Free Swallow (Kindred Book 2) by Scarlett Finn Page A

right?”
    They returned to their neutral state. Grant didn’t appear to want to fight any more than she did. “He hasn’t given up on his cause. He’s going to want the device from us, I’m almost sure of it. I think that giving it to him will be the only way we can prove that we weren’t part of the scheme to take him down.”
    The gravity of that admission made her sag back into her chair. Grant delivered the line without any compunction, but she couldn’t believe this nightmare was back. Sutcliffe had ideals he planned to impose on the world. For some reason, he believed Game Time was the way to make his point.
    Obtaining the device had been his singular focus and he’d lost his nephew Tim in that pursuit. Pride or anger motivated this return to their lives, making him all the more dangerous to them. He’d lost henchmen and been embarrassed. Getting over that humiliation would require those he considered responsible bowing down and giving him what he wanted.
    The raid tonight didn’t fit with Sutcliffe’s ultimate goal, which supported Grant’s theory that it was for their benefit. Meaning lives had been put at risk just because she and Grant wanted to go for a drink.
    “What was tonight?” she asked. “In Purdy’s, why do you think that was him?”
    “It would be a coincidence if it wasn’t, don’t you think? Men wielding guns, threatening to kill in our presence, picking you out. It’s Sutcliffe, or we have the worst luck in the world.”
    A coincidence, the word reminded her of something Art had said and she had to concur with Grant’s thinking. “You have to find out what he wants,” she said. “You have to get in touch with him and—“
    “Albert needs money to support his cause, you heard what those guys said about ransom.”
    Elvis had referred to payment in exchange for lives. Terrorizing and injuring people just to make a buck was quite dramatic, but she could believe it of Albert Sutcliffe. Elvis had said that they planned to be there all night. Holding people hostage with the spotlight of the media trained on the event would no doubt give Sutcliffe a kick. Severe egotism was a requirement for any man who wanted to take over the world.
    “Hurting people isn’t the way to achieve his aims,” she said, but had no faith that Grant would stand up to Sutcliffe.
    Exploring the nothingness between them with his keen eyes, Grant was obviously trying to make sense of this whole affair as well. “I plan to talk to him, as soon as I can. But I don’t plan to chastise him.”
    She hadn’t expected him to voice opposition to Sutcliffe, but she hadn’t expected him to admit cowardice, which led her to believe cowardice wasn’t what he was express. Panic began to pulse on her larynx again. Was it simply that Grant was afraid of Albert Sutcliffe and didn’t want to invite his wrath? Or was there a part of Grant that still believed in Sutcliffe’s cause as he’d claimed to her he did.
    Grant had received the harshest of consequences yet, he’d lost a VP, and lost his housekeeper, then tonight in Purdy’s he’d been robbed and shot at. It wouldn’t have escaped his keen notice that she, Brodie, and the others were as yet unscathed—other than the loss of Art. Though she doubted Grant cared too much about losing his uncle, he could argue with Brodie that he too had been a victim of grief after Art was murdered.
    “You need a plan beyond getting in touch with him. You have to know what you’re going to say to him, what you’re going to offer in an attempt to placate him? And what if he never returns your call? Are you going to let his cult take you down?”
    Grant’s shoulders broadened, suggesting she’d aroused his interest. “Why do you call it a cult?”
    To get a little, she had to give a little. “Because Art did,” she said, sliding her hands over the surface of the table. “He told me most of what I knew about your Game Time clients.”
    A smile clipped onto his face that