Something was crawling on the floor beside the bed and she prayed it stayed there.But the scritch-scratch of toenails on hardwood flooring was impossible to ignore.She kept telling herself that as long as she couldn’t see what was making the noise, then she couldn’t be afraid.
And then the air shifted, and another sound blended with those in her head and she tensed.That was the door!Someone was inside the room.Casey had learned a trick from Delaney early on in her life to take control of a situation by being the first to speak.She saw no reason to change her strategy now.
“I would like a drink of water.”
A low, ugly chuckle centered itself within the waiting silence and Casey gasped.That didn’t sound like her abductor.Someone else had entered the picture.
“Casey, Casey, ever the prima donna, aren’t you?Tied up like a sow going to market and still giving orders.Now what do you suppose it would take to bring you to your knees?”
“Lash?”
The blindfold was yanked from her face.
Casey blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision as her eyes adjusted to the change in light.Lash leaned down and pinched the sides of her cheeks with his thumbs and fingers, squeezing and squeezing until speech was impossible and tears sprang to her eyes.
“That’s it.Cry for me, honey.Show me you care.”
Casey jerked, trying to free herself from his grasp, and then to her surprise, he turned her loose and shoved her, sending her sprawling.Before she could think, he had untied her ankles and straddled her legs.
Panic shafted through Casey’s mind.Lash’s intentions were all too plain.And when he leaned forward, pressing the palms of his hands against the swell of her breasts, she groaned and wrestled with the ties still binding her wrists.They wouldn’t give.
“Lash, for God’s sake, don’t.”
His slap ricocheted off the side of her jaw.“You don’t tell me what to do.I’m the one in control.I’m the one who calls the plays, princess, and right now, I’m going to take a little of what was rightfully mine.”
His fingers curled in the top of her blouse, and when he yanked, buttons flew, hitting the wall and scattering across the floor.Something scurried out from under the bed and Casey knew that one good thing had come from Lash’s arrival.At least that creature was gone.If she only knew how to get rid of this one for good, she would never ask for anything again.
He laughed, and then grabbed at the hem of her skirt as adrenaline surged through him.This was power.He wished he’d thought of it sooner.At last he felt like a man.
Casey kicked and bit and screamed until her throat was hoarse.It served no purpose other than to arouse him more.His hands were at the juncture of her legs when the room began to grow dark before her eyes.A fresh sheen of perspiration broke out on Casey’s skin as the sensation of fainting became imminent.Horrified at what he would do if she was unconscious and helpless, Casey thought of a prayer that didn’t make it aloud.The darkness in the room was growing, and it was beginning to pull her in.
Her submission was so unexpected that Lash also paused, wondering what trick she was trying to pull.But she was far too limp and far too still for a joke.Frustrated that she would not be awake to suffer his touch, he thrust a knee between her legs, readying to shove himself in as well.And then Casey began to speak.
Surprised, he looked down.Her, eyes were still closed.She was still limp—almost lifeless.And he would have sworn the voice that he heard was not her own.
Her breathing had slowed, and at first glance, she seemed to be asleep.But the words pouring out of her mouth were fluent in cadence, foreign in sound and speech, universal in intent.One brief, staccato sentence after another, she was invoking a curse of such magnitude upon Lash Marlow’s head that he couldn’t do anything but stare.Word after word, the curse continued, pouring upon every living person hereafter who might carry an ounce of his blood in their veins.Spoken in the old patois of French-speaking slaves, the threat became even more insidious as the promises continued.
Lash jerked his hand back from her legs as if he’d been burned.Pale and sickening, a cold sweat suddenly beaded upon his face.Lash was a true son of the south.He’d been born and bred in the ways of the past.He, too, spoke French like a native, and although he was a well-read, highly educated man, there was that part of him that had grown up believing in curses and superstitions and extremely bad luck.
“Shut up!Shut up!”His scream rent the air as he drew back and slapped her in the face.
It was after Casey tasted her own blood that she took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
Horror crawled up the back of Lash’s spine.The woman looking out at him from Casey’s face wasn’t the green-eyed woman he’d known and coveted.This woman’s eyes were black, and she was staring at him from hell.
He grabbed at his clothes, scrambling to get off of her legs and away from her body like a man gone crazy.When he was on the other side of the room, he pointed a finger toward where she lay and told himself it didn’t matter.Words were just words.She couldn’t stop the success of what he’d set in place.But everywhere he moved, her eyes followed him, staring—blaming—reminding him of what she’d just said.
“Say what you will, you stupid bitch,” he growled.Then he laughed.But it was a nervous, jerky sort of bark.“Day after tomorrow it will all be over.I’ll be rich, and you’ll be dead.”
And then he was gone, and while she lay on the bed, she came to an acceptance she didn’t understand.Even though she was locked in this room and helpless in the face of her abductors, for a while, she had not been alone.Instead of being afraid, she took comfort in the knowledge.All she could remember was feeling sick and then falling into a deep, black hole.What had transpired after that, she could only guess, but she knew she had not been raped.And in the face of all that, it still wasn’t the biggest horror of all.
Lash Marlow had purposefully let her see his face.She closed her eyes.She would never see Ryder again.
* * *
It was 3:00 a.m.when the knock sounded on Ryder’s front door.Half in and half out of a weary doze, he staggered to his feet and made his way through the darkened rooms, turning on lights as he went.He grabbed the doorknob and jerked.
Roman walked inside, tossed a suitcase on the sofa and kicked the door shut behind him.Brother to brother, the two men looked at each other, judging the changes in each that the last few months had made.Finally, it was Roman who broke the silence.
