On the Hunt

Dear God! Sarah?

She felt her stomach wrench as she started reading. By the time she finished the third letter, she felt the nausea beginning again and she had to stop for a few moments. Damn Taylor. Damn him. Damn him. She was shaking by the time she finished the fourth letter, but she still had three to go.

“You’re reading those hideous letters?” Kira looked up to see Fiona standing at the study door holding Mack’s leash. She was gazing in horror at the tears running down Kira’s cheeks. “Stop it! Do you hear me?” She ran across the room and deliberately threw her jacket over the letters on the desk. “I was afraid that you might get hold of them. That’s why I ran back down here when I found out you’d left your room. I knew I shouldn’t have lost my temper. Harlan always says I don’t know when to keep my mouth shut. But I never meant to let you see those letters. Harlan didn’t even want me to see them.” Tears suddenly poured down Fiona’s own cheeks. “But when Belson told me how Harlan had saved you, I wanted to find out what kind of monster Taylor really was. He killed my father, you know. People whispered about him around me, but Harlan wouldn’t talk about him to me.” Her trembling hand shoved the letters roughly aside. “And I found out, didn’t I? But I never meant for you to see them when I read all those ugly threats to you.”

“Not only to me.” Kira was trying to keep her voice from shaking. “I could have stood that, but what he said he was going to do to the people I cared about to punish me… that was horrible. I wanted to run and stop him.” She drew a deep breath. “And I will. It will just take time. It only hurt so much at first because of the shock. I don’t have that many friends, but those I do have, I try to keep and cherish. Taylor seems to have found out the names or addresses of most of them.”

Fiona nodded. “And it was my fault you found out. I had no business interfering in anything he says or does when he’s always so good to me.”

Kira shook her head. “It’s not all your fault. You were just trying to protect him, weren’t you? He shouldn’t have kept those letters where you could find them. He should have realized you’d be curious.”

“You’re being very generous,” Fiona said. “I don’t deserve it. But he would have trusted me not to go through his desk and intercept this garbage. I’d never done it before.”

“There’s always a first time, Fiona,” Harlan said coldly from the doorway. “And evidently you picked a hideous time to choose to do it.” His gaze was fastened on the notes scattered on the top of the desk and then to Kira’s tear-wet face. “I was going to leave the choice to her whether or not she wanted to read his poison pen letters.”

“I’m sorry,” Fiona whispered as she ran across the study and into his arms. “I shouldn’t have done it, Harlan. I was mad at her because Belson had told me how she’d treated you on the mountain. He said Taylor might have even managed to kill you while you were trying to save her. But then it was too late when I ran after her because I remembered she might stumble across those blasted letters. She’d already started to read them by then.”

“Did you actually believe I couldn’t take care of myself?” Harlan asked wearily. “Haven’t I taken care of you during all these years? I don’t think you’ve had any complaints. Right?”

“You know I haven’t.” Fiona buried her face in his shoulder. “I promise it won’t happen again.” She lifted her head and gazed across the room at Kira. “I apologize. And if there’s any way I can make things right, tell me.”

“There isn’t. You’ve already made things right,” Kira said. “You took care of my dog when he was ill. Both Mack and I are very grateful.”

“No, that was really Harlan,” Fiona said. “I just filled in now and then. However, now I have to pay my dues.” She gave Harlan a hug and headed for the door. “But he’ll give me my marching orders, won’t you, Harlan?”

“It depends on whether Kira decides you’re worth the bother.”

“I will be. Let me know when and where I can help.”

As the door closed behind her, Harlan started across the study toward the desk. “Sorry about that.” He gestured toward the notes scattered on the desktop. “I really did want to give you a choice whether you read Taylor’s nasty little missiles.”

“And they were nasty,” Kira said. “I wasn’t sure when you left me.” She shuddered. “But I had to find out. Then when I read what Taylor had written, I went into a form of shock. It was even uglier than I dreamed.”

“It was exactly what he wanted you to feel,” Harlan said grimly. “Every word. Every act he intended to commit. Don’t think he wasn’t sincere.”

“I won’t. I can’t afford to let anything happen to my friends, and most of those letters were aimed at them. The first thing I have to do is make certain that I can keep Sarah and John safe from him.”

“I can help make sure they will be taken care of. I have quite a few people on the payroll who will keep them from being victims of Taylor and company.”

“I’d rather do it myself,” Kira said bitterly. “But it’s not only friends and other people I care about whom he could be targeting. There have been wild rumors floating around lately that I located another sunken treasure several months ago off Egypt’s north coast. He mentioned that he was going to force me to tell him where it was located when I was fighting with him on the cliffs. He said that again in one of these letters.” Then her lips tightened. “There’s no way I’d ever let him get his hands on that or any other treasure. It would make him far too powerful. No one would be able to tolerate what he’d do to everyone around him.” She glanced at him again. “But you knew about the treasure, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t help but be aware of it from those letters. Plus, the media did a hell of a lot of coverage on that Spanish medallion treasure you located in the Caribbean last year. It was in all the magazines Belson threw at me to lure me to hire you. There was one article that particularly intrigued him. I imagine the treasure hunters who have been chasing after you over the years have been giving you a rough time?”

She shrugged. “Treasure hunting is more a hobby to me than anything else at the moment. Exciting, but my prime interest is my work with the dogs plus my work on age extension. That’s my prime job and vocation.” Her lips tightened. “But there’s no way I’ll let Taylor get near anything he wants ever again.”

“I’ll start working on that right away,” Harlan said lightly. “I can hardly wait.”

“I haven’t promised you anything,” Kira said. “Not yet.”

“But I have high hopes.” Harlan held her chair for her. “And now sit down. We’ll have dinner and then talk. Okay?”

“Maybe.”

“All you have to know is that I’ll keep your friends and mine safe and then we’ll find a way to bring Taylor down. Deal?”

“We’ll talk about it.”

“I regard that as an affirmative.”