Hell, yes. "That's not why I needed the info. I just wanted to make sure that Ned would be okay with her."

"But you're thinking," Walt murmured.

He was silent a moment. "I may have to find a place for her."

"Why?"

"Even after I clean up here, Danner will send someone else, and they'll find out she took Ned."

Walt gave a low whistle. "My God, you made her a target."

"I had no choice. I had to have Ned cared for by someone I could trust."

"They'll try to kill her?"

"Only after they spend a good deal of time trying to find out what she knows."

"And you didn't warn her?"

"Ned had to be cared for."

"And that justifies the possible torture and murder of an innocent woman?"

He didn't answer the question. "I'll try to find a way to keep her safe. Danner won't make a move until he knows whether Ned and I are dead. If I move fast, I may be able to-"

"Keep her from getting killed but completely disrupt her life? If I were her, I'd go after you with a hatchet."

And Marrok wouldn't blame her, he thought wearily. But that didn't change anything. He'd done what he thought necessary, and he'd do it again. Devon Brady had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. She had to go with the cards dealt her.

The cards he'd dealt her.

"Be ready. I'll call you as soon as I make the kill." He hung up.

The kill. He didn't even know the name of the man whose life he was going to end tonight. It didn't matter. It wasn't as if he'd never killed a stranger before. When he was a sniper in the SEALs, he'd learned it was better if you didn't know the target or think of him with any degree of emotion at all. But tonight he was full of emotion that he couldn't control. He was going to enjoy the hell out of killing the son of a bitch who had shot Ned.