Somewhere I'll Find You (46 page)

She could see him crouching just a few feet away.  But he wasn’t the friend that she had once believed him to be.  He was a cold, calculating madman who would use anyone and anything to reach his desired goal.  She sensed that he had already eliminated John Black once the man was no longer useful.  As he had Erik, and as he planned to use her.

“You might as well come out, my dear.  I know where you are.”

Shrinking back from his voice, she felt a stab of fear.  If she didn’t come out, he would come in after her, and the idea of being with him in such close quarters didn’t seem like a very good idea.  Hearing the snap of a twig, she flinched, trying to hold back a whimper. 

But then she felt it
.

Michael.  He was c
oming for
her, running straight toward Alistar.

Moving on desperation, she hid the papers beneath a fallen crumble of rock, breathing a prayer to Jenny that they would stay hidden, meeting
Alistar’s
hand as it reached in
for her
. 
Bowing her head in defeat, she allowed him to pull her out, keeping her eyes hidden
beneath the
veil o
f her dark hair.  “It’s no use,”
she
murmured, praying that he didn’t see past her deception
.  “
You’re right -
Michael is dead . . . I trusted you once, could I have been so wrong?”

Wrapping an arm around her, his voice gre
w warm.  “That’s right, my dear,” he encouraged.
 
“
We’ll get those papers and return to England together.  You do remember how you loved it there, don’t you?  After a bit, why
,
you’ll be as right as rain.”

Right and dead.  Or locked in some mental institution for people who see and feel things that they shouldn’t
.
And I’ll bet the only way that I’ll ever see the outside is if he wants me to do something.
  There was little doubt in Paige’s mind on how this would end, but she had to follow along.  To give Michael
whatever time that he needed
.

Her head still lowered, she clasped her hand loosely in his like a trusting child.  “
I was wrong about them being out here. 
They have to be in the attic.
  I used my gift, and
I see . . . I see a trunk
up there that I didn’t go through
.  They have to be in that trunk.”  Paige felt the overwhelming sense of triumph that bloomed with her words, and she knew they would bli
nd him to anything else that lay
before him.  The taste of his victory would blank out what might remain of his rational senses, and Paige would use that to her every advantage.

Neither noticed the
pair of
shadows
that followed them, o
ne
just as human as
the other was ethereal.

Filled with a sense of triumph that blinded him to anything else, Alistar kept her by his side, his thoughts filling with the idea of not killing her.  After all, Paige was an asset, and very beautiful
,
besides.  And, with her talent, finding limitless sources of wealth would be a snap. 

But
,
he reminded himself,
there is
the awkward matter of those papers to tend to first.

It was easy for Paige to draw him back to the house,
coming in through the side entrance, through the old door there
.  It hung creakily from its rotted frame;
it was
one of the many things that she had always planned on fixing.  They moved past crystal bowls of potpourri, vases of flowers and finally the awards for her writing that sat on the mantle.  Briefly, she wondered if she would ever enjoy those treasures again.  Or if Michael would arrive in time.

Stall him!

Again
,
that urgent voice that was now so familiar as it
drove
her on.  In an odd way, the dark voice was comforting.  Blindly,
she stumbled, putting her hand over her mouth as if to pantomime sudden nausea
.
  “Alistar,” she gasped, letting her legs crumble out from beneath her, half-hearing the soft thud her knees made on the hearth rug.  “Oh, Alistar, I feel so faint…”

Just as Alistar
slapped his heavy, bony hand down on her shoulder, opening his mouth to protest
, some movement from the living room caught their attention. 
Forgetting that she was supposed to be feigning faintness, Paige lifted her head, and what she saw made her dark eyes fly wide.

“Let her go, Alistar.”  Michael was standing
less than
ten
feet away.  His gaze swept from her to the
old
man standing beside her
while
Paige followed Michael’s line of sight and swallowed hard.  Alistar was smiling, the sight of his expression chilling her to the core.

“
Do come in, Sinclair,” he invited his voice slick with triumph.  “I didn’t think that you would be caught by my simple snares, although it did quite upset poor Paige, didn’t it, my dear.” With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, the muzzle of the pistol moved to her head.  “And now she’s going to help me, aren’t you, dear Paige.  And this time
, she will do it
without any distractions.”

“Not any longer.  Step away from her.”  Michael’s voice was sharp and deadly, his pistol gleaming in his hand.  Alistar laughed wildly, jerking Paige sideways, moving his pistol to dig in Paige’s side.  “Everything I need is locked inside that clever little brain of hers.  She’s psychic, did she tell you?  All
along,
she’s been looking for those papers.  Made you look like a bloody fool, didn’t she?”

“I doubt that Paige knows
what
she’s look
in
g for, or who she’s working with,”
Michael
said brusquely, his eyes on her white face.  “She’s been manipulated
by pros from the very beginning.  Her only mistake was ever trusting
rubbish
like you.  Who
are
you
working for?”

Alistar laughed wildly.  “I work for myself. 
With the
money,
I’ll make from those
names
I can call all the shots.
And right now, ther
e’s a party willing to pay
millions
for
the release of
those names.  I’d be a fool to turn down money like that.”

“You
are
a fool,
no matter how you look at it,” Michael spat.
 
“
Once those names are out in the open, your life won’t be worth spit.  Even Black will turn against you.”

“Yes,” Alistar admitted with a chortle of glee, “he would if he wasn’t lying at the bottom of the cliffs.  He’d outlived his uses and was getting quite too interested in Paige for his own good.”

A shudder of revulsion ripped through Michael at the thought of Paige in Black’s hands.
Won’t be an issue now, though, will it?
“And whatever happened to honor among thieves?”

“Honor is highly overrated, Commander.  It certainly won’t buy me the kind of lifestyle that I have in mind.”

During this angry exchange of words, both men seemed to have forgotten about Paige.  Now
,
she
interrupted
her face defiant.  “How do you know that I didn’t find the papers, Alistar?”

“Paige,
don’t,
”
Michael ground out.

Alistar turned rigid.  “Tell me, damn it.  Did you find them?”

“A list of names, typed on yellowing paper.”  She uttered a few of the names she had seen, watching as glee entered Alistar’s eyes.

“
Where?
”
Alistar’s voice was a low hiss.

“I’ll have to show you.”  Instinct guided her now.  She was finally willing to trust
her gift to its full extent, and she gave herself over to its urgings completely.
“I’m not certain I can find them alone.”

Alistar’s grip
on her shoulder
tightened.  “Move
,
then.  And no tricks.”  He turned to glare at Michael
,
as he
slowly, carefully, spread his hands
.
 
“
And what do you want of
me
?”

“First of all, dear boy, that gun of yours.  On the table. Now!”

Michael gave a grim nod. 
With
Alistar
’s own pistol so close to Paige’s temple, it
left him no choice.
I don’t need a gun,
he reminded himself
, blinking against a sudden wave of vertigo
.
 
I don’t … need …

The weapon landed with a clatter.
  Wincing, Paige glanced up at Michael – and froze.  Something – some expression, some change, was coming over his face. 
He looks … he looks like I do when my gift is … using me … What’s happening to him?

“And what now, if I might ask?
”  A thick Irish brogue broke through the smooth timber of Michael’s voice as he angled a shoulder against the doorframe. 
As he stared
at Paige, there was a painful look of longing in his eyes.  “Do ya know how long I stayed with him, lass?  I thought that poor Erik would lose his mind. We stayed friends after you left us . . . but he went crazy with drugs and alcohol.   No one ever could fill the hole
y
ou left in his heart.”