Free Moonrise by Anne Stuart Page B

in the hidden recesses of his brain. Haunting him, as it always did. “Someone I’m sleeping with,” he said in an offhand voice.
    “I don’t buy that. You never let your cock tell you what to do, and you wouldn’t have brought her along unless you had a reason.”
    “You really want to know, Clancy?”
    He watched Clancy consider it. He’d been in the business for more than ten years, but for the past three he’d been retired, providing occasional consulting services and living off his pension. Win had kept his operatives and their targets carefully segregated, but occasionally their paths would cross. James had run across Clancy in Panama, each on separate missions, sent by the same man. Both stained with blood.
    Clancy had been the pragmatic one. It was a living, and none of the people he’d taken out was of any benefit to the world. They caused far more harm than good, and Clancy figured he was doing society a favor.
    James couldn’t see it quite so clearly. That Catholic guilt haunting him. The memory of a corpse-strewn square, and women crying, lingered in some dark part of his mind.
    But for all Clancy’s cool practicality, McKinley trusted him more than he trusted anyone else in this world. Which wasn’t saying much, he thought sourly.
    “No,” Clancy said finally. “I guess I don’t want to know the details.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “I’ve got a safe house for you up in the hills. You’ve got it for as long as you need it.” Clancy jerked his head toward Annie’s reclining figure. “Is she one of us? Can we talk?”
    “To some extent,” he said evenly.
    “Did you ever find out what happened to Win?”
    She didn’t make a sound, but he could practically feel her adrenaline kick in. “Not yet,” he said.
    “Think Carew knew about it?”
    “Yes.”
    Clancy considered it for a moment, then nodded. “That’s what I thought. Bastard.”
    “Yes.”
    “Any idea why?”
    James didn’t even consider telling him. Clancy lived with his choices, his life. He didn’t need to know the truth about the filthy work he’d dedicated his life to. Didn’t need to know that some of those targets had merely been someone’s inconvenience, taken out for a price.
    “I’m not going to ask you if you’re going to do something about it,” Clancy said. “I know you well enough to know the answer. I’m just offering my help if you need it.”
    “Clancy,” he said wearily, “you’ve earned your rest.”
    “So have you, man.”
    “No rest for the wicked, Clancy.”
    Clancy hadn’t lost his touch. The house was tiny, remote, up at the end of a narrow dirt road. Trees closed in around it on two sides,and the back overlooked a canyon, a cliff so steep and overgrown it would take a well-equipped army to maneuver up it. No one could get anywhere near the place without McKinley being aware of it, and he had no doubt Clancy had a sniper rifle set up for him to ward off any intruders.
    Clancy didn’t even turn off the engine when he pulled up to the vine-covered front door. “There’s plenty of food and booze, and I took care of everything else you asked for. I’ll call tonight and see what else you need.”
    “Did you set up the meeting?”
    “Yeah. He wouldn’t say when. You know Carew.”
    “I know Carew, Is the phone line clear?”
    “It was last time I checked. With three relays set up so they can’t trace you. Carew knows where you are, but no one else can find out unless he tells them.”
    “Maybe,” he said. “You’re a good man, Clancy.”
    “I wish I could do more.”
    McKinley slid out of the car, pausing by the back door. Annie had discovered that the Toyota came equipped with child-safety locks, and there was no way she could open the door herself. She wasn’t a happy woman.
    He didn’t give her a chance to start arguing. He moved her out of the car and into thehouse, fast, before she could start yelling at him, and this time he had no choice but to touch her. He put his