“True, but it is how you wish to die that is your choice; agonizing pain or quickly.”
The young man babbled once again. “We were each hired by different people and sent to meet at a designated spot.”
“How many?” Cree asked.
“Four of us. One issued the instructions, though never gave us any reason why the woman was to die.”
Cree’s hand fisted and his stomach clenched.
“We would have been done with our mission and on our way if you hadn’t shown up,” the older warrior said with a bitter sneer. “Between Colum watching over her and you rutting with her so—”
The warrior’s head snapped back from the fierce blow Cree landed on his jaw. The second one came just as fast and sent his head lolling to one side where it stayed.
Cree turned away from the man, his eyes going to Sloan. “Revive him.”
Sloan took a bucket of water and threw it in the man’s face, then grabbed him by the hair and slapped his face until he opened his eyes.
“Who sent you?” Cree demanded coming to stand in front of the man again.
“Go to hell,” the warrior spat.
“Wrong answer.” Cree hit him again, only this time much harder. He split his bottom lip wide open and blood poured out. He stepped away from him for a moment and when he turned around he held a dirk in his hand.
The warrior started talking. “You’ll need to find the one we met up with and told us what to do.” He spit blood that was filling his mouth. “He has the information you seek.”
The younger man kept bobbing his head agreeing.
“He’s one of the two out there?” Cree asked.
The older warrior nodded. “A sly one he is. He’s walked among you and you didn’t even know it.” He grinned, blood covering his teeth. “Kill me now and be done with it. I’m tired of living this miserable life.”
“I’m not, I’m not,” the younger one begged. “I don’t want to die; please I beg you don’t kill me. I’ll join you. I’ll pledge my fealty to you, but please, please don’t kill me.”
Cree stepped away from them and nodded for Sloan to follow him. “Get Dorrie and bring her here,” Cree said for their ears only.
It didn’t take long for Sloan to return with Dorrie and when she stopped in front of Cree, she bobbed her head. “My lord.”
“Tell me if you recognize that man, Dorrie.” Cree pointed to the younger one.
Her eyes turned wide. “That’s Seth, the one who gave me the message for Dawn that night.”
Dorrie was whisked away by one of Cree’s warriors as he watched Seth’s demeanor change. Gone was the groveling, frightened young man and in his place was a warrior who held his chin high, his shoulders back and showed not an ounce of fear.
“How did you know?” Seth asked.
“You pleaded far too much for your life and this one,” —Cree nodded at the older warrior— “confirmed it for me when he told me to kill him. He knew that once this mission was done you would kill him.”
“How would you know that?” Seth asked.
“Because he was told the same thing and whoever arranged this no doubt hoped you would both finish each other off, leaving no one to tell the tale.”
Seth snapped his head to the side to look at the older warrior. “Were you told that, Rem?”
“Didn’t it for once cross your mind that if you were told to kill me that I had been told to do the same to you? Or did you think yourself better than me? Go on, keep protecting whoever hired you and suffer a miserable death. Me? I’ll go quickly and meet my maker.”
Seth strained with anger against his ties.
“Does Colum or Goddard have anything to do with this,” Cree asked.
“They are both fools,” Seth said, “and had not an inkling of why I had joined their worthless warriors. This all would have been over and done if Goddard hadn’t interfered and attacked Dawn that night, though I saw that he suffered for it. The wound will either kill him or he will suffer a limp for the rest of his miserable life.”
Cree was pleased to hear that, though he much preferred the previous fate to the latter.
“So Colum has no knowledge that someone wanted Dawn dead?” Cree asked.
“He was too caught up in filling his own coffers than caring about anything else. And since he and Goddard lingered in the area after your attack I assumed that he hadn’t had enough time to collect his wealth before he left.”
Cree had yet to find time to collect and discover what the chest contained that Old Mary had informed him about, though now he had a fairly good idea. He had however seen to making sure that the secret passageway had been secured.