Page 127 of Tell No One
“Piss off. You’re a hare’s whisker away from me hitting you.”
Barker smirked. “Go ahead. Then you’rereallydone.”
“Oh, I’m done anyway.” Delaney thumped him in the stomach, then drove his fist into his chin. Barker crumpled.
Henry was still talking to the chief superintendent and now a couple of policemen from Inverness, too, and he beckoned Delaney into the room. Two minutes later, they were done. Nothing but a fucking pissing contest.
“Thank you, Chief Superintendent, gentlemen. We appreciate your cooperation.” Henry, ever the diplomat, shook the policemen’s hands and they left.
“I need a car,” Delaney said.
“Why?”
“Where’s Tag been flown to?”
“Edinburgh. It’ll take you around three hours to drive there. Less than thirty minutes by helicopter.”
Barker came in holding his stomach. “He’s fired. He just punched me.”
Henry sighed. “You don’t have the authority to fire him and you probably deserved it. Just go. The pair of you are like children.”
Delaney flew to Edinburgh with Henry and Ahsan, who had asked Rafiq to meet him at the helipad at Edinburgh airport. Barker stayed behind to supervise the untangling of the castle’s affairs, and to collect information about this hunt and previous ones. Delaney wanted to forget the damn thing had ever happened. He rarely felt guilt, but he was feeling it now.
He and Henry were able to talk privately through their headsets without Ahsan listening in.
“One thing we did discover,” Henry said. “Saad paid the American, to kill Ahsan. Spencer inveigled an invite to join the hunt. We don’t yet have the details of how he managed that. Tag was included because he’d run from the pony event. Feely and Norbury needed him silenced.”
“Who talked?”
“Kareem. Apparently, they knew someone had tried to get into the computer at Harborne House.”
“Rafiq tried.”
Henry nodded. “I didn’t think they’d detect your work. But they thought it was Tag.”
Delaney gritted his teeth.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it but we were lucky they had this hunt arranged, otherwise they’d have just killed Tag once they got their hands on him, and the American would have killed Ahsan. Ironically, Norbury taking Ahsan and bringing him up here kept him out of the American’s crosshairs.”
“It doesn’t feel lucky for Tag.” He hadn’t forgotten that Tag had been taken from Wales by those who were on his own side and delivered into Norbury’s hands. Delaney wasn’t a forgiving person. “He’s a civilian. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near this.”
“I know. Wewillcompensate him. On top of what’s already been paid.”
Delaney huffed. “He’s been offered money time after time and received none.”
“This time it will be given to him. He asked for a charitable donation before he agreed to this, which has already been made.”
“I was supposed…”
“What?”
“I was supposed to be keeping him safe. I barely kept him alive.”
“My goodness, Delaney. Are you developing a conscience this late in life?”
Fuck you!For a moment, Delaney didn’t trust himself to speak.I am what you made me. I didn’t become this way all on my own.He’d told Tag virtually nothing of his background beyond joining the military. Not even his real name, and Tag had trusted him with what happened on the worst day in his life. Something he should never have told anyone. It didn’t matter that Delaney already knew. Tag hadtoldhim.What if it was too late to tell Tag anything? Because Delaney owed him that. If he was dead…
“What’s going to happen to Ahsan?” Delaney asked.
