A weapon much worse than a group of armed men.
Danny’s heart stopped. “My God.”
She scrambled down from the tower, her toes skidding on the stairs and her shins screaming for a reprieve that wouldn’t come. Not now.
Not when her husband had forgotten to give her a signal for this.
Not when theyhadoverlooked something crucial.
Not before she got to Percy and told him she’d located Nic Brandt’s bomb.
*
Avoiding Danny allday had done nothing to ease the dread in Percy’s stomach.
He’d been so busy running around, finalizing plans, and laying the final trap, there hadn’tbeentime. But now, sitting in the maze’s courtyard, standing under the very fountain that had reunited him and Danny after all those years apart, he’d been an idiot not to look on her face one last time, touch her skin, breathe in her scent, tell her how much he bloody loved her!
Nic better appreciate how quickly he planned to slit open his throat. For how much grief he’d put Danny through, Percy felt the uncommon desire to exact punishment at a glacial pace.
The sound of racing steps had Percy’s mind switching off and his body notching his first knife into place behind his head for a throw that would take his enemy in the ear. A move he’d made countless times and with fatal results.
He slowed his breathing and cleared his mind, counting, listening until the person was just beyond the opening in the wall.
Step . . . step, step.
Now!
The person rushed into the courtyard, and Percy’s knife clattered to the flagstones along with his stomach.
“Danny?”God damn it!“I could have killed you!”
At his outburst, she beelined for him, her eyes wild and her hair a mess. “Percy, thank God, I found you in time.” She stopped and looked around, her attention waning in apparent confusion. “Where are the Merrys?”
Percy shrugged noncommittally. “Around.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Why did no one stop me? I could’ve been anyone running through the maze.”
Percy sidestepped. “They’re well trained and know when to come out in the open.”
Unlike a certain duchess who was a damned beacon in that riding habit. Good God, what color was she wearing? Easy-to-spot, easier-to-kill blue?
Anger returning, he set his jaw and growled. “You were supposed to wait in the bell tower andout of sight. I made those flags so you wouldn’t have to come out in the open.”
“Youshould’ve waited for backup.”
“There wasn’t time!”
“Makethe time.”
“Go back—”
“Be quiet andlisten,” she said.
Danny shook her head, muttering something about men being pigheaded, and Percy’s anger leached out at the picture she made.
She was gorgeous with her tight trousers that showed off her generous backside and her hair plaited down her back in one long, practical, but feminine braid. And while the ridiculous light-blue color of her outfit wasim-practical for remaining unseen, the tones of sky and sea did set off the golden flecks in her dark eyes.
Done muttering, Danny pointed to the south side of the property. “I found something. It’s near the treeline, half-hidden in a bundle of birch trees.”
