Raintree: Oracle by Linda Winstead Jones

Author:Linda Winstead Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Rye called Bryna’s gentleman friend to collect and care for her. He refused to tell McManus anything about what had happened, and so did Bryna. Fortunately, the old man was accustomed to keeping secrets, and did not balk when others protected their own.

It was odd to see the man he normally knew as one of three friends who drank together and told bad jokes and argued about politics in this position. McManus held Bryna’s hand. He comforted her, and did not press to know more as he helped her pack a small bag. He walked out the front door with that bag in one hand and Bryna’s arm caught in the other.

There was no sound of an engine after they’d disappeared from view. They would walk. McManus’s little cottage was not far away.

With Bryna in good hands, Rye was free to concentrate on his daughter and her kidnapper. Was Maisy working alone, or did she have an accomplice? Or two, or twenty? He didn’t know what he was up against, and he did not dare ask anyone in Cloughban for help. He would have trusted Maisy, if Bryna hadn’t told him what she’d done. Why hadn’t he seen the danger for himself? What other truths hid from him?

He fingered the stone that lay heavy at his throat. Once he removed the talismans he’d know without doubt whom he could trust. He would see all.

Echo stood silently near the door. Poised to run? He couldn’t blame her. This was not her mess, not her concern. Bryna and McManus were long gone when he finally looked squarely at her and said, “Go.”

She shook her head. Stubborn woman.

“I don’t need you,” he insisted.

“Yes, you do.”

He was going to have to be blunt with her. Could he lie well enough to fool her? He tried. “I don’t want you here.”

Again she answered softly, “Yes, you do.”

He’d been so afraid of the Raintree coming in and taking his daughter, he’d missed the signs of betrayal under his nose. His own people. A Cloughban resident, someone he knew, had made his worst fear come true.

He didn’t think for a moment that Maisy was working alone. She wasn’t that smart, or that powerful.

If she took Cassidy’s abilities, she’d be more than powerful enough.

“I have to stop her, no matter what. I will sacrifice myself.” His voice was sharp when he added, “I will sacrifice you if I have to. If I think for even a moment that it will help to offer you up, I won’t hesitate. You’re Raintree, after all. A prophet, and more. If they would take you in exchange for Cassidy, I would hand you over without a second thought.”

Instead of running out the door as she should’ve, Echo walked toward him, took his hand and sat on the love seat. She drew him down beside her, and he let her. She was warm, soft, much calmer than he was.

It wasn’t her daughter in the hands of a traitor.

“Of course you would,” she said in an even voice.

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