Colton Showdown. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ open the door leading into the bedroom and barked “Get out here” to the lone occupant in the bedroom.

      A moment later, Hannah, her flame-red hair piled up high on her head, wearing a green gown that looked painted on, delicately glided into the sitting room.

      Each time he saw her, Tate couldn’t help thinking, she seemed even more beautiful than the last time. It almost made his soul ache to look at her, knowing what she had to have gone through. Was still going through, he amended.

      He had a gut feeling that Hannah was tougher than she looked. He sincerely hoped so, for her sake.

      “Satisfied?” the African-American barked, flinging his hand out and gesturing toward Hannah.

      Tate withdrew his hand from the briefcase’s lid. “Satisfied,” he replied. Tate took a step back from the table. He smiled and nodded at Hannah before turning his attention to the man he’d made his bargain with the day before. Tate looked into his eyes, his gaze turning almost hypnotic. “And nobody touched her.” It was both a question and a statement that waited to be confirmed.

      “Nobody laid a damn finger on her—or anything else for that matter,” the man with the goatee added when it was obvious that the client was waiting for more of a confirmation.

      Tate looked at Hannah, who kept her gaze lowered, looking down at the rug. With the crook of his finger beneath her chin, he raised her head until she was looking directly at him.

      “Is that true?” he asked her.

      Surprised at being addressed directly without any curse words attached, a beat still passed before Hannah nodded her head.

      “What are you asking her for?” the goatee demanded to know. “I said nobody touched her. I lived up to my half of the bargain,” he declared impatiently. “Where’s my money?”

      “Right here,” Tate said, placing the other half of the torn bill into the man’s outstretched hand.

      “What’s that for?” Waterford wanted to know, eyeing the single torn section suspiciously.

      “Insurance,” was the unselfconscious reply. “Now I’d like some time alone with the girl.”

      “Sure, knock yourself out.” The man with the goatee gestured toward the bedroom. “You paid for her, have at it,” he urged, and then he leered, “Sure you don’t want me to break her in for you?”

      It was a crude play on words. Words that quickly faded away in the heat of the glare that had entered Tate’s eyes.

      “What I want,” he began deliberately, “is for the two of you to make yourself scarce.” Tate looked from one man to the other. Neither seemed to grasp what he was telling them, or made any attempt to leave the room. “You can stand guard in the hall outside the suite’s door if it makes you happy.”

      “We’re not leaving,” the goatee growled.

      “I’m not telling you to leave,” Tate countered. “I’m telling you I want some privacy. There’s only one way out of this suite and it’s through that door.” He deliberately pointed to it. “You can both stand guard in front of it, or take turns—I really don’t care which you decide to do. But I don’t want to feel crowded while I look over what a briefcase full of hundred-dollar bills just got me. Understand?” he demanded.

      Waterford shook his head. “I don’t know about this,” he said skeptically.

      “You’re not leaving the hotel, just the room,” Tate argued. “We’ll still be right where you left us when you walk back in,” he assured them, adding in a voice that brooked no nonsense, “Those are my terms. If you don’t like them—” he made a move to reclaim the briefcase, his implication clear: he either got his way, or he would be on his way.

      The choice was theirs.

      The man with the goatee cursed roundly, adding a few disparaging words about having to put up with aggravating people.

      In the end, he grudgingly said, “Okay, we’ll be out in the hallway in front of the door. Right in front of the door,” he emphasized. “So don’t get any big ideas about making a break for it.”

      Tate deliberately looked at Hannah. “I assure you, any ideas I have have nothing remotely to do with the hotel door.”

      The men didn’t look completely convinced, but they walked out of the suite. Once on the other side of the door, they made enough noise that just barely stopped short of waking the dead.

      It was to let him know that they were right outside the door, as specified. Ready to stop him if he had any plans to escape with the girl.

      Tate frowned. He didn’t have time to think about those clowns right now. It was Hannah who commanded all his attention.

      When he turned around to face her, he saw the fear in her eyes.

      The real work, he knew, was still ahead of him.

       Chapter 3

      Finding herself alone with the stranger, Hannah did her best not to give in to the fear that had been her constant unwelcome companion since this terrible nightmare had begun.

      It wasn’t as if this man she was looking at was like the others she’d encountered in this world of outsiders. He seemed different than the two crude, insulting men who were in charge of keeping watch over her and the other girls who’d been abducted from her village and Ohio. Different even than Solomon Miller, a man who her small community had once turned out and who’d sought to avenge himself by throwing his lot in with the men who’d abducted her and the others.

      This man she was with seemed different, Hannah silently reminded herself, but even she knew that appearances could be deceiving and she hadn’t known even a moment’s kindness since she’d been torn away from everything she knew and loved.

      So why did she feel that this man somehow was different?

      The tips of her fingers felt like ice. Her whole body felt as if it was alternating between hot and cold as she struggled to keep fear from rampaging through her like a runaway wild animal.

      What was this man going to do to her?

      And how could she stop him? He looked so much more powerful than she was.

      Her brain was still foggy from whatever it was that the man with the facial hair had tried to force her to swallow earlier. Foggy, but not completely useless because she’d managed to keep the drug hidden in the corner of her mouth, between the inside of her lip and her gum. Still, some of it had leached into her system. But she’d heard enough to piece things together.

      Even so, she couldn’t really believe it. Didn’t want to believe what she’d heard through the door that separated this new, fancy prison from the outer room where her jailers had sat, talking to the man who was now towering over her.

      Had she actually been sold to him?

      It didn’t seem possible.

      People weren’t sold to other people. Things like that had taken СКАЧАТЬ