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Four hours later Jane knocked on his door. When he opened it, she asked, “May I come in? I’ve ordered you dinner. They told me you haven’t had anything to eat since that helicopter dropped you off.”
“I’ve been busy.” He stood aside to let her enter. “I had to talk to Palik several times. I assure you that I’ve not been wasting away.”
“You look much better.” She moistened her lips. “I’m glad, it frightened me. Though that EMT MacDuff sent to check you out told him the wound was minor.” Her gaze went to his shoulder. “Minor doesn’t necessarily mean pain-free. If you’d prefer not to talk to me until tomorrow that will be fine, but you did lose blood and you need to eat something.”
“Jane.” He smiled faintly as he shook his head. “I don’t have to remind you that probably no one knows better than I do about how the blood flow through the body can affect the organs. Don’t try to tutor me.”
“Okay, I won’t. I’ve had enough.” She slammed the door behind her. “But knowledge doesn’t mean that you won’t be careless. You’re not perfect, and you certainly haven’t demonstrated lately that you take proper care of yourself.”
Caleb gave a low whistle. “That’s better. You were being so polite and concerned that I was afraid I was going to have to be worried about you.”
“I’ll watch it,” she said curtly. “I’ve been a little upset lately. And I don’t really care what you prefer. Since you’re clearly in tolerable shape, we need to talk now. This can’t go on. A good man was killed today. You could have died, too. Later, I fully intend to go into the way you treated me and didn’t consult me. I even know why you did it. But it sucked. Ithurt. What went before was beautiful and I’ll treasure it. That’s why I’m trying to ignore that you manipulated me and didn’t give me a choice. That’s why I have to give us a chance to go on to what’s important.”
“I tried to tell you,” he said quietly. “I can’t even promise it won’t happen again. I have to keep both of you safe.”
“We won’t talk about it right now. I’m still raw.” She needed to change the subject. She’d thought she was ready, but she was being bombarded by emotion. She quickly glanced around the huge bedroom. “MacDuff gave you one of the grand chambers. But I like my own room better.”
“So do I.” He smiled. “It’s much better furnished and equipped.”
“I hope Rodland thought it was comfortable,” she said dryly. “Being there made him very uneasy. You owe him, Caleb.”
“I think so, too.” His smile faded. “But I couldn’t stand the thought of you waking and believing I’d just left you alone. I knew you’d guess I’d gotten the call from Palik.” There was a knock on the door. “Dinner? Did you order enough for two?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t hungry. MacDuff had them bring me sandwiches with tea. He was being very laird of the castle.” While he answered the door she went over to the window and looked out at the sea. “Why did you talk to Palik so many times today?”
“I’d given him orders and I wanted to make sure if he’d been able to follow through with it.” Then he was speaking to the housekeeper. “That will be fine, Mrs. Gordon. I’m sure it will be excellent as usual.”
Jane turned to see him walk with the housekeeper to the door and give her that warm smile before he shut the door. “Nice woman.” He turned back to Jane. “Salad and steak. And if you won’t change your mind about dinner, she brought a thermos with enough tea to last us for a few hours while we talk about Palik’s search for the perfect Judas.”
She went still. “Judas?”
“Well, that sniper, Nojer, wasn’t close enough to Bohdan to be useful to us. Bohdan evidently has a fondness for traps like the one he tried to set for me today. I can’t tell you how pissed off I was when his men showed up after I found poor Campbell’s body.” His lips twisted. “So I thought we’d work out a trap of our own to turn the tables on him. I told Palik to find someone under Bohdan’s command who might be close enough to manipulate him. And who would be smart and crooked enough to do it right.”
She was fascinated. “How?”
“That’s what we’ll have to figure out. It will no doubt start with a con. From there the stakes are wide open.”
“A con.” She tilted her head. “That’s not usually your thing, is it?”
“It depends. I’ve done a few with MI6. I have certain capabilities that make me believable.”
She nodded ruefully. “I imagine you have. But will your Judas have them?”
“If we choose correctly. A dash of pure chicanery, a tempting story that will intrigue Bohdan, and a trap with very sharp teeth.”
She was studying his expression. “It’s not only the trap that has sharp teeth. You’re very angry.”
“You bet I am,” he said softly. “I’ve debts to pay. MacDuff and his people. Those MI6 agents.” His eyes were glittering in his taut face. “Your friend Felicity. Dr. Campbell.” There was a touch of recklessness in his voice as he added, “And you. Maybe you most of all. Because it’s all tied up with you and I couldn’t seem to do anything about it. I might be to blame for some of it, but in the end I’ll be glad to hang most of it on Bohdan and strangle him with it.”
“Quite a list,” she said grimly. “You’re wrong, in the end all of it is Bohdan. That being true I think we should get to work on finding that Judas. How do we go about it?”
“It’s in the works. Palik has been assessing Bohdan’s men’s military personnel records. He’ll choose the ones he thinks we’ll be interested in and text us the files to examine.”
“When?”
He smiled. “Is tonight too soon?”
“No.” She glanced at his shoulder. “Not for me. But maybe for you. I could go through them by myself.”
