“Wait!”Wyandott shouted.
Ryder turned.“Do what I said,” he ordered.“Delaney and Fourth is halfway across town.I’ll be lucky to get there in fifteen minutes as it is.”
“I want one of my men in the back seat of your car.”
Ryder grabbed him by the arm and pushed him up against a nearby desk.His voice was shaking.“I don’t give a tinker’s damn what you want.That’s not your wife someone threatened to feed to the ’gators, it’s mine.Now put the damned bags in the car or I’ll do it myself.”
Roman peeled Ryder’s hands off of the agent’s jacket.“Easy, brother.He’s just doing his job.”
Ryder spun, his eyes blazing with anger.“Don’t push me, Roman.I’ve been hanging on the edge of reason for so damned long it hardly matters.”His voice broke.“If I lose Casey—”
“Put the bags in the car,” Wyandott said.“We won’t be far behind.”
Ryder pointed at Wyandott.“I don’t know who will pick up these bags after I’m gone, but if one of your men even sneezes in his direction and my wife dies as a direct result, I will kill him…and then you for giving the order.”
Wyandott’s face reddened, but he stepped aside.
Within seconds, Ryder was in the car and out of the driveway, leaving a cloud of dust and a group of men running for their cars to keep up.Roman watched from the step until they had all disappeared, and then he jumped in his car and drove out of the driveway in the opposite direction.He had his own agenda to follow.
Eudora watched from an upstairs window and then returned to her bed in tears.Downstairs in the library, Miles and Erica sat in uneasy silence, now and then venturing a glance at the other without voicing their thoughts.
Out in the kitchen, Tilly sat in a chair near a window overlooking the drive.Her posture was straight, her expression fixed.Only her eyes revealed her pain.They were wide and tear-filled as she watched for someone to bring her sweet baby home.
Everyone was waiting for a miracle.
* * *
Bernie Pike opened the door to Casey’s room as his partner, Skeet, entered carrying another plate of food and a can of some sort of cola.
“Last meal,” Skeet said, waving the plate in Casey’s direction.
The urge to cry was almost more than she could bear.If only she was somewhere else and lying in Ryder’s arms.But she didn’t cry, and she wasn’t in Ryder’s arms, and she crawled off of the bed with undue haste.She wouldn’t put herself in the position of giving Bernie and Skeet any more ideas than they already had.She didn’t know that Lash had threatened everything but death to them if they so much as touched a hair on her head.She didn’t know he’d saved that joy for himself.
“I thought prisoners were given a choice as to what they wanted to eat.”
Skeet chuckled and dropped the plate at the foot of the bed and tossed the unopened can of soda beside it.
“Sorry, sweet thing.You get beans and weiners.”
Casey glanced at the plate.The only thing good about it was that the small, lunch-size can of beans and weiners was still unopened.“And I was so hoping for your head on a platter.”
Skeet slapped his leg and laughed, then elbowed Bernie and laughed again.“She’s a hoot, ain’t she Bernie?It’s a damned shame Marlow is gonna ‘do’ her.”Before Casey could think to react, Skeet reached for her breast.“I still think I’d like a little taste of what she has to offer.What Marlow won’t know won’t hurt him, right?”
Casey grabbed the can of beans from the plate and bounced it off of his head.
Skeet ducked, but it was too late.He yelped in pain when the can hit the corner of his temple.Seconds later, she was flat on her back on the bed with Skeet on top of her.
“You bitch!I’ll make you…”
Bernie cursed and grabbed, pulling his partner off the woman and the bed.“Get away from her, dammit.You heard Marlow.You might want to part with your dillydally, but I don’t.Besides, you asked for it.”
Skeet’s rage was slow to subside as he considered whether or not Lash Marlow was capable of castrating anyone.Finally, he decided he didn’t want to test the theory enough to try again.
“You got about two more hours to play hell on this earth, then you can die on an empty stomach,” he yelled, and out of spite, took the can of beans and weiners and stomped out of the room.
Bernie looked at Casey and shrugged, as if to say it was all her fault, then shut the door behind him.The lock turned with a sharp, distinctclickand when they were gone, Casey dropped to the floor and pulled her knees up close to her chest.
For the first time since the ordeal had begun, she was losing all hope.And the worst was in knowing Ryder would never know how sorry she was for betraying him by the investigation.They’d parted in anger and she would die with that on her conscience.
