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.Edie glanced at her watch.“We have plenty of time to hike out of here, return to our hotel and catch a bite to eat, then drive to Providence.Lucky for you, I packed my passport.”“How fortunate,” Caedmon deadpanned as he reached for his field kit.The instant he leaned over, he experienced an excruciating burst of pain.He glanced down, flabbergasted to see an arrow protruding from his upper arm.CHAPTER 37Skata!How could he have missed his target? To kill a man, you must strike him in the head or the heart.A lesson learned on Panos Island.Enraged, Saviour took a deep breath, filling his nostrils with the scent of cedar.Remembering.Evangelos, stunned that Saviour had turned the bow on him, angrily pointed a finger at his boy toy.“What are you doing?”“Defending my honor,” Saviour calmly informed him.“You’re my little pousties.You have no honor.”“As to thialo! Although hell’s too good a place for you,” Saviour hissed, releasing the arrow, striking Evangelos in the upper thigh.The tycoon dropped to his knees, gasping.Saviour slowly walked toward him, a second arrow notched.“Beg.”“Yes.mercy, please.”Saviour clucked his tongue, disappointed.“I meant beg for forgiveness.”“I adored you.worshipped you like the god that you are.”“Liar.” Saviour calmly released his finger, the arrow flying into Evangelos Danielides’s left orbital socket.A perfect bull’s-eye.“Calm.Above all else, I must remain calm,” Saviour murmured, the memory imbuing him with newfound strength.If he kept his focus, he could accomplish anything he set his sights upon.Isn’t that what Mercurius always told him?Yes, focus.I must kill the Brit.“I will kill the Brit.”CHAPTER 38Christ Almighty!Grabbing Edie with his uninjured right arm, Caedmon pulled her under him just as several more arrows soared in their direction.“Caedmon, what’s happening?”“It’s raining bloody arrows,” he snarled, the projectiles bouncing off the granite and skittering into the gushing river beside the ledge.“We have to take cover.”With Edie tucked against his torso, Caedmon scooted backward onto the granite shelf that protruded from under their makeshift office, Yawgoog’s bridge comprising stacked and staggered granite slabs.While the maneuver got them out of the open, it gave them little more than an eighteen-inch bulwark to crouch behind.“Are you all right?”Edie bobbed her head, a stunned look on her face.“If you hadn’t.hadn’t leaned over when you did, the arrow would.would have.”Gone straight to his heart.As it was, the metal tip burrowed into his bicep.A flesh wound, albeit a painful one.Caedmon glanced over the top of the stone rampart just in time to see the archer briefly step into the open to launch his next salvo.He ducked.The arrow sailed past, plunging into the opposite bank.“Stay as low to the surface as humanly possible,” he hissed.“I’m going to scramble onto the ledge and grab my field kit.”“You can’t be serious!”“Dead.”Edie pointedly stared at the wooden shaft embedded perpendicular to his arm and the bloody circle of fabric that surrounded it.“Given that you have an arrow protruding from your body, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ are the two preferred answers.”“The first-aid kit and the GPS receiver are—”“In your knapsack,” she said over top of him.“I’ll get them.” She raised up slightly.Caedmon shoved his right hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down.“No! And the matter isn’t open for debate.”Not exactly thrilled by the prospect of becoming a human pincushion, he scurried over the granite ledge.The field kit was five feet away.He awkwardly crawled toward it.Just as his hand made contact with the nylon strap, a feather-tipped arrow came flying his way.Raising the kit to his face, he used it to deflect the arrow.Still holding the makeshift shield in front of him, he grabbed one more item—the plastic bag with Edie’s memory chip—before lurching over the side of the granite ledge.Edie snatched the canvas pack from him.Her normally pale cheeks splotched with uneven color, she removed the first aid kit and the GPS receiver.Taking a deep stabilizing breath, Caedmon grasped the wooden shaft of the arrow.“Wait!” She grabbed his wrist.“You can’t just pull it out.What if the shaft breaks away from the arrowhead? What if the arrowhead hits an artery?”“The tip isn’t anywhere near my brachial artery.And while it’ll make for a nasty puncture wound, I’ll live to tell the tale.” Gritting his teeth, he slowly pulled the arrow from his flesh.A small geyser of bright red blood gushed from his arm.He grunted.It hurt like hell.Eyes watering, he flung the arrow aside.“I didn’t think there’d be so much blood,” Edie said with a gasp.“Gauze! Hurry!”Another arrow soared toward them, striking next to the laptop computer.He watched as it bounced in their direction.An ominous sign.Edie, her hands visibly shaking, placed the end of the gauze roll on top of the puncture wound.“Are you sure it’s Lovett’s killer who’s taking aim?”“Quite.” The man had a face straight out of a Botticelli canvas; it wasn’t one that he would easily forget.Finished wrapping his wound, Edie tore the gauze from the roll with her teeth and knotted it off.“Okay.Now what?”“We take the plunge.”Her brows instantly shot upward.Eyes saucer-like, she turned toward the river.Flowing at a furiously fast rate, the current frothed and foamed as it pounded against the granite slabs.“Unfortunately, the river is our only means of escape.” He hurriedly shoved the GPS device into the same bag as Edie’s memory chip, along with the gauze roll and a tube of antibiotic ointment.He then checked to make sure his shirttails were tucked into his denim jeans before placing the watertight parcel inside his shirt, buttoning it to his chin.That done, he cinched his belt another notch.“So, how do we stop Rico Suave from following us downstream? All he has to do is jog along the riverbank and wait for us to get out of the pool.”“A diversion is required.” Leaning over, he retrieved the flare gun from the field kit.Plan hatched, he verified that a 12-gauge shell was in the barrel
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