The Immortal Hunter(52)

"Didn't I?" Decker interrupted grimly.

Dani raised her eyebrows and asked solemnly, "Did you?"

He turned his face away and admitted, "I've spent fifty years trying to figure that one out." Decker pushed himself away from the stall and paced, adding, "At the time, I didn't know who Barbara was or what had happened. She was just a strange dead woman in his arms. Nicholas was my cousin. He'd been like a big brother when I first moved here from Europe, putting me up, helping me find a place and settle in. He was the one who showed me the ropes when I became an enforcer. Maybe some part of me did know he'd run... and let him."

Dani shook her head. "You're second-guessing your motives, Decker, when the truth is, there might not have been any. If you thought that highly of him, you had to have been in shock over what he'd done. Anyone would be."

"But-"

"And even if you weren't, even if you did know he would run, it doesn't make you responsible for the deaths of Barbara Johnson, her child, husband, or parents. That deed was down to Nicholas, and it was done before you got to him. You aren't responsible for those deaths."

"And what about the mortals he may have killed since then?" Decker asked quietly.

Dani hesitated, a frown claiming her lips. She didn't really believe Decker had intentionally let Nicholas go. She suspected he just felt so guilty the man had escaped that he was blaming himself for all of it. She understood that, but it didn't make it right. The only one responsible for anything Nicholas had done that day and since was Nicholas himself.

"And what about those women in the ravine and your sister?" Decker added, drawing her from her thoughts. "What if Nicholas was running with that group and just claimed to be hunting them to get the opportunity to escape?"

Dani immediately began to shake her head. "I don't know what happened that day when he killed Barbara. Maybe he snapped, maybe he ripped her throat out, but I still don't believe the man I talked to on the phone was running with those animals, or had anything to do with our being kidnapped and taken. He led you to us, Decker," she said almost pleadingly. "He helped save me, and chased after the rogue when he took my sister. I have to believe that... It's all I've got to hang on to."

Decker sighed, his shoulders sagging under the weight of a guilt she knew she couldn't remove. It would be a monkey on his back until he caught his cousin, or perhaps even until he died.

"Right," he said wearily, moving past her to head out into the open area. "I guess we should head back to the house."

Dani followed slowly. There was no reason to avoid him anymore. He'd told her what she'd tried so hard to avoid hearing. They might as well go back to the house. Perhaps once there she could persuade him to sleep, she thought, and then noticed that he'd stopped in the open door and was peering out with a frown. That was when she became aware of the steady ping of rain on the metal roof overhead. She'd been so caught up in their conversation and her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed it when it started. Now she wondered how long it had been coming down.

"We're going to have to make a run for it," Decker said as she reached his side. "I think it's about to really pour."

Dani nodded and took the hand he offered her, and then glanced up wide-eyed as the steady ping suddenly turned into a loud drumming. She turned her gaze out the door to see that it was now almost as dark as night outside, and that the rain was coming down in sheets.

"Maybe we should wait until it slows down again," she suggested.

Decker hesitated, watching as the sky lit up with lightning. It was followed shortly afterward by a loud crack and then a rumble as thunder rolled overhead, and he nodded. "Yeah. We'll wait it out."

Taking back her hand, Dani turned to lead the way to the bales stacked against the wall. She seated herself on one and plucked a piece of straw from it, then watched him slowly move to join her.

They sat in silence for several minutes and then-unable to stand it any longer-Dani asked, "Is your last name Argeneau or Pimms?" When he glanced at her with surprise, she added, "You didn't seem to be sure when we first met."

He smiled wryly and then plucked a bit of straw out of the bale and began to toy with it. "I was born Decker Argeneau Pimms. My mother is an Argeneau. The Pimms comes from my father. But we've always switched between the two names."

When she raised her eyebrow in question, he explained, "Our kind tend to have to move every decade or so. People get suspicious when you don't age after that period, so we move. Our family also switched between the name Argeneau and Pimms every century or so too. This century they're using Argeneau. At least my parents and sisters are. I'm not sure about my brothers."

Dani wondered about that comment, unable to imagine not knowing what names her brothers and sisters were going by, but merely asked, "How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"Three younger sisters and three older brothers," he answered easily.

"You have an even larger family than we do," she said with a smile.

"Only one more," Decker said with a shrug. "And we aren't as close as your family appears to be. It's the age difference," he explained.

"How old are they?"

"Let's see." He paused to think and then said, "Elspeth was born in 1872 and Julianna and Vicki-they're twins," he explained. "I think they were born in 1983."