That shoot me part hadn’t been rehearsed. They hadn’t known there would be a gun involved. And though he was proud of her for the improvisation, he couldn’t quite believe how offhandedly she’d tossed that part in.

“Think you’re indispensable, do you?”

Given the shift of Libby’s head, she must have lifted her chin. “I know I am, or you wouldn’t be here. No one else knows these islands like I do, sir. Not now that you’ve killed Johnnie.” Also true, if she were who they thought.

The man took a step forward. Not so far that the splash of light fully reached him, but enough that Oliver could make out his general form. He frowned. The fellow Libby had described from the road to the Wights’ was tall, thin. This chap was average height at best, stocky. Either she’d been wrong in her description—which he doubted—or it wasn’t the same man.

Which meant what? That the other was lurking somewhere too? Or just that he’d sent someone else to do his dirty work tonight?

“Let me make this clear, luv. If you’re going to fail me anyway, then it doesn’t much matter, does it? Dead or alive, you’d do me just as much good. Only, making you dead would be considerably more entertaining than just showing up again empty-handed at my employer’s. So, you get me the silver the buyer wants. Or I make you dead. Yeah?”

The man couldn’t honestly expect Oliver to stay still at that. He surged over the ledge and landed quietly on the rocks, though he was careful to keep his arms out once he landed, proving he had no weapon. “That’ll be enough of the threats. She said she’d find what you want if you gave her the time, so give her the time. Artifacts don’t exactly wash ashore at the behest of men.”

“I don’t recall inviting you into the negotiations, brother dearest. And now that you’ve got me irritated again, I’d also like to point out that I don’t much appreciate the obvious trap you two were trying to set. I’m thinking a nice bullet to the leg might teach you a lesson.”

“Do it,” Libby interjected at once, “and you’ll be arrested in a heartbeat. We know these caves far better than you, sir. And we have people stationed at the only exit—they may not have been here when you came in, but they’re there now, I promise you. Hurt us, and this whole game is over.”

Silence echoed. But the man edged backward again. “Do that and you can kiss your commission good-bye.”