Death in High Places by Jo Bannister

think—if Beth thinks—you’ll have a better chance if we split up, I’ll make a run for it.”
    â€œThat’s not what I asked.”
    â€œNo.” Still he hesitated. “Okay. Then, I don’t know how long your shutters will keep out bullets, but they’ll do it for longer than my skin will. If I get a choice, I’ll stay here.”
    â€œFine. Good,” said McKendrick.
    Beth stared at him as if he’d given away her birthright—which perhaps, in a way, he had. “You’d protect him? You’d put our lives on the line to protect him ?”
    McKendrick nodded. “I brought him here. What happens now is my responsibility. I’m not throwing him to the wolves as the price of our safety. For one thing, I think he’s right—I doubt it would work.”
    â€œLet’s try it and find out.”
    â€œNo. Sorry, Beth, but when it comes right down to it, this is my house and I’ll extend whatever protection it can offer to whoever I choose. If I’m going to die today, I don’t want to go trying to appease a hired killer. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, but I don’t think I’ve done much to be ashamed of. That changes if I open the front door and push Horn through it. Even if he’s wrong and you’re right, and we could save ourselves that way, it’s too high a price. I’m sorry.”
    If it had been someone else—anyone else—she’d probably have agreed with him. She was a strong and determined woman, who’d faced the prospect of death and the idea that there are things worth dying for when she first started climbing. No one needs to risk their neck on the snow and ice and crumbling rotten rock of a mountain ascent. They do it because the emotional payback of success is worth the possibility of disaster.
    McKendrick believed with all his heart that if it had been just the family here, or if they’d found themselves protecting some luckless fugitive whose life and struggles she knew nothing about, his daughter would have applied herself to the task with a courage and dignity that would have made him proud. That it was only her hatred of Horn, that soul-consuming passion she could see neither through nor past, that made her think that buying her life with his was a bargain.
    â€œWhat the hell are you thinking?” she yelled, the chestnut braid flying in her rage. “Maybe you have the right to risk your own life, however worthless the prize—but it isn’t just your life you’re risking, is it? I’m your daughter—Uncle William’s your brother. And you’re prepared to sacrifice us all, and for what? That? That abject apology for a man? A deadweight who cut his best friend’s rope when the going got tough?”
    â€œBeth,” said McKendrick softly, “can’t you see that you’re proposing to do exactly the same thing? To cut Horn loose because trying to save him will put us in danger? At least Horn and Patrick were friends, and they were up on Anarchy Ridge because they couldn’t think of anywhere they’d rather be. Can’t you see, it would be so much worse to do it to someone you didn’t care about? Someone who never chose to put his life in your hands?”
    The comparison hurt her womb-deep. The mere mention of her lost friend’s name brought bitter tears to her eyes and her voice. “I don’t know how you can say that to me.”
    â€œBecause we’re up against the wall here,” said McKendrick apologetically. “It’s my fault and I’m sorry. If I could go back and do it differently, I would. I never thought for a moment that what I was doing could have any implications for you. You must believe that. I would never willingly put you in danger. You matter more to me than anything. I hoped one day you’d understand that, but if we’re running out of one days …”
    He