He maneuvered out of the crowded lot, onto the crowded street. “It’s the word that pisses you off.”

“The insinuation of the term, yeah. I’m wired to learn, and you’ve got centuries of knowledge and experience stored up. But I get there’s knowledge and experience you don’t particularly want to revisit. So it’s a pisser to have what’s natural to me termed as something rude and heartless.”

“You can be rude, I don’t mind that. I’ve never thought heartless.”

He could breathe clear again when they drove out of the crowds, into the hills and fields.

“I admire the Declaration of Independence,” he said, “as a document created from human intellect, courage, and compassion.”

“I agree. Thanks.” Again she tipped down her glasses, gave him a smile with her eyes. “Best era for music.”

“You’re daring me to say the time of Mozart or Beethoven, and it was a time of brilliance and innovation.”

“No argument.”

“But I’m going to say the mid-twentieth century and the birth of rock and roll, because it’s tribal, and it comes from the loins. It’s seeded in rebellion.”

She pushed her glasses back up, sat back. “You have potential, McCleary. You have potential.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Since Sawyer stepped out of the house when Doyle pulled up, Riley called him over.

“Mission accomplished,” Sawyer said while Riley pulled out the pizza boxes. “Bran and I kicked around where to store all this—other than the pizza. We figured the sitting room, second floor, north side.”

“Attack comes at night, better on the bedroom level.” Riley nodded. “I’ve got dinner. You guys get the rest.”

She carried the boxes straight back to the kitchen, saw Annika and Sasha sitting out on the cliff wall drinking wine. Deciding she’d earned herself a glass of same, she poured one, stepped out.

“You’re back.” In invitation, Sasha patted the stones beside her. “Have a seat.”

“Sounds good, but you may want to come in, see what we bought.”

“I like pizza.” Annika jumped nimbly from the wall. “But I don’t think you bought something fun like a new dress. The rest is guns.”

“Yeah, and I know you don’t like them, but you should know what they are and where they are.” Riley looked at Sasha. “And you’re totally Katniss with the crossbow, but you need to be familiarized with the Rugers.”

“You’re right.” Sasha slid down, gave Annika’s hand a squeeze. “It was a nice break, to just sit for a while.”

“See any ravens?” Riley asked.

Sasha frowned. “Ravens?”

“I’ll explain. We actually picked up more than pizza and guns, in the information department.” She led the way in, considered, then grabbed the bottle of wine to take upstairs.

“While you were gone,” Annika began, “Sasha and I helped Bran. He’s making a fire shield.”

“Cool. Is that a shield against fire, or a shield of fire?”

“Both! You’re so clever.”

“If he pulls that one off, I’d say Bran wins the clever award.” She headed for the sound of male voices, and into the sitting room—handy between her room and Doyle’s—where the three men loaded boxes of ammo into an antique display cabinet.

“Edwardian,” Riley noted. “Circa 1900. Nice.”

“You do know everything,” Sasha commented.

“You gotta try. Not its original intent, but it works, and it’ll make it easy to keep track of inventory. Still, maybe we should take a share of it to the main level.”

“Doyle said the same.” Bran stepped back. “Kitchen panty, I’m thinking.”

“And that works, too.” Riley looked over as Sawyer unzipped one of the rifle cases. “It’s got a kick,” she told him.

“It looks very mean.”

Understanding, Riley gave Annika’s back a pat. “It is mean. We’re going to need mean.”

“You stick with your Wonder Woman cuffs.” At Sawyer’s comment, Annika rubbed the copper bracelets Bran had conjured for her. “You don’t have to touch these.”

For himself, Sawyer opened the terrace door, took the rifle out, tested its weight, dry fired a few times.

“We tested it at about fifty yards. We need to practice more distance.” Riley unloaded the second rifle herself, offered it to Sasha. “Get a feel.”

Long resigned to weaponry, Sasha took it. “It’s heavy.”

“Compared to your bow or a handgun, sure. But not for what it is. We’ll work in some practice tomorrow, after the dive.”

“We dive tomorrow.” The tension in Annika’s face dissolved. “This is much better. I can show you some caves, but the water will be much colder for you than the waters in Capri or Corfu.”

“We’ll manage.” Riley topped off Annika’s glass, Sasha’s, then her own. “What do you say, a box of each caliber, a quiver of bolts, down in the pantry? Rotate them from here as we go.”

Because he felt he’d earned a drink himself, and hers was handy, Doyle took Riley’s glass, downed half of it. “It’ll do. But I think now we should have bought a third rifle—he had a Remington in stock. We could keep that in the pantry, have another on the main level if needed.”