Three Fates

admiration, he watched it harden and chill. “You can go back to New York City and tell Anita Gaye she can kiss my ass on the way to hell.”
    “I’d be happy to, but I’m not here because of Anita. I’m a collector, and I have a . . . personal interest in the Fates. I’ll match whatever Anita’s paying your family and add ten percent.”
    “Paying us? Paying?” Her cheeks went hot with fury. Oh, when she thought of how everything inside her body had softened and hummed just with looking at him! “That thieving bitch. Now look! Look, you’ve got me standing over my own dead ancestor and swearing. Since I am, I’ll finish by telling you to go to hell as well.”
    He sighed a bit as she loped around graves and toward the road.
    “You’re a businesswoman,” he reminded her when he caught up. “So let’s try to have a discussion. Failing that, I’ll point out I’m bigger and stronger than you are. Don’t make me prove it.”
    “So that’s the way of it?” She whipped around on him. “You’re going to threaten and bully me? Well, try it and see if you don’t end up with another scar or two for your trouble.”
    “I just asked you not to make me bully you,” he pointed out. “Why did your brother go back to New York this morning?”
    “That’s none of your flaming business.”
    “Since I’ve just traveled three thousand miles to see him, it is my flaming business.” Rather than fight fire with fire, he kept his tone quiet and reasonable. “And I can tell you, if he’s gone to see Tia Marsh, he’s not going to get a very warm reception.”
    “A lot you know about it, as she’s paying his fare. As a loan,” she added with a sniff. “We’re not leeches or money-grubbers. And he’s been half sick since Gideon called to tell him about the murder.”
    “What?” This time his hand clamped like steel on her arm. “What murder?”
    She was mad as a hornet and because of it wanted to spit and kick at him. The bastard had stirred up something in her, had started stirring it from that first careless ahoy. But she saw something else in him now, something cold and determined. And that something else was hearing of murder for the first time.
    “I’m not telling you a bloody thing until I know who you are and what you’re about.”
    “I’m Jack Burdett.” He took out his wallet, flipped out his driver’s license. “New York City. Burdett Security and Electronics. You got a computer, you can do a Net search.”
    She took the wallet, studied the identification.
    “I’m a collector, just like I said. I’ve done some security work for Morningside Antiquities, and I’ve been a client. Anita dangled the Three Fates in front of me like bait because she knows it’s the sort of thing I’m interested in, and that I have a tendency to find things out.”
    As she continued to flip through his wallet, he struggled for patience. Then just nipped it out of her fingers, shoved it back in his pocket.
    “Anita’s mistake was in assuming I’d find them for her, or that she could break through my own security measures and keep track of my movements. Who the hell is dead?”
    “That’s not enough. I’ll do that Web search. Let me tell you something, Jack, I have a tendency to find things out as well.”
    “Tia Marsh.” He fell into step beside Rebecca as she strode down the hill. “You said she paid for your brother’s flight to New York. She’s okay, then?”
    Rebecca slanted him a look. “She’s fine and well as far as I can tell. You know her, do you?”
    “Only met her once, but I liked her. Did anything happen to her parents?”
    “No. It has something to do with someone else altogether, and I’m not giving you names until I’m sure you’ve no part in it.”
    “I want the Fates, but not enough to murder. If Anita’s behind that, it changes the complexion of things.”
    “You don’t sound as if you’d put such a thing past her.”
    “She’s a spider,” Jack said simply. “I liked her husband, did some work for him. I’ve done work for her, too. I don’t have to like all my clients. How did your brother get tangled up with her?”
    “Because she—” She broke off, scowled. “I’m not saying. How did you get Malachi’s name, unless she gave it to you?”
    “Tia mentioned him.” He walked in silence for a while.
    “Listen, you and your family seem to have a nice business going here,” he continued. “You should think about letting this go. You’re out of your