“This isn’t—I wasn’t using it on someone; he was using it on me.”

“And you managed to get your hands under it? Excellent reflexes. However, it does beg the question…”

“Who the hell tried to garrote you?” Quinn said as he crouched and took my hand.

Jack waved him aside and took his place, then unrolled the bandage.

“Wilkes,” he said when I was slow to answer.

“Wilkes attacked you?” Felix said as he sat in a chair. “So he knows we’re in pursuit? That could lead to some difficulty—”

“Doesn’t know,” Jack said. “Picked Dee as a victim. She—” A hard look my way. “Lured him in.”

Before anyone could comment, Evelyn walked from the other room. As Felix and Quinn greeted her, Jack inspected the cleaned wounds.

“So you decided to join the hunt,” Quinn said, flashed a smile at Evelyn. “Getting a little too exciting to ignore? I bet—Ah, wait. The anonymous ‘concerned party’ who’s paying our wages. Guess I should say thank you.”

Evelyn said nothing, but from the look that crossed her face, she had no idea what Quinn was talking about. I’d never suspected Evelyn was the person funding the job—she wouldn’t hire a group of hitmen for a nonprofit expedition. But if it wasn’t her…

“Stop squirming,” Jack said. “Gotta get this fastened.”

Quinn sat on the sofa. “So Dee lured Wilkes into a showdown?” He grinned my way. “Way to go.”

Jack shot him a look, but Quinn continued, “You went mano a mano with the infamous Helter Skelter killer. The first victim who fought back. Did he say anything? Too busy getting his heart out of his throat, I bet.”

Jack scooped up the bloodied cloths, wrapped them in the empty bag for later disposal and took them back to his room. I crouched to clean up the first-aid supplies. Quinn slid down beside me to help. As he leaned over for the scissors he whispered, “I’m jealous.” I laughed. We both reached for the spare tape roll. I got to it first, but he pretended not to notice and grabbed for it, ending up with my wrist instead. A quick grin and quicker squeeze, and he released me.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it later,” he said.

I smiled. “We’ll see.”

As I straightened, I caught Evelyn watching us.

“When Jack called us in, he said you have a plan,” Felix said. “Care to share?”