“Good heavens, such ado about nothing. I tripped over the blasted thing.” A blessing, how smoothly the lie flowed from her lips. “I had no idea you’d placed it with any deliberation.”
Devil take it, he didn’t believe her. She could see it in his eyes.
Crumpling the rug, he tossed it aside, crouched over the improvised vault, and lifted the board out of his way. Lock-box in hand, he stared down at her. “Where is it, Johanna?”
She swung her legs off the bed and retrieved her dress from the chair where she’d tossed it. No point in conjuring clever lies now. Heaven only knew the man saw through every falsehood, whether of great or little consequence.
“It’s not there. I’ve secured it.”
His jaw set, hard-edged as flint. “Why?”
“I have no reason to trust you.”
A muscle near his mouth ticked as if she’d struck him. “Ye think I’d betray ye? Even now?”
“Yes.” The word was bitter, but she forced it out. “Our objectives do not align. It’s time we both faced that fact.”
He set the box on the floor with a small thud. Turning away, he pulled on his shirt. “So, ye think to go to him—alone?”
“Yes.”
“Ye know Cranston’s location?”
“In a manner of speaking. I will find someone to provide transport. I still have payment to offer.”
His fingers worked the buttons on his shirt. “Ye think to trust a stranger—most likely a thief—with yer safety?”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been doing?”
Again, that tiny muscle in his jaw ticked. But other than that muted reaction, his features betrayed little. “Ye don’t think I’ll stop ye?”
She nodded slowly, pondering his statement. “I have no doubt you could. But you won’t.”
“And why is that?”
Johanna swallowed hard against the bitter pain in her throat. “You have no need of me now. If anything, I’ll provide an effective distraction while you and your brother hunt for the stone. You already have the map secured from Cranston’s reach. Now, you can retrieve that blasted bit of rock, curse and all. That’s what you want. What you need. You’ll have the stone safely hidden away before the scoundrel is any the wiser.”
“Ye think ye’ve got this all figured out, do ye?”
“Not at all. I’ve been quite the fool, really. I can only pray my niece hasn’t paid the price.”
“If ye think that cutthroat will be satisfied with that book, ye’re wrong. He’ll kill ye both.”
Once again, Connor thought to frighten her, but she had to obey the kidnapper’s summons. There was no choice.
“And what chance will my niece have when you abandon her? Cranston expects me to find a way to him. He wants that book. And I intend to ensure he gets it.”
Connor shook his head. “He wanted the map that leads to the stone. The book means nothing to him.”
“He does not know the map is gone…he doesn’t know the truth.”
“The bastard will know as soon as he gets that book in his hands.”
“I need to buy time. That volume is all I have to barter. That…and the code tucked away in my memory.”
“Bah, ye think the bastard will care about your bluidy secret? By the time Cranston and his thugs were done with yer brother-in-law, he would’ve spat out everything he knew about the stone. The man has no use for ye. None that involve words, in any case.”
“But…you acted as if…the code might be of some value.”
“If ye are telling the truth…if there is some mysterious code Richard Abbott decided to entrust to ye, it no longer matters. From what I know of the man, he wasnae the sort to withstand…pain.”
A lead weight landed with a thud in her belly. She inhaled slowly, drawing calm strength from the breath. “If that’s the case, why did you agree to bring me here?”
“Lass, the most brilliant scholar couldnae answer that question.” He raked a hand through his dark strands. “Truth be told, I cannae explain my actions. Bringing you here was a mistake. I know that now.”
Anger welled in her throat. “You do not view this as a betrayal?”
“I cannae stomach putting ye in danger. I’m taking the ransom to the bastard.”
Something in his gruff voice touched her, chipping away at the ice she’d erected as a shield. How she wanted to believe his actions were rooted in noble instinct. But Connor was not a hero who’d stepped from the pages of a novel. He was a man, flesh and blood with motives that had nothing to do with her. Nothing to do with desire. Nothing to do with passion.
She couldn’t put her faith in him. Laurel needed her. And nothing short of hellfire would keep her away.
Johanna blinked against the veil of moisture blurring her gaze. “And what of my niece? Who will be there for her?”
“Ye think I’d leave the bairn to those curs?”
“She has suffered. We both know that. Even if you keep your vow and bring Laurel to safety, you are a stranger to her. She may not understand that you are there to help, and even if she does, she needs me. I’m all the family she has here. Surely you can understand that.”
“I do, Johanna. But that does not change how I feel. ’Tis madness for ye to go into that viper’s nest.”
“I have no choice.”