They didn’t have long.
“We need to get moving,” she said, turning blindly toward him.
He caught her and pressed a kiss onto her lips. “Okay.” He shut the water off and grabbed two towels.
Andi dried quickly, dragging the towel over her head. She tugged on clean clothes and went to check her email one more time before they got on the road.
She sighed. Still nothing from Aunt Lydia.
“Do you have a plan in that gorgeous head of yours?”
She hesitated. “I know we can’t just go on up the driveway.”
He shook his head. “They’ll be waiting.”
“Exactly. Which means we need to hike in.” She chewed on one corner of her lower lip. “I kind of wish we’d brought one or two of your guns.”
He smiled a little. “It’s too late to pick one up now. Besides, once we fire, everyone else will know we’re there.”
She knew that. “The blades are silent,” she agreed reluctantly. “But we do have to get in close.” And she wasn’t sure she could do much damage yet with her curse. Just thinking about it, she felt her gut tighten reflexively. “If I can’t go in on my own, leave me behind. Or if I have to stop, don’t wait.”
His smile vanished in a flash. “Won’t happen.”
“Kallan.” She turned fully toward him. “They’re going to be after you as much as they’re after me now.” She lifted her hands to cup his face. “I’ll get there eventually.” She winced involuntarily when her belly cramped. “We need to make a stop at the drug store.”
Some of the annoyance in his face faded, and he set his hands gently at her waist. “All right. Let’s get out of here.”
They got everything into the car in one trip.
Andi stewed as he drove, watching out the window. It was still early, so the tourists weren’t up and out yet, and only a few locals were on the sidewalks. She rubbed her belly, determined to resist the urge to curl into a ball in her seat. Not yet.
After they made a couple stops for supplies—for her and for their trek into the woods—she guided him along back roads to her mountain. The familiar area made her tension ease just a little, though knowing someone was waiting at her home to kill her wouldn’t let her fully relax.
Kallan’s fingers tapped on the steering wheel as he drove, almost nervously.
She smiled to herself. Even the big bad Harvester was worried.
He set one hand over hers on her thigh, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “This time tomorrow, we can be on our way anywhere you like.”
She shut her eyes. It was a nice dream.
Kallan didn’t like the pallor of Andrea’s face. Or the way she was rubbing her abdomen. He frowned as he maneuvered the car along the twisting back road. Well, it was almost a road—oiled-down dirt and gravel nearly wide enough for two cars to pass one another.
He grimaced as the car hit a pothole and bounced. Andrea’s knuckles whitened for a second on the door handle before she resumed massaging her belly.
He steered the car around the next dip, then back onto the right side. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”
She nodded. She had her eyes shut tight, and he realized they hadn’t brought her sleep mask. Neither of them had thought about it when packing for their first flight. He wondered if he had anything they could use. It would be bad if he got in the way.
At last, he reached the turn-off she’d told him was coming, and he pulled in to park the car. He considered the woods surrounding them.
“How long do you think it’ll take us to hike in?” he said at last.
She inhaled slowly, as if she were concentrating on the pain gathering in her belly. “An hour or so. Maybe longer, depending.”
Depending on how she held up. He stifled a sigh. She was right. He wasn’t a runner. But for her, he’d run far and fast. She had made it clear that wasn’t an option, however, so they had to do this.
He took the keys from the ignition and stuffed them into one of his pockets.
“You’ll have to let me lead,” she said.
He studied her pale face, the sweat beading on her brow. And swallowed back the words that wanted to come out again. She’d never agree to leave now. “Okay.” He pushed his door open and climbed out, stretching, trying to twist away the anxiety knotting his muscles.
She did the same on the other side of the car, though her stretching was less vigorous than his.
He pulled the backpacks from the backseat, double checked the things they’d picked up in Bath, and locked the car. Andrea stood with her face toward the forested slope ahead of them, and he helped her into her backpack.
“I love you.” He kissed her temple.
A small smile curved her lips then. “I love you, too, Harvester.”
“Let’s do this.” He shouldered his own pack and followed her into the woods.
They walked in silence, avoiding fallen twigs and dry leaves. He listened, his senses open. His cousins weren’t very close yet. But they were there, waiting.
When she stopped walking and bent over, one arm across her middle, Kallan slid his hand to her waist. “Let’s sit for a minute. Get you a drink of water.” His heart ached.
She shook her head, eyes shut tight. “There’s a spot a little way ahead we can sit.”
“How far?”
“Not too much.” Still, it was a moment before she straightened.
He waited, feeling helpless. He’d felt it when she went through this last time, and he hadn’t liked it then. He hated it now. He wanted to make her pain stop. Now.
Taking a deep breath, she patted his hand at her side before moving away. Slowly. Carefully.
He stayed close, wishing he could see her eyes.
“You know what?” Strain was obvious in her voice, despite her effort to keep her tone light.
“What?”
“We could go in there with me blindfolded and handcuffed. Make them think you’ve captured me. Lull them into a false sense of security for a few minutes, then take them out.”
He watched her feet as she stepped over a fallen tree, considering her idea. “They might believe that, but if you’re handcuffed, how do you think you’re going to get rid of the blindfold?”
“Mm. Yeah. I guess the handcuffs would have to be behind me, wouldn’t they—for them to really believe.” She sighed audibly.
Kallan thought hard. “What about rope?”
She paused before stepping over another limb on the ground. “Rope. If you have a long enough piece, you could tie my hands in front and keep hold of the other end. Then they wouldn’t think anything of it.”
He didn’t want to do it. It would involve her getting far too close to Stavros.
She stopped walking and doubled over again, almost stifling a moan of pain.
He bent closer to support her while she breathed through the cramping.
After a few long minutes, she eased upright once more.
“Agaph.”
She smiled faintly when she turned her pale face toward him, eyes shut. “I know.” She let him gather her close for a moment. “It’ll be all right.”
He wanted to believe her. But he couldn’t see how this would ever turn out all right.
When she took a deep breath and pushed away, he let her, though it was a challenge not to hold on.
He kept his eyes peeled for movement as they made their way up the side of her mountain. “Stop,” he breathed.
She froze, one foot in mid-air.
His cousins were closer now. Much closer. He could feel them. “Four.”
She set her foot down carefully. “All together, or can’t you tell?”
“Three are together.” The other was some distance from the others, but closer to where he stood with Andrea. Probably keeping a lookout. “We’ll have to deal with the one alone first.”
“I can do it.”
He exhaled slowly and moved to stand at her side. “They’ll be armed.”
“So am I.” Tho
ugh her eyes were closed, he knew the stubborn look he’d find in them. “We just have to get close enough to him before he alerts the others.”
Kallan dropped his head back far enough to look up into the green canopy overhead. Birds flitted there, from tree to tree, singing and scolding. He knew what they had to do, but a voice in his head pointed out this was his family—it sounded very like Great-Uncle Ari again. He reminded himself that they’d tracked him as if he was their enemy. Clearly, he was, which meant he owed them no allegiance any longer.
His blood family was trying to kill Andrea, and he couldn’t allow them to succeed. She was his real family now.
“All right.”
“You’ll have to let me know when we’re close enough to have to sneak around him.”
He grunted his assent as she started walking again, more carefully this time. His gut was tight with the mounting tension, making him glad breakfast had been just an energy bar several hours ago.
It took them fifteen more minutes before Kallan decided it was too dangerous to continue directly. Instead he guided her off to their right. He couldn’t tell which of his cousins it was—not yet. Finally, after another ten minutes of almost crawling around the other man, they came to a spot where he was visible from behind some scrubby mountain laurel and fallen trees.
Piers.
His cousin stood against a tall pine, arms folded over his chest, looking bored. He wore no weapon except a blade at his waist. He wasn’t even carrying a radio.
That was good for them, bad for him.
Kallan swiped his sweaty palms down his thighs. “You’re going to have to be careful to get him before he gets his dagger unsheathed,” he breathed in her ear.
She nodded, opening her eyes just a little to see her target’s location. “You should stay put while I deal with him.”
His jaw tightened. “Why don’t you let me get to his other side and we can both be ready, just in case?”
“What if he ducks?”
Well, that would suck. He exhaled softly. He didn’t want to let her step out there. Not without him.
But she didn’t wait for his permission, getting to her feet and moving around him before he could think of another argument, her steps sure and quiet on the forest floor.
He held his breath as she crept behind his cousin, Kallan’s heart drumming so hard in his chest he thought it might have broken a rib or two.
Finally, she stood only a few yards away from Piers. She shot a thumbs-up toward Kallan, who shook his head even though she couldn’t see it, and then she cleared her throat.
Piers whipped around, and then fell as solid stone against the tree he’d been leaning on before tumbling onto the ground. Even as rock, his expression was shocked.
Kallan saw the shudder ripple over Andrea. Guilt and horror were in her expression, even in profile, even with her eyes squeezed shut.
He left the hiding place behind the bushes and went directly to her, avoiding his cousin to wrap her in his arms. “It’s all right, agaph,” he whispered into her short hair.
She shivered and slid her hands to his waist. “Well, that sucked.” Her voice was choked.
He closed his eyes and stroked her back. “I know.” He kissed her head and leaned away to look into her face. Still far too pale, and now tension bracketed her mouth and the corners of her shuttered eyes. “We can still leave.”
She shook her head before he finished speaking. “No.”
He’d known that. “Okay, then we have to keep going.” He let out a short breath. “I think it’s best if we don’t try to take them all on at once.”
Her mouth twisted to one side as she considered that. “It would be faster.”
“And more dangerous.” He did a quick check. All three were still together. Probably at the house.
“They’ll be more dangerous one-on-one,” she argued. “I’d bet at least one of them has a gun.”
“You may not be able to take out three at one time.”
She closed her mouth on her next argument, gave it some thought, then sighed. “Okay. You may be right.” She bit her lower lip. “Then how are we going to do this?”
He lifted one eyebrow. She was actually going to let him make the decision? He smiled. Then frowned. How were they going to do this? “Dammit, this is why I always make a plan,” he muttered.
Andrea laughed softly, then sucked in a quick breath, her smile disappearing as she bent forward again.
He rubbed the tight muscles at the small of her back, trying to keep half his attention on their surroundings while comforting her. He knew just walking into the house would be bad for them. They’d be outnumbered and with no place to hide if they needed to duck gunfire.
But how to draw his cousins out?
He kept massaging her back while he dug into one of his pockets for the old cell phone. Stavros.
Andrea eased to an almost-upright position, her breathing ragged.
“Are you going to be able to go the rest of the way, agaph?”
She nodded. “If I have to crawl.”
Of course she would. While he wanted nothing more than to protect her, to whisk her back down the mountain and away, he knew he couldn’t. She had to stay with him—to finish this—one way or another. “All right.” He thumbed the phone on, then realized he hadn’t charged it in days. He hoped there was enough battery power left for this call. He shifted position, hoping for a tiny overhead clearing to get his satellite signal, then pushed the button to dial his cousin.
“Kallan?” His cousin sounded surprised.
“Yes. Just wanted to give you a heads up, I’m on my way up the mountain with her.” He continued to rub her back, feeling the muscles under his fingers tightening.
There was a moment of silence. “Well, good job.” That sounded completely insincere. “Dead or alive?”
“Alive, but just.” He wrapped his arm around her when she stepped closer, her damp face burrowing into his shirt.
Again, Stavros was silent, either in distrust or elation. “I’ll meet you. Tell me which direction,” he said finally.
“There’s a path behind the house that heads into the woods. I’m heading up from there.” Not. Instead, he’d make sure they circled around from the other side and came at him from the back. And hope all three cousins were together.
Andrea’s breath caught against him, and her fingers dug into his back as her body tried to curl in on itself.
This was not good.
Kallan shut his phone, not waiting to see if his cousin had anything else to add, and turned it off before he stuffed it back into one of his pockets. “Meli.” He scooped her up in his arms, and a soft moan escaped her. He pressed a kiss onto her forehead, tasting the salt of her sweat. “We need to be on the opposite side of the house from where Stavros is heading. Can you get us there?”
She inhaled shakily, then nodded. “We’re nearly there now,” she whispered.
He concentrated on his cousins. All three were still together, for the moment, and they hadn’t left the house, apparently, as they were exactly where they’d been last time he checked. Probably trying to come up with their own plan.
He just hoped his was better.
Chapter Fifteen
Andi concentrated on breathing evenly as she instructed Kallan which direction to go with her eyes barely open. She needed to be able to stand up for what was coming.
Her stomach rebelled at just the thought. When she’d taken out his cousin, she’d been very, very happy she’d only had half a granola bar for breakfast. It had been bad when she’d accidentally killed the rabbit. Deliberately killing a human being was a thousand times worse, even if he had been plotting to kill her.
When she directed Kallan to stop, she pushed away, and he let her ease to her feet. Her knees wobbled, and she locked them to stay upright. Her belly cramped harder, making her clench her jaw against the pain.
“Do you think you can get to the house, agaph?” he breathed near her ear.
/> “Why?”
“For cover,” he said after a second, and she knew it was a lie.
“I’m not going to hide in the house while you deal with them,” she whispered.
He huffed out a short breath. “Can you trust me on this?”
She started to say “of course” but she stopped, remembering the revelation she’d had about the curse. “I do trust you, Kallan,” she said on a breath, “but I feel like this is my fight too.”
“And you’ve contributed to the fight very nicely.” His breath warmed her ear. “But I can deal with the three of them myself. Quickly.”
She heard the front door of her house open, then close, and she turned her head to look. She couldn’t see the men, though heavy footsteps sounded.
“That’s only two,” he breathed. “The other one is heading to the far right corner of the house. Of course they won’t believe me.” A humorless laugh escaped him.
Andi turned back to him, eyes shut, and slid one hand up his chest to his neck, the side of his face. “Let me deal with the one.”
Kallan was silent for a long moment, and she knew he wanted to say no.
“I trust you to deal with them, but I need to help. This is my life, after all.”
“You don’t play fairly,” he complained, but brushed a kiss on her lips. “Fine. I’ll deal with the other two. I just wish I knew which ones were where.”
“It won’t matter. I’ll wait till you go, then I’ll move around the house.” She stretched up to kiss him back. “I love you.” She released him.
His hand lingered on her spine for several heartbeats, warming her, then he stepped away. “When you’re done, stay put, and I’ll meet you there.” Then he was gone.
She only heard a few of his footfalls before he disappeared into the trees. He was silent in the woods. That was good. She needed to be just as quiet. She opened her eyes slowly, listening. The other man was still on the opposite side of the house, as she couldn’t hear him either. So she made her way around, deeper into the forest so she could blend into the trees and shadows but still see the edge of the trees and her house.
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