happens to those who fail me,” Jonah’s voice was smooth, but it sent a chill down Hallie’s spine and she wondered again what had happened to Shorty. Most likely he was lying deadsomewhere, and the rest of Jonah’s thugs didn’t want to end up in the same place. Then Jonah smiled and Hallie’s stomach turned. The smile was somehow worse than anger. “As long as he can answer questions, I don’t care what you do to him. Have some fun.” There was a ripple of dark amusement around the group at that and Hallie decided she did not want to know what these men considered to be fun. Worry tightened her gut. She had to believe that Girard had so far managed to evade the men who were after him. But he wouldn’t necessarily be expecting another pair. She had an impulse to slide away from the house, to go back down the hill and see if she could find Girard, make sure he was alright, or help him out if he was fighting off Jonah’s men.
A moment’s reflection and she stayed where she was. She had no idea where Girard was. The ATV could have travelled a long distance before Girard decided to ditch it - if he had. No. She was better here, watching and listening, getting information for the investigators. But still, her eyes tracked the two men as they got onto the heavy motorcycle that Hallie remembered from the forest road. Someone must have fixed the starter as the engine fired up, shockingly loud, and the pair rode away.
Jonah turned to the remaining group as the noise of the engine faded. No one had moved, which told Hallie that he had complete command of his people. “Your mother is causing some issues,” he said, eyes on the young man Hallie had picked out as Rhodda’s son.
“Yes, sir,” the young man said. He sounded equal parts irritated and resigned, as if it was hardly news that Jonah was finding his mother difficult.
