Page 64 of 72 Hours

Niall had nothing to offer but a gasp behind me. Sheri went even whiter.

Greg raised an eyebrow. “You were in the Project Team together. You were together off duty too. Lovers, they said.”

I laughed again. “So because he was in the Team I have to respect him? Because I slept with him? Hell, Greg, I can admit I made some bedtime mistakes in my life, and Niall Sutherland was definitely one of them. He treated me like shit, and still hardly has the time of day for me.” I brushed my hands against each other as if I swiped unpleasant dirt from the skin. “But I dropped him just as quickly.”

“Tanner.”

I ignored Niall’s low, urgent grunt. I smiled fully at Greg. “Can’t say he was much good in the sack, either.” I stretched my arms and arched my back, as if remembering physical events of the past. “He comes way too quick. Distinct lack of imagination as well.”

Greg’s lip curled. “So you’re happy to pass the whole blame on to him, trying to save yourself? That’s some kind of betrayal, Tanner.”

I shrugged. “Just know which side my bread’s buttered, that’s all.” I appealed to him again, moving slowly across the room. “I can help you out of here, Greg. I know them all on the site. Let the girl go, and they’ll get you an unregistered car and whatever else you need. You can be away from here before anyone gives the alarm.”

The dynamics of the room had changed quite significantly. Suddenly there were three of us together on one side of the room, gathered around the couch. There was the card table between us and the kitchen, the radio balanced precariously on top of it. And then there was Niall.

All on his own.

Greg looked at me, then at Niall’s face. He seemed to like what he saw there. I was having difficulty facing the man, myself. But then I knew what expression of hatred he’d reserve for me.

“Okay,” Greg said. “You can untie her.”

SHERI WAS STILL HUDDLED on the couch, trying to get the circulation back into her hands. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and her mouth was marked with a red rash from where the gag had bitten too deeply into her skin. I’d hunkered down by the side of the couch to reach the ropes that Greg had used to bind her, and now she looked down at me with as much suspicion as she did her abductor.

I rolled the ropes around my hands, aimlessly looping them up. “I can take her out of the trailer—”

“No, you fucking can’t,” Greg snapped. He’d watched me carefully while I untied the knots. My fingers had been pretty clumsy, but he hadn’t moved from his position by the couch. He could cover all three of us with the gun from there. “She shuts up, and she stays here for the moment. I’ll let her out when I choose.”

I straightened up. I made sure not to step any closer to him. “Look, let me help you. I want to show you I’m not here to add to your grief. I can be really useful to you, Greg. I’ve got no loyalty to the Team, after all. Not after the way they’ve treated me. And definitely no loyalty to him.” I dipped my head in Niall’s direction.

“I’m going to kill him. Kill you both. Are you talking about helping me with that?” Greg looked bemused.

I bit my lip. “Okay, whatever. Maybe we can negotiate what you do with me. Maybe not. But if that’s what you need....” I heard Sheri whimper softly behind me. I gave a sly grin. “It’d be rather fitting, wouldn’t it, to have one Team member kill another?”

Greg was aghast. “What crap is this? I don’t know what’s got into you, MacKay, but I don’t believe it. You wouldn’t do it. You’ve lived with him. You’ve fucked him!”

“Jeez.... It was just one of those things, Greg.” I guess I sounded pretty embarrassed about the whole damned business. “A lot of guys go through it, you know? Just an experiment with my sexuality. An immature identity crisis, I expect the headshrinkers would call it. I like girls, too, to be honest. Maybe if I help you out, you’d give me the girl for fun.”

Sheri moved angrily at that, as if to throw herself at me, but I pushed her back on to the couch. I glared at her.

Greg was watching me even more closely. “Niall tried to save you when I shot you. He stayed around when I thought he’d be racing out of here to save himself.”

I mustered up the hatred that had festered inside me for months and I glared at Niall. “So he’s a fucking fool. So he has some kind of death wish. Still doesn’t mean he can have my arse.”

“Bastard,” Niall hissed. He hadn’t moved, but his eyes were dark, boiling pools, and they were fixed on me.

“Shut up, Sutherland.” Greg’s gun wavered back around to cover Niall.

But he hadn’t told me to shut up. “Look, Greg. I understand you, believe me. You and Kes. You’ve been pushed around and excluded all your life, and all you wanted to do was set the pair of you up for a reasonable future together. You see, I’ve never fit in either. I didn’t know my dad, like you. I left home early, had to make my own way. And it’s no better at work. They all tolerate me, but they’ve never treated me as an equal. Niall was fun for a while, but even he never respected me.” I let the slightest of sobs catch in my throat. “You were right, Greg. I’ve fucked up, but I was never given any chance to redeem myself. I let them down, and now they all despise me.” I stepped away from Sheri to stand closer to him. “I’m well out of it. Fucking Project Team! I hate them all. They used me like they used you, Greg. Like people used Kes. Sounds like your little plans for revenge have come none too soon.” Greg was looking confused, and I kept talking. “That was what your brother thought, you know. He said as much to me before Niall came bearing down on him—”

“What? He said...?” Greg’s face had blanched, and his pupils were dangerously dilated. “Did he speak to you?”

“Whatever.” I shrugged. I settled carefully on the balls of my feet. I risked a glance at Sheri and flickered my eyes to the door and back. She’d shifted a little so that she was on the end of the couch nearest to the door. I didn’t know if she were taking any notice of me. I also didn’t look at Niall, even out of the corner of my eye. It was probably best I didn’t, at this very moment. “I mean, of course he did, obviously Simon mentioned it somewhere along the way, didn’t he?”

“No!” Greg’s cry was anguished. “He never said a fucking word about it. There was nothing on e-mail, or in anyone’s notes.”

There was a slight hiss from the table, not loud enough that anyone was distracted.

“What did he say to you?” Greg came right up towards me, brandishing his gun. “Tell me what the fuck he said! Did he call for me? What did he say about me?”