“Where’s your other man?” Ty asked English.
“Kid duty.”
Ty walked over to him and handed him his gun back. He held up the backup. “I’m keeping this ’til I can find a better one.”
English nodded reluctantly.
“Get all these people into a room and keep them there. Preferably one without a carving on the wall of an angel attached to a ball and chain.”
“Pardon?” English asked, his tone flat and tired.
“Just . . . roll with it.” Ty checked his clip, then shoved the gun into his belt. “We’ll be back with more weapons. Keep everyone calm.”
Ty turned to his men, casting a stray glance at Nick to make sure he hadn’t truly snapped. Nick was smiling crookedly at him, though. Ty had to fight against his own smile. Nick had obviously enjoyed that a little too much.
He gave orders as they left the sunroom and emerged into the darkened great hall. “Round up all the weapons, and any stray guests or staff you run across. The kids are in the nursery on the third floor, get them down here.”
Nick and Kelly both gave him curt nods and jogged off toward the grand staircase. Ty and Zane followed the light of Zane’s phone toward the room they’d seen on their tour the first day, where stag heads and stuffed birds mingled with hunting rifles and antique weaponry.
“What the hell?” Ty said as they walked. “Why would she go bonkers now? No one was onto her.”
“I don’t know. Maybe she thought we had more than we did, took the offensive route.”
“Pft.”
“Not everyone can handle the cloak-and-dagger shit like you can, Ty.”
“No, but if Nikki Webb was the woman who killed Milton on the beach and the cook in the kitchen, she had a man with her. How the hell does Kline fit in? That means we have three killers on the island. And the Snake Eaters can’t fucking be trusted.”
“Right.”
“As soon as we get armed, we’re taking Amelia and keeping her with us.”
“Agreed.”
They took a wrong turn and had to backtrack, getting confused with all the lights out. Zane insisted he knew where they were, though, and Ty trusted his mental maps to get them there.
“Okay, so was that crazy or savvy?” Zane finally asked.
“What?”
“Nick. Is he pretending to be crazy to scare people into telling him the truth? Or is he actually crazy and scary?”
Ty winced, shrugging. “Sometimes I don’t know.”
Zane snorted. “That was ruthless. It was kind of hot.”
“Don’t fucking start with me, Zane. I’m not even kidding.”
Zane laughed, but went quiet when they found the door to the room ajar. A sense of impending doom began to settle in Ty’s stomach.
Zane turned his light off, and Ty toed the door open. There was just enough light still coming through the windows for him to see the broken glass of the empty gun cabinet.
“Well, that can’t be good,” Zane whispered.
Nick let Kelly lead them to their rooms to gather all the weapons they’d packed. Nick trailed to a stop in front of Nikki Webb’s door.
Kelly turned and gave Nick a questioning shrug. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to search her room.”
“But Six told us to—”
“Fuck what he told us, Kels,” Nick growled. “He’s not our Six anymore, and he’s wrong this time.”
Kelly looked stunned for a moment before nodding. He strode closer and grabbed Nick by his shirt, yanking him closer to kiss him. “I’ll meet you back here in five.”
Nick nodded, breathless as Kelly pulled away. He watched Kelly fade into the darkness, then turned to the room Nikki Webb and what’s her face, the Sun Tzu fan, had shared.
He knocked first, wishing he could remember the other woman’s name. She’d fucking spelled it for him, for Christ’s sake. There was no answer to his knock.
He knocked again, then waited a beat before trying the doorknob.
A sound from the stairwell halted him. He went still, cocking his head to listen. There was a thump upstairs, then a grunt and a quiet click. He crept toward the stairs, listening intently. The only sound he could discern was the soft whimpering of a small child. It was so distant he couldn’t tell if it was coming from upstairs, or from his memory of the past.
With a last look back at the hallway, he started up the dark steps to investigate.
When Ty did a head count of the people milling about in the dining room, he was alarmed to find only half the people on the island were present, and neither Nick nor Kelly were among them yet.
“Where the hell is everyone else?” he asked Deuce in a whisper that seemed to echo in the large room.