Read Online Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) by Rob Blackwell - Free Book Online Page B

side. Kyle stood up and brushed himself off. His eyes never left Kieran, who held the knife out in front of him.
    “You can’t win,” Kyle said. “Even if you stabbed me with that thing, I’d just turn into something else. Something worse. Why don’t you go back to waiting to die and I’ll make that happen for you? Then I can turn my full attention to Mr. Anderson.”
    “I want to talk to Kate,” Kieran said again.
    “Well, she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Kyle responded, and rushed Kieran.
    Kieran was thankful that after he fled Loudoun last year, he had at least kept himself in shape. Even with his terrible hangover and the lingering buzz from the vodka, his responses were quick. Kyle went for the knife, but Kieran grabbed his arm and used the momentum against him, turning Kyle around and wrapping his arm around his throat. Kieran held the knife point to Kyle’s neck.
    “Go ahead and try it,” Kyle said sneering. “Gut her like you did Quinn. It’s what you came here for, isn’t it?”
    “Would you like that, Kate?” Kieran asked. “Do you really want me to end it all?”
    Kyle struggled, but couldn’t break out.
    “I’ll make you a deal,” Kieran said. “You let me talk to Kate for five minutes and I’ll give her the knife when I’m done. If you want, you or she can kill me then.”
    “She doesn’t have to deal with you,” Kyle said. “She could turn into the banshee and be free immediately. She could scream at you until your head exploded from the pain.”
    “Then do it and be done with this,” Kieran replied. “All I’m asking is for her to hear me out. That’s it.”
    “She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Kyle responded. “Not after what you did.”
    “I can save Quinn,” Kieran said. “I can bring him back.”
    “She doesn’t believe you,” Kyle said.
    Kieran pushed Kyle away from him and threw the knife on the ground at his feet.
    “Then kill me,” he said. “Just know that you gave up your only chance at saving Quinn. Why else do you think I would come back, Kate? Why would I present myself for the Loudoun police to find, knowing full well that you would find out? I know Quinn’s death made you crazy, but did it make you stupid too?”
    Kieran watched as Kyle sneered, but the taunt appeared to finally work. There was another flash of light and Kyle was gone, replaced by Kate, who regarded Kieran with her icy, blue eyes.
    “You came back to finish your master’s work,” she said. “He wants you to kill me too.”
    “You really think I work for him?” Kieran said. “He betrayed me and left me to die at your hands.”
    “Lucky me,” Kate responded.
    “You can’t have it both ways,” Kieran said. “If Sanheim wanted you to kill me, I can’t still be working for him. Besides, do you really think he would send me here to sacrifice myself in the sheer hope you would spare me? Does that kind of half-assed planning sound like him?”
    “It was a bluff,” Kate said.
    “You could have killed me when I was lying on the ground. There was nothing stopping you. That’s no bluff.”
    “So what’s the plan, then?” Kate asked, her tone mocking. “You have my attention. What do you want? Did you finally grow a conscience? Or are you hoping to lull me into a false sense of security so I follow your insane scheme and get myself or others killed? It won’t work, Kieran. I’ll never trust you again. Never.”
    “Kate,” Tim interrupted. “He told me the plan. You should listen to him.”
    Kate barely glanced at Tim.
    “He stabbed Quinn in the back,” she said. “Did you know that, Tim? Quinn trusted this man and died by his hand. And now you want me to do the same?”
    “No,” Tim said. “All I want is to help you.”
    “Then help me kill him,” she said. “That’ll be a start.”
    “No, that will be the end, Kate,” Tim said. “I tried to tell you before. Killing him won’t bring Quinn back.”
    “And his crazy idea will? I haven’t even heard