Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

but not mine.”
    Archer’s mouth thinned into a bleak line. He had hoped to get Hannah out of here. He didn’t want to give her another nightmare, another close-up look at the part of him that reminded her of Len. But the time for arguing was over. Flynn was walking down the path toward them with the easy, ground-devouring stride of a strong, very fit male.
    He wasn’t alone. Tom Nakamori came along about thirty feet behind, losing ground with every step.
    “All right, mate,” Flynn said, walking up to Archer. “What’s so bloody important that—”
    Archer took him down with two blows that were as ruthless as they were measured.
    Hannah made a muffled sound of shock. There had been no warning. Between one heartbeat and the next, Flynn was on his back, gasping, trying to figure out what had happened to him. The prick of a pocketknife in the tanned skin just over his jugular told him. His eyes cleared and his body tensed.
    “Show me how bright you are,” Archer said. “Don’t try it. If you do, I’ll cut your jugular so that no one will be able to stop the bleeding. You know just how it’s done, don’t you?”
    Flynn’s expression said that he knew the technique. He lay in the dirt without moving. But he watched, waiting for an opening.
    “You’re too close to his feet, Hannah,” Archer said calmly. “Step back.”
    Without a word she retreated. “Far enough?”
    “Yes.” He never looked away from Flynn. “How did you kill Len?”
    “What?” Automatically Flynn tried to sit up. A stiff shot to his diaphragm changed his mind.
    Archer waited until the other man could breathe again before he repeated the question. “How did you kill Len?”
    “Bugger you,” Flynn said hoarsely.
    “That was your free one. The next wrong answer will hurt.” Without looking up, Archer said, “Don’t come any closer, Nakamori.”
    “Hai. Okay.” Nakamori stopped and looked from Flynn to Archer to the drops of blood that had started welling out beneath the knife point when Flynn tried to sit up. “He not kill McGarry.”
    “Qing Lu Yin says he did.”
    “He’s lying,” Flynn said flatly. “When I saw Len, he was already as dead as Kelsey’s nuts.”
    “Convince me,” Archer said.
    Flynn looked at the flat, metallic eyes of the man above him and wondered what it would take. “Once I got word of the storm coming, I didn’t go near the sorting shed. I was too busy.”
    “Doing what?”
    “Working on the rafts.”
    “Cutting them loose?”
    Flynn’s eyelids flickered. He knew what lying would get him. He didn’t know what telling the truth would bring. “Yes. We were cutting cables.”
    Though Hannah’s breath came in sharply, she didn’t say a word. She simply watched Archer and wondered if a man could be so merciless and still feel anything at all. Much less love. Len couldn’t. He hadn’t even wanted to.
    “Who was with you?” Archer asked calmly.
    Flynn let out a long breath. The truth hadn’t set him free, but it hadn’t killed him, either. “Tom.”
    Hannah looked at Nakamori. He didn’t meet her eyes.
    “Why?” Archer asked Flynn.
    “Why do you think? I paid him. He was getting more crippled every day. He wanted to go home in style.”
    “Nakamori,” Archer said. “Is it true?”
    “Hai.”
    “Who is paying you?” Archer asked Flynn.
    “None of your sodding busi—” The last syllable was a gasp of pain.
    Hannah’s fingernails dug into her palms, but she didn’t protest. She was still trying to absorb the fact that two men she considered trustworthy had been systematically sabotaging Pearl Cove.
    “Who is paying you?” Archer asked calmly.
    Flynn simply watched him with pale, glittering eyes. He wasn’t going to talk about his employer until there was more pain. A lot more.
    “I’ll assume it’s your government,” Archer said. “If I find out I’m wrong—and I will find out—we’ll talk again.”
    Flynn remembered what Maxmillian Barton had said about wanting to get a handle on Archer Donovan. He wished him luck. “We won’t be talking again.”
    Archer nodded. “Why did your employer want Pearl Cove destroyed?”
    “I’ve been sabotaging it a piece at a time since we decided that Len was selling out to the Chinese. The storm was a bonus. We could put paid to the whole business at once.”
    “Len didn’t sell any part of Pearl Cove to the Chinese or to anyone else,” Hannah said. “He didn’t trust anyone.”
    “Then the Chinese were taking