Killer Dreams Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t get anyone to listen to her.”
    “Shit.”
    “Release me from my promise,” he repeated patiently.
    “Forget it,” MacDuff said curtly. “You don’t want her to kill Sanborne? Then we’ll throw someone else into the mix who will do the job for her.”
    “If she won’t let me, she won’t let anyone else either. She said she feels responsible.”
    “Who’s going to tell her? We’ll just get rid of the bastard.”
    Jock chuckled. “So much for preventing homicide. You’re beginning to sound like me, MacDuff.”
    “I don’t mind stepping on a cockroach. I just don’t want you doing it. What about pulling Royd into the picture?”
    Jock went still. “Royd?”
    “You told me that he was on the hunt. Is there any doubt that Royd will take over and follow through if he gets the chance?”
    “No doubt at all. He’s a powerhouse. I’d only have to worry about him stampeding over Sophie.”
    “And that would be a good thing if it kept her safe.”
    “Sophie wouldn’t think so,” Jock said dryly. “And she’d only get up and track him down like she did me.”
    “Call Royd, and then come home.”
    “No.”
    Silence. “Please.”
    “I don’t want—” He sighed. A promise was a promise and he owed MacDuff more than he could pay in a millennium. “I’ll think about it. It may take me a little while to locate him. For all I know Royd may be dead. The last I heard he was somewhere in Colombia. I’ll try to reach him.”
    “If you need help, let me know. Get him there and get on that plane. I’ll meet you in Aberdeen.” He hung up.
    Jock slowly pressed the disconnect. MacDuff’s response was not unexpected but he was still disappointed. He wanted to end Sophie’s torment in the quickest and most efficient manner and there was no one more efficient than he was at the task she’d set herself.
    Except perhaps Royd.
    As he’d told MacDuff, Royd was a powerhouse in every sense of the word. He’d had MacDuff investigate Royd’s background when the man had contacted him a year ago. He seemed to be filled with passion and bitterness, but Jock had lived with lies and deception too long and was not going to chance being used again. Royd was smart, ruthless, and managed to pull off operations that were difficult, if not impossible.
    And he had cause for the passion and bitterness he’d shown Jock. There was little doubt that he would focus single-mindedly on Sanborne and REM-4 once he knew where the facility was located.
    But, dammit, Jock didn’t like the idea of not being around to monitor Royd’s actions. He
liked
Sophie Dunston and Michael, and gentle emotion of any kind was rare and precious in his life. He’d had to learn how to respond again and that knowledge was something to be treasured and protected.
    He smiled without mirth at that last thought. It was bizarre to be dwelling on gentleness when he was fighting to commit the most horrendous of sins in the name of kindness.
    And it might still come to that if Royd had lost interest in the hunt.
    Not bloody likely.

2
    C ould it be her?” Robert Sanborne asked as he looked up from the report on his desk.
    “Sophie Dunston?” Gerald Kennett shrugged. “I suppose it could be her. You read the security guard’s report. He only got a glimpse of the intruder. Sex unknown. Medium height, slim, brown jacket, tweed cap, and carrying a rifle. I guess there might be footprints. Should I pull some strings and get the police to send a forensics crew to check it out?”
    “What an idiotic question. We can’t have police anywhere near the facility. Send some of our men to look around.”
    Gerald tried to keep Sanborne from seeing how the contempt in his voice stung. The more he came into contact with Sanborne the more the man irritated him. The son of a bitch had a God complex and was only diplomatic with the people he had to be. Well, let him think Gerald was his inferior. He would take Sanborne for everything he could and then walk away.