Free The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima Page B

down the last of his sandwich. "So what was that weapon he used?"
    "I don't know," Linda said. "I… I didn't really see anything."
    She's lying, Jack thought.
    "Why don't we just go back home?" Fitch suggested. "He can't hang around here forever. We can always come back another time."
    Linda shook her head. "The fact that he's here may mean it's already too late. We can't take the chance that he might find it before we do." She looked at each of them in turn. "I'm. going to have to find it this weekend or risk losing everything."
    "Then, what's our next step?" Fitch asked.
    "There's no next step for you two boys," Linda said. "I'm going to take you to the hotel and leave you there until this is over. I … I don't always think things through, I'm afraid." She looked down at her hands. "It was a mistake to get you involved. I'm not putting you at risk again."
    "What about me?" Jack asked, realizing that once again he'd been intentionally excluded.
    She wouldn't look at him. "If I can find it, I'll need your help to retrieve it, Jack. I have some inside information that will help us. Only … I don't know how we'll manage to lose him. And if he sees us together …"
    Fitch rested his chin on his hands. "Maybe we can help."
    Linda leaned into the center of the table. "You don't know them," she whispered. "This is not a game." Jack had never seen his irreverent aunt look so serious.
    "Just listen," Fitch persisted. "You said this guy would be following you.You're not going to find anything without his knowing it." Aunt Linda nodded warily. "But he probably didn't get a good look at us at the courthouse," he went on. "And there's only one of him. I'll bet if he has to make a choice, he'll follow you. I would," he admitted, blushing a little.
    "What are you thinking?"
    "What if you lead him away from here while the three of us look for the … thing," Will said. "If he's following you, we won't be in danger."
    "Well, maybe we should split up now anyway," Linda said, wavering. "If I take you to the motel, we might be followed. The next place we need to go is the library. That should be safe enough."
    Jack didn't like it. Linda knew the man in the courthouse, and she was frightened of him. "I don't want that guy following you around. I think we should stick together."
    She shrugged. "He'll be following me anyway. There's nothing I can do about that. And if you're with me, you'll be in danger." It was plain that she didn't consider them much protection against whatever waited outside.
    "How important is it that you … win?" Jack asked.
    "Winning is everything." She looked up at him and said again, "Everything." Something in the way she said it made Jack wonder if this desperate quest had something to do with him.
    The plan was hatched over the battered table in the back of the Bluebird Cafe. Aunt Linda handed Jack a wad of bills and a credit card, along with the confirmation number for the hotel reservation. The hotel was back by the highway, and they would have to get there on their own. Linda didn't think it wise for the boys to return to the Land Rover if they wanted to avoid the attention of the stranger outside. Will put Aunt Linda's cell phone and her notebook in the inside pocket of his jacket. She had scrawled some instructions inside. Fitch carried two of the flashlights. When all was set, she called the bartender over. Her voice took on a distinctly local accent.
    "You know what," she said to the bartender in a voice dripping with charm. "My ex-husband's out there waiting in the parking lot, and I'm afraid there might be trouble. He's been following us around all night. I'm scared we might have words, and I don't want my boys getting mixed up in this."
    The bartender nodded sympathetically. He was a huge man with a florid complexion, massive shoulders, and beefy hands. If he thought she had a peculiar-looking family, he didn't say so.
    "I wonder if they could just slip out the back," Linda went on. "Do you have a kitchen