“What?” Isnapped.
“Please forgivemy rudeness. I didn’t mean to imply you have no choice in the matter or topressure you in any way. My feelings about you are very clear to me and Iassumed your feelings about me were the same.”
I let out afrustrated grunt. “You know very well exactly how I feel about you because youcan read my mind. And you also know, very well, that I find you irresistiblygorgeous, which scares the bejesus out of me, because you’ve kidnapped me,taken me to a remote cabin in the woods, told me all these fantastical stories,which is basically every plot to every horror movie, or so I’ve been told, andyet, here I am, having wine, loving every minute of it, which makes no sense atall—”
“Sweetheart,take a breath.”
“Don’t interruptme when I’m on a tirade,” I squeaked.
“My apologies.”He grinned. “Continue.”
I took a deepbreath, even though it annoyed me to do so. “Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you’dignore the fact that you know that despite the factI knowwhat you didwas technically all kinds of wrong, I like being with you, and also ignore thefact that you know thatI knowI should be freaking out way more than Iam and I’m not, and let me process and figure out all of this before my headexplodes, okay?”
He squeezed myhands and smiled. “Okay, sweetheart. Absolutely.”
“Thank you.”
“You’rewelcome.” He grinned. “Isn’t that what you Americans say?”
I rolled myeyes. “The polite ones do.”
“I’ll be rightback. I’m going to make sure we have enough firewood for the night and lockeverything down.”
I nodded,watching him leave, dropping my head onto my arms and closing my eyes as I wasleft alone to process my thoughts.
* * *
Gavin Trask
As promised, Captain Mahmoud hadan SUV gassed up and waiting for us at New York Harbor. He’d also provided achange of clothes for us, along with a burner cell phone. In fact, my smugglerfriend kept up his end of our deal in every way, including helping me with myoverstaffing issue.
Mahmoud hadsurprised me with his ingenuity in dealing with the mercenaries. He instructedme, Miller, and Mundy to quietly slip out of the bunkhouse, one at a time,starting at three a.m. After we’d all exited, Mahmoud then ran a long rubberhose from the ship’s engine room to the bunkhouse before sealing the door fromthe outside. He then pumped carbon monoxide gas generated from the ship’sfurnace into the room for fifteen minutes. Afterwards, Mahmoud and his crewentered the room wearing gas masks and armed with ice picks which they droveinto the base of each man’s skull. If the carbon monoxide hadn’t killed themalready, the ice picks finished the job. Finally, the Captain and his crewtossed the bodies overboard, each man to meet his watery grave somewhere in themiddle of the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’ll wire yourpayment from my offshore account, right away,” I said, shaking Mahmoud’s hand.“And don’t worry. I won’t forget about the overtime you and your boys put in.”
Mahmoud smiledwide. “It’s always a pleasure doing business with you, Pastor.”
It was afour-hour drive to my private residence in Canaan, Connecticut, so we wasted notime getting on the road. Driving through the night, arriving at the house justas the sun came up.
The Connecticuthouse was the smallest of my three homes, but by far the most secure. Partlydue to its hi-tech security system and state of the art panic room, but mostlybecause no one outside of my immediate family or top-level security knew of itsexistence. The property was paid for in cash by one of six shell companies, andmy name wasn’t on the deed or property tax records. Here in the woods of Canaan,I could be left alone to strategize and execute a new plan of attack againstthe Cauld Ane.
I sent Mundyinto town for supplies, while Miller rallied a handful of Hand of the Crosssoldiers from nearby Hartford and Springfield to help stand guard. Once we knewreinforcements were on the way, he and I sat down to strategize.
“How are youholding up?” I asked.
“I’m solid,”Miller replied.
“I have no doubtof that. Jesus had Peter, the rock from which he built his church, and I haveyou.”
He smiled. “Yessir.”
“How aboutMundy?” I asked.
“He’s good asfar as I can tell,” Miller replied. “Why? Something got you spooked, boss?”
I shook my head.“Just making sure.”
“How much shouldI tell these new boys coming in?”
