Disturbance by Jan Burke Page A

ranger will drive past in an hour or so. But what if, down the line, one of us gets caught? Anyone who happens to be walking through this section of the park today might recall having seen us together.”
    “We’re all intelligent enough to talk our way out of a situation like that,” Quinn said.
    Donovan decided not to say more. He did not believe in wasting his breath and was unhappy with himself for taking the time to express his displeasure in the first place.
    Kai looked between them, then said to Quinn, “So let’s get down to business. Why are we waiting?”
    Quinn frowned in irritation. Clearly, Donovan thought, Quinn expected to be the alpha dog here. Kai had better watch out—Quinn wouldn’t tolerate his younger brother nipping at his heels.
    “It has taken me a while to get hired there. But I’m on staff now. I’ll be in touch with you soon for your help.” He turned to Donovan. “What has she been doing?”
    “What you’d expect a reporter, even a former reporter, to do. She’s investigating.”
    “Close to anything?”
    “She may be. She’s extremely thorough. She spent the first two weeks not doing much, she’s spent the last two weeks asking questions of people who knew Marilyn Foster.”
    “Let me get rid of her now,” Kai said.
    “I’ll find another outlet for your impulsiveness, Kai,” Quinn said.
    “I don’t need your help.”
    “No, you don’t.” Quinn quickly changed tacks. “You know I respect your abilities, Kai. But I’m sure you can imagine why Daddy Dearest wants her for himself.”
    Kai subsided.
    Donovan wondered if Kai would ever figure out that by saying “let me” to Quinn, he had already placed himself in subservience to someone who should not be trusted with control. Watching how Kai interacted with Quinn—he now sat brooding, tapping his fingers on the tabletop in impatience—Donovan doubted his capacity to make that evaluation.
    Quinn spent the next forty minutes laying out plans and giving them a set of signals and code phrases. Donovan wanted to laugh in his face, to tell him he was no James Bond. But he merely listened and replied as briefly as possible whenever a response was asked of him. His own part in these affairs came near the end of the plan, which was more than fine with him. He didn’t demonstrate the depth of his boredom. To do so would be as revealing as to show too much interest.
    Kai, on the other hand, had quickly changed moods, and now eagerly drank in every detail, clearly engrossed. Let him develop a case of hero worship, then. Donovan didn’t need this sort of foolishness.
    He considered walking off, simply as an experiment, to watch them lose self-control and behave rashly. He spent a pleasant few moments fantasizing his own reaction at that point.
    Quinn, ever the showman, brought his attention back by saying, “I should have told you this long ago, but—we aren’t alone.”
    “What are you saying?” Kai demanded, looking around.
    “Why, that we have another brother,” Quinn said.
    “And you’ve been dealing with him secretly, is that it? Well, I don’t like it! Who is it?”
    “Forgive me, Kai. I think it best—really, you will soon thank me—if I don’t tell you any more. You won’t be meeting him in any case.”
    Kai ranted for a while, seemed to notice that Donovan was showing no emotion, and turned to him. “Why are you letting me do all the arguing? Don’t you care?”
    “No,” Donovan said.
    Kai seemed almost ready to leap across the picnic table but checked himself, studying Donovan again. “Why not?”
    “For all I know, in the years he lived here, Nick Parrish could have fathered a dozen brats. There are doubtless others in other cities. I should add, since Quinn has started thisconfessional mode, that for all Quinn knows, I may know others myself. Perhaps they aren’t all brothers.”
    He was pleased to see a fleeting little widening of Quinn’s eyes. He had worried and surprised him. Good.
    Quinn