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Caleb and Rodland had picked up a Range Rover from the garage and were only thirty minutes out of the blackened ruin of the front gates when they got a call from MacDuff.
“Change direction to the southern forest,” MacDuff said as soon as Caleb picked up. “She said Nojer would be in a cave about twelve miles from the road. She told me she’d left a note.”
Caleb went still. “She? Who?”
“Who do you think?” MacDuff said. “Jane. She said she was sorry for everything and hoped I’d forgive her. Then she started to rattle off directions. I told her that she should wait for you, but she said that wouldn’t be a good idea. Then she was gone. Now go get her and bring her back.”
“I will. Who’s Nojer?”
“She didn’t say.” He ended the call.
“Jane?” Rodland repeated. “Nojer?”
“You heard him.” Caleb drove off the road and turned south. “I don’t know what the hell is happening. Except that she couldn’t bother to wait for me.” He stomped on the accelerator as he drove into the brush. “And that she was still alive ten minutes ago. I’ll take that.”
Rodland nodded. “Yeah. We’ll take that.”
***
The first thing they saw was the smoke. It took another ten minutes after they reached the coordinates they’d been given before they located the cave.
But it was only a few minutes later before they found Nojer.
He was roped, gagged, and tied to a rock inside the cave. He was squirming and fighting the gag, and they didn’t notice the blood until they were almost on top of him.
The note Jane had mentioned was beneath a smaller rock nearby.
MacDuff
This isEric Nojeraccording to the documents I found on him. All I know about him is that he’s the sniper who shot Rodland and was trying to track me. But I figured that was reason enough to shoot him so that he’d be out of commission. He was on the phone with someone, and I couldn’t afford to have him behind me and bringing up reinforcements. I thought you might be able to get information from him about where to find Bohdan. I made sure he wouldn’t bleed to death if you get to him in time.
Jane
Caleb handed the note to Rodland. “Shall we untie him and see how accurate Jane’s aim was?” He was taking off the gag as he spoke. The moment he slipped it down, Nojer started to spew curse words. His eyes were glittering with fury. “She shot me! The bitch wasn’t there one minute and the next I felt the bullet tear into my side. I’m going tokillher.”
“I wouldn’t try that.” Caleb was examining the wound in Nojer’s side. “It looks like she patched you up pretty well. She could have just let you bleed out. But Jane has problems with death except in the most extreme cases.” He added with soft menace, “I have no such hesitancy. And if you decide to ignore my advice, I’ll make certain that you’ll die very soon and in great pain. Do you understand?”
“I’ll do what I please,” Nojer snarled. “Who do you think—” He stopped short as he met Caleb’s eyes. “I guess I understand.” He moistened his lips. “You’re Caleb, aren’t you? I’ve heard about you.”
“But I’ve heard practically nothing about you, and Jane went to a great deal of trouble to keep you alive so that you could tell us about yourself and all your friends.” Caleb smiled. “Which you will do. I won’t have her disappointed.”
“Bohdan would kill me.”
“But then you’ll have a choice to make. You do have a little time. Rodland is going to call MacDuff to have him send someone else to pick you up. Oops, but MacDuff is also angry with anyone who helped damage his castle. You seem to be in an uncomfortable position and nowhere to go.” He turned away. “It might help if you could tell me in what direction Jane took off after she did her fine work on your rib cage.”
“I don’t remember.” Nojer was breathing hard. “Don’t leave me here alone.”
“Which direction?”
He was silent. “North,” he said grudgingly.
“Good.” Caleb pulled the gag back up over Nojer’s mouth. “You’ll have company soon. I just don’t want any of Bohdan’s men to drop in and take you away from MacDuff. You may prove to be a valuable commodity.”
Rodland started to dial MacDuff as he followed Caleb out of the cave. They’d reached their Range Rover by the time he finished talking. “Nojer could have been lying about the direction Jane took off in.”
“He could have been, but I don’t believe he was.” Caleb got into the driver’s seat. “I have a hunch.”
“And you’re used to intimidating people,” Rodland said. “Some hunch.”
