Authors: Kay Hooper
Teddy had never been so afraid of a man in her life.
In a conversational tone he told her, “It’s a pity you got involved in this. Your lover means to interfere in my work, and I can’t allow that. You understand, don’t you? It’s purely business. I must have those guns. Oh, he told you, didn’t he, about the guns? Certainly he did.”
Clay Ryan studied her appraisingly. “You’re his Achilles’ heel. Lucky that I discovered that.”
Keep him talking!
Teddy thought. “How did you—”
“How did I discover that? You forget, sweetheart. I was the one aiming the gun yesterday morning when you took the bullet
meant for him. Odd, isn’t it, that you and I were the ones wounded, while he remains unscathed?”
For the first time Teddy noticed the bulge of a bandage under his shirt. On his left arm. Just like her.
Ryan was smiling his empty white smile, and his eyes roved over her body with an enjoyment that sickened her. “Pity we don’t have more time,” he murmured.
Teddy stiffened when he bent down suddenly, but he only grasped her uninjured arm and pulled her up off the bed. Everything about him repelled her, particularly the heat of his body when he stood behind her at an open window.
She barely listened as he shouted his message to Zach, trying desperately to think of some way out of this. It was then she became conscious of the heavy weight of her purse against her hip; she had slung the strap across her chest, bandolier fashion, before leaving the cave with Zach.
The weight of it told her that Ryan hadn’t bothered to search the purse, and so hadn’t found her dart pistol. It was a piece of luck she hadn’t counted on.
But with her hands tied behind her back, there wasn’t a chance she could get to the pistol and use it, even if he left her alone to try. The penknife … maybe if she could get to that … but with her hands tied—
There was nothing she could do, and her only comfort was the knowledge that at least two other men waited outside the house with Zach. They’d keep him from being reckless, she thought. They
would
.
Even with some knowledge of the kind of man Ryan was, Teddy wasn’t prepared for what happened then. She hadn’t realized that Ryan had crawled into Zach’s head quite so thoroughly and that he had a shrewd idea of just what was needed to paralyze his enemy at least temporarily. Not just the knowledge that Zach’s woman was being held as hostage but
that Ryan would hurt that woman without compunction.
Teddy wasn’t braced for the blow, and when Ryan’s big fist struck her wounded arm and sent pain knifing all the way to the top of her skull, her scream was pure reflex.
When the drawn-out cry of agony reached the three men outside, it wasn’t at all clear to Josh and Lucas that they could hold back their friend. Only Josh’s quick, urgent reminder to Zach of the danger to Teddy of storming the house kept the big man still. And even then, the muscles of his powerful frame bunched and rippled in a blind response to his rage and his fear for her.
“We have an edge,” Josh was saying firmly. “He thinks you’re out here alone, and one man can attack from only one direction. We’ll get her out, Zach.”
They were all distracted then—even Zach—
by the rumbling of a big truck pulling into the drive from the main road.
To Lucas, Josh said, “Call Rafferty. Have him get airborne and follow the truck when it leaves here. Cautiously.”
“Right.” Lucas melted into the trees, heading for the vehicle he’d hidden off the road.
Josh returned his attention to Zach, speaking in the most even voice he could manage and concentrating all his powerful will on the determined effort to hold his friend just this side of sanity as long as possible.
He didn’t think he could manage it for long with Teddy in danger.
“Ryan would have disabled your Jeep and my car, too—which, if we’re lucky, he’ll believe is Teddy’s. Lucas has a van, so we’ve a way out of here once we get Teddy. He’s holding her as a threat to keep you from interfering, but he isn’t likely to take her with him. He’ll want the truck to get a head start, and he can’t mean to be far behind himself. Think, Zach. Is there
anything in that house he could use to keep us here and make it impossible for us to get to Teddy even after he leaves?”
Zach was staring toward the house, watching as three men busily moved between the house and truck carrying bundles and boxes. After a moment he spoke in a flat, mild tone. “Explosives. And he knows how to use them.”
“So do we,” Josh reminded him matter-of-factly. “You’ve defused more than one bomb, and so have I. And you did enough background on Ryan to have found a pattern if there is one. Is there? I know he uses a different method with every job, but how about with explosives? He’s used them before, more than once. Does he favor any one type?”
It didn’t appear as though Zach were listening, but he responded to the question in the same level, docile tone. “Plastic explosives. Enough to bring the house down. Timed-fuse or remote-control detonator.”
Josh looked at him worriedly. “All right,
then we know what we’ll have to deal with. We can handle it, Zach. We’ll get her out safely.”
“Yes,” Zach said.
The pain in her arm had settled to a dully throbbing ache, but Teddy was unable to think clearly again until she found herself tied securely to the bed. She heard voices from downstairs, the rumble of a truck pulling up at the front door, and looked up at Ryan as he tied her wrists tightly to the headboard. She wondered vaguely when he had untied them behind her back and then retied them, disgusted with herself for a missed opportunity even though she probably couldn’t have taken advantage of it.
Ryan was strong.
“You don’t know what you’ve done,” she whispered, only half aware of speaking at all.
He laughed curtly. “I’ve quite effectively hamstrung your lover, sweetheart. He won’t dare rush the house or interfere in any way
with my plans. His Jeep is disabled and so is your car, and the communications equipment he has is useless to him.” Ryan gagged her securely with a strip of white cloth, then patted her cheek consolingly.
“But don’t worry. Steele will hike to the nearest phone and call an army up here, so you won’t have to wait too long all by your lonesome. You’ll certainly be his first priority, and I’ll be getting my stuff out of here while he worries about you. Bye, sweetheart.”
Teddy stared at the door as it closed behind him. The gag prevented her from making a sound, but her thoughts were clear.
Fool. He
is
an army.
It took half an hour for the big semi to be loaded, and the watchers counted all three of Ryan’s men and the driver in the truck when it pulled out again.
The house looked deserted, only the single
car Ryan and his henchmen had used remaining in the drive.
Without a word Zach had left to go back up to the cavelet, and Josh made no effort to stop him. Lucas, who had just returned from making a cautious circuit around the house, got back in time to see the big man disappear into the woods.
“Where’s he going?”
“To get his tools.”
“Which tools?” Lucas asked warily.
“The ones he designed for precision work. You want to bet Ryan hasn’t got the house wired?”
“Not really, no.” Lucas sighed. “Boss, I think he’s gone already. Ryan. I couldn’t find any fresh tracks, and there’s no sign of another car, but I think he got out somehow. It just
feels
like he’s gone.”
Musing, Josh said, “He wouldn’t have given Zach a final warning. Wouldn’t have threatened to blow the house up with Teddy in it if Zach came too close.”
“He wants Zach dead,” Lucas agreed. “He’d expect him to go in after Teddy sooner or later.”
“Ummm. And he wouldn’t have wanted to travel with that stolen artwork—but
would
have wanted to keep a close eye on it. Call Rafferty again.”
“Find out if there’s somebody following the truck? Gotcha.” He hesitated on the point of leaving. “Boss? I’ve only seen Zach this way once before, and you stopped him then. D’you think—?”
“No. Not this time.” Unemotionally, Josh said, “Clay Ryan’s a dead man.”
Lucas opened his mouth to speak, apparently thought better of it, and went to call Rafferty.
Out of an automatic sense of caution Josh tested the direction of the wind before lighting a cigarette. He stubbed it out a few moments later when Zach appeared silently at his side. “Lucas thinks Ryan’s flown the coop,” he advised tersely.
“He has good instincts.” Zach’s opaque gaze flickered toward the house and the hand holding a large leather pouch tightened until the knuckles shone white. “Teddy …”
In the same bracing tone Josh said, “Inside is our bet. She’s bait, Zach, to get you in there.”
Calmly, Zach said, “It’s working.”
To Josh, that was unnecessary information. “He hasn’t had time to rig up anything fancy, Zach. I mean, he may well have the house wired top to bottom, but he hasn’t had time to—to booby-trap a hostage.”
Still utterly calm, Zach said, “So getting in without setting off a bomb will be the trick.” He rose abruptly. “I have to go now.”
“Zach—”
Beneath the layers of icy cold, Zach’s mind was working methodically. “If I were him,” he mused softly, “I would have rigged no more than a fifteen-minute fuse. Time enough to realize he had gone. Time enough to get inside the house. There’ll be a secondary bomb rigged and hidden. Not time enough to find and
defuse that. And not time enough for me to find Teddy and get her out.”
Rising, Josh said urgently, “Wait. Just a minute. We need to know if he’s really gone.”
“I can’t—”
“Zach, he could be standing by somewhere with a remote, ready to blow the house as soon as you get inside. We have to know he can’t see what we’re doing.”
Lucas reached them then, a little breathless. “Bingo,” he said, panting. “I think. Rafferty says there’s a nice, unassuming sedan following the semi.”
That was all Zach needed. “You two stay here—”
“Forget it,” Josh said briefly.
If Zach had been thinking of anything other than getting to Teddy, he likely would have decked both his friends and gone on alone. But in his present condition such strategy was a bit beyond him. Besides, he needed help to get her out and defuse the bomb, because no man
could be in two places at the same time. So he simply headed for the house.
It took no more than five minutes alone for Teddy to feel an abrupt, bloody-minded temper rising. She was on her back, bound head and foot, gagged, helpless. She hated being helpless. It was one thing, she realized, to take comfort in the protection of a strong man and quite another to await rescue feebly, like some delicate princess in an ivory tower.
She tilted her head back against the pillow and stared up at her wrists. The knot looked all too secure, dammit. But the rope was fastened to a decorative metal ring in the headboard, and maybe, just maybe … Carefully, she jerked her bound wrists away from the headboard. They moved only a few inches, and her left arm protested in a jolt of agony that took her breath.
Teddy rubbed her cheek against the aching arm. She felt wetness and thought she was crying,
but then realized that Ryan’s rough treatment, and her own, had broken the wound open again. She was bleeding.
Maybe not much time, then.
She locked her teeth down on the gag, held on to what she could of the rope to spare her wrists, and jerked again. And again.
By the third jerk, the wetness on her face was indeed tears, and she was breathing in sobbing gasps. But she kept jerking, fighting waves of pain and nausea, struggling to remain conscious. And finally, the metal ring tore loose, and her bound wrists fell heavily to her stomach. Through the hot tears filling her eyes she could see that the left sleeve of her dark sweater was stained with blood. Not much blood, though; she could at least be thankful for that.
Teddy counted slowly to twenty before she could find the strength to sit up, then closed her eyes at the wave of dizziness. Her jaw was aching, and she realized that her teeth were still gritted. She relaxed her jaw, and her breathing gradually steadied.
Even though she’d tried to protect them, the rope hadn’t been kind to her wrists; there was a little blood, a great deal of chafing, and her hands had swelled a bit from loss of circulation. She flexed the stiff fingers, wincing as the blood returned to them, and then fumbled to draw her purse around so that she could open it. Not for the first time, she cursed her pack-rat habits as she scrabbled through the jumble in search of the small penknife. Finding it at last, she sawed through the rope between her wrists, sacrificing a bit more skin in the process. The pain barely disturbed her; she was very conscious of the passing minutes and far too aware of several much more disturbing facts.
She had seen Ryan’s face, and he didn’t leave witnesses.
He had left her alone far too long; there was something wrong with that.
He hated Zach, hated him and wanted him dead.
And something else, there was something—
Explosives
.
Ryan had nearly killed Zach once with explosives. Would he try a second time? Set a trap with her as bait—
“You’re his Achilles’ heel.”
Teddy tore off the gag and went to work on her bound ankles. She wanted to call out, to scream a warning to Zach, but didn’t dare. She had heard the big truck leave minutes before, but what if Ryan was still nearby? With a remote detonator in one hand and a meaningless white smile on his face, waiting for Zach to get inside the house—and Zach would get inside, would come after her.
She scrambled off the bed and dug in her purse for the tranquilizer gun. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had.
The door swung open.
Teddy whirled, leveling the gun automatically in a two-handed grip, knowing she might have only one chance. And the blond man in the doorway took a hasty step back, his own gun pointing quickly at the ceiling.
“Whoa! I’m with Zach.”
She stared at him for a moment, then said, “Lucas Kendrick?”
“Right.” He didn’t ask how she recognized him but turned his head to call loudly, “I’ve found her. She’s fine.”