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“I believe you.”
“Alec believed me, too. And Angelina. And the king. They all knew I was the key witness. And they all knew Vishenko had killed every witness who’d ever tried to testify against him. No proof—he was too smart for that—but...” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I never wanted anyone to die because of me. I should have known...should have expected...”
“How could you know? How could anyone predict what would happen in the courthouse?”
Cate suddenly stood up, and her voice was hard, cold and unforgiving—of herself. “I could have. Because I know him. I should have killed him years ago, but I was a coward. Instead of killing him, I took all the evidence I could lay my hands on...and I ran.” Self-recrimination colored her next words. “I told you I was a coward, Liam, but you didn’t want to believe it. That prosecutor? The other witness? They’re dead because I didn’t kill Vishenko when I had the chance.”
Before Liam could react, before he could stop her, Cate stormed up the steps and entered the cabin, slamming the door shut behind her.
Liam started to go after her. But he’d only taken two steps when a faint sound from the other side of the clearing had him whirling around, his SIG SAUER in his hand.
Callahan froze in his tracks, but by no other sign did he indicate a gun was aiming at his heart. “Guess I should have called to let you know I was on the way,” he said laconically.
Liam chuckled softly and holstered his gun. “Yeah, might have been a good idea.” He met Callahan halfway and relieved him of the cooler he was carrying.
“Brought you some milk, eggs and butter. Fresh bread, some cookies and an apple pie, too. Mandy—my wife—likes to bake when she’s worried. And she’s plenty worried right now, so we’ve got more bread and other baked goods than we know what to do with.”
Liam honed in on the most important fact as they walked toward the cabin. “What’s she worried about? I thought this place was as secret as we could wish for.”
“It is secret. But no place is perfect. Even though Mandy doesn’t know who you are, she knows why you’re here...and she’s remembering the two times we’ve been holed up here ourselves.”
“Keira mentioned you’d used the place for this kind of thing before.”
“Yeah. The first time was before we were married—right after Mandy’s home was firebombed by men trying to kill me. The second time was right after our nearest neighbor showed up on our doorstep bleeding out, trying to warn me I headed up a hit list—and our kids were with us. Not good memories, either of them.”
“But—”
Callahan mounted the porch stairs ahead of him and opened the cabin door. “Mandy’s worrying for nothing. D’Arcy’s got our backs on this, so we’re good.”
* * *
“Every man has his price,” Aleksandrov Vishenko repeated to himself in Russian, as he’d been doing almost hourly while he was awake—and even sporadically during his sleep—ever since he’d met with the government official and made him the offer. A day had passed, and he still hadn’t heard back. Not a single word. “Ten million dollars. How can he turn it down? He cannot,” he reassured himself. “He is merely trying to see if I will raise the price. He is a cunning one, that man. Oh yes, cunning as a fox. He has tried to bring me down for years, and has failed every time. So now he will join hands with me instead.”
He filled his snifter with cognac, trying not to think of how he was drinking more and more these days. How the stress over the impending trial was driving him to rely on the Courvoisier L’Essence he loved but had always drunk sparingly...until now.
He owned the world. His world. But unless Caterina Mateja could be silenced, his world would collapse around his ears. That was not going to happen. He’d killed to reach the top, and he’d killed to stay on top. He’d killed small men and great ones. He’d killed men who were nearly as vicious and ruthless as he was, but not quite. Not quite. He had always been the victor. That was not going to change. So one slight woman—a woman who couldn’t even prevent him from taking her body wherever and whenever he wanted—was not going to vanquish him. Caterina would die. And Vishenko’s empire would be secure again.
* * *
After Callahan left, reminding them he’d be back to check on them that evening, Liam told Cate, “We’ll go stir-crazy cooped up in this cabin. Let’s take a walk.”
Cate finished putting away the breakfast dishes from the dish drainer. “Okay.”
