16 Taking Eve (18 page)

“No, how did you get here? How did you know I was here?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t keep an eye on you? Didn’t I tell you I’d always be there for you? You can’t get rid of me.”

That wonderful smile that always wrapped her in intimacy. She couldn’t look away from him.

Of course she could. She wasn’t that besotted teenager she’d been when she’d first known him, nor the college kid who had taken him as her lover. She glanced away. “I didn’t expect you. It’s over. We don’t want the same things. We parted ways, Trevor.”

“You parted ways. I’ve been on the sidelines, biding my time.” He leaned forward, kissed the tip of her nose, and said softly, “It had to end. All the time-outs are over for both of us, Jane.”

Rio Grande Forest, Colorado

SHE WAS COLD.

Eve reached out to draw a blanket over her.

There was no blanket.

Or maybe it had fallen off the bed to the floor.

She opened her eyes.

Not the cottage. Not a bed. She was lying on a couch in a room she’d never seen before.

A large room. Rough pine walls. High ceilings. Exposed pipes.

A loft? Or factory?

Why would she be—

Then she remembered. She froze, her muscles contracting, ready to launch herself from the couch, her gaze darting wildly about the room.

Until it landed on the object on the chair only a few feet from the couch.

A skull, blackened, burned, its gaping orbital cavities staring at her.

Ugly. Threat. Horror.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you, Eve.” It was the man, Doane, from the truck, coming toward her. “Considering your profession, I’m surprised it would bother you. I just wanted you to become familiar with him as soon as possible.” He stopped beside the chair, and his big hand reached out and gently caressed the skull. “This is Kevin. This is my son, Eve. We’re both glad to have you with us at last.”

She stared at him in shock. Was he mad? There was a distinct possibility. Think calmly about how to handle this situation and still survive.

She didn’t want to think calmly. She wanted to launch herself at him and attack. He had not only kidnapped her, he had hurt both Jane and Ben, and she still wasn’t sure if they had survived.

But she wouldn’t find out by getting physical. She had to find out what this was all about; and then the path would be clear how she was to escape.

She forced herself to look at the skull. She was as surprised as he that she’d reacted with such revulsion when she’d seen the skull. “I wasn’t bothered,” she said coldly. “I wasn’t expecting it. I suppose on some subliminal level that I thought someone was trying to frighten me.” Yet she was still feeling that same horror now, she realized. She glanced away from the skull back to Doane’s face. “That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”

“I have no desire to frighten you. That would be counterproductive.” He smiled gently. “I need you. We need you. I don’t wish you harm.”

“Bullshit,” she said with precision. “You sent that man, Blick, after Jane. You struck Ben down, and I still don’t know if he died from that blow. You drugged me and brought me to this place. What the hell do you call doing harm?”

He grimaced. “It doesn’t sound very good, does it? It was all necessary, but I was hoping that no permanent damage would be caused by my plan.”

“Is that why Jane was shot?” She lifted her shaking hand to cover her eyes. “You did enormous harm.”

“You heard me tell Blick that he shouldn’t have done it.”

“Yes, you slapped his hands, but he’d already hurt her.” Her hand dropped to her side. “Is she alive or dead?”

“Alive.”

Relief followed by suspicion. “How do you know?”

“I called Blick back and had him make calls. I knew that would be one of the first things you’d ask me when you regained consciousness. Jane MacGuire is at a hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has only a minor wound and should be released within a week.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you?”

“It would be easier for you if you did.” He shook his head. “But I realize I may have to give you more solid assurances. You’ll find it difficult to trust anything I say.”

“You think?” she said scornfully. “Prove it to me. Let me call Joe Quinn and hear it from him.”

“Ah, Joe Quinn. Yes, you’d believe him.”

“He’s the only one I’d believe. Where’s my phone?”

“I have it safely put away in case I need to scatter a red herring or two. But really, Eve, do you think I’d let you call him? He’s very smart, and he has technology at his disposal that I don’t. There’s a possibility that he could track us. I’ll have to find another way to reassure you.” He held out his hand. “In the meantime, you need to have something to eat before we talk. Let me help you up. I’m sure you need to go to the bathroom and wash your face. As I told you, that drug I gave you has very few aftereffects but you may feel a little groggy.”

“I don’t feel groggy.” She ignored his hand and got to her feet. “I feel angry.”

“I can see that. You’re almost rigid with rage. You’d like to attack me. From what I’ve learned about you, that might be done with a great deal of skill since you’ve been taught by your lover, who was in the SEALs.” He took a step back. “Which is why I believe I’d better clarify our situation. You might decide to attack at some point. I do have a gun, but I don’t wish to use it on you even as a threat. So I made a few advance preparations. Do you see those small holes in the ceiling?”

She looked up. “They look like empty light sockets.”

“No.” He took out a small keychain with a rectangular emblem from his pocket. “There’s also one over the front door that works automatically when the door opens unless I disarm it. All I’d have to do is touch the emblem. I press the button, and it causes gas to spray down. Nothing lethal. Just enough to knock you out. But this time you’d have a giant headache. I’d hate that to happen.”

“You could be bluffing.”

“Yes.”

“It would knock you out, too.”

He shook his head. “No, I’m familiar with this gas. I’d only get a little dizzy before I got outside. My son used it when he was in the Army, and he taught me how to take little whiffs until I built up an immunity to it.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He loved me as much as I loved him. He wanted me to be safe.”

“Safe?” She stared at him incredulously. “So you played around with knockout gas?”

“It’s difficult to explain. What you have to know is that as long as you stay inside and don’t try to get away or attack me, you’re free to move around as if this is your home.”

She gazed up at one of the empty light sockets. “I’m tempted to call your bluff.”

“Demonstration?” He smiled. “Just a little squirt. Not enough to—” He gave the emblem the tiniest pressure. “Did you hear it? And it smells like carnations, doesn’t it?”

“I heard it. But I don’t smell—” But her head felt suddenly light. Carnations. Definitely, carnations.

“You’ll be fine in a minute. I did have to show you, didn’t I?”

She shook her head to clear it. The dizziness was already dispersing. “And it made you feel all-powerful, dammit.”

“Believe me, that’s not why I did it.”

“I don’t believe you. Where is this bathroom?” She gazed around the huge room, which was sparsely furnished, with a chair, filing cabinet, desk, couch, and table. A small kitchenette occupied a corner of the area. She stiffened as her gaze fell on another corner that was very, very familiar.

It was a worktable and dais and computer, identical to her lab at the cottage.

“Yes, it’s just like your lab down to the last detail,” Doane said softly. “I had to tear out an old coin press anchored to the wall to give you light from the window but I wanted you to feel comfortable.”

“Comfortable? Not likely. How were you able to reproduce it so exactly?”

“Not totally exact. You can access your forensic sculpting programs on the computer but nothing else. I’ve been watching you for a long time. As soon as I decided that Kevin needed you, I naturally had to investigate everything about you.”

“Investigate? Snooping? Electronic eavesdropping, maybe?”

“All of the above, I’m afraid.”

“How long?”

“A little over two years.”

She stared at him incredulously. It was hard to imagine that she had been under surveillance for that long and not become aware of it. It was even more amazing that Doane would have the patience to sit like a spider and weave his intricate web for over two years. “Why?”

“You were worth it,” he said simply. “I had to have you.”

“You don’t have me. I assume that lab you’ve set up means that you want me to do a reconstruction.” She looked him in the eye. “Screw you.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” He gestured to a door to the left of the lab. “That’s your bedroom and bathroom. I’ll go and heat up a couple TV dinners. I’m afraid I’m a lousy cook. I’ve never learned the art. Kevin always cooked for us. He was a brilliant chef.” He added sadly, “He was brilliant at almost everything.”

“I’m not interested in your son. All I want is for you to let me go.”

He turned away. “We’ll talk over dinner. Don’t feel you have to hurry. I understand that you’ll need time to compose yourself.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Actually, I felt lucky that I remembered this old abandoned shack from my hunting trips with Kevin up here to the mountains. It’s perfect for my purpose.”

“As my prison? What was it before? You mentioned tearing out some kind of coin press.”

“Back in the gold rush days it was a coin factory. There’s a played out gold mine not far from here and the miners liked to turn their gold into actual money before they went to town and blew it.” He smiled. “Blick and I remodeled the storage area for your bedroom and bath. It’s a little dim in there, but you can turn on the overhead lights. It’s pretty small, but you’ll only need the bedroom for sleeping. We’re not going to do much of that. I’m in a hurry to have Kevin finished. I plan on having you work nonstop with only short breaks when you feel you absolutely have to rest for a few hours. I’ll lock you in the room during those rests and let you out afterward. I’ve put a rollaway bed in there that you can open. The walls are thin, and I can hear you very clearly. I’ll be napping on the couch in here, and I sleep lightly. You might keep that in mind. There’s only one door and no windows, so don’t think that you’ll have an opportunity to escape. I’ve planned this for a long time, and I wouldn’t be that foolish.”

Eve’s hands clenched into fists at her sides as she watched him open the refrigerator in the kitchenette. Then she whirled on her heel and strode toward the door leading to the bedroom.

She slammed the door behind her and leaned against it.

Damn, she felt helpless.

Get over it.

So she was at a disadvantage. It was to be expected if what Doane had told her was true about the time he’d spent studying her.

She made a face. And there was the small item that she was his prisoner, and he might be nuts. He was most certainly violent if he’d attacked Ben.

Yet he didn’t seem crazy, and he’d been almost gentle in his dealings with her personally.

Because he wanted something from her.

She had a sudden memory of the blackened skull that had been staring at her when she woke.

She was shivering, she realized.

Why? Because that skull could be that of the son of this man who had been responsible for Jane’s shooting?

Stop analyzing. She didn’t want to think of that skull right now.

She drew a deep breath and turned on the lights. No furniture in the bedroom but a rollaway bed that was folded up and pushed against the wall. She went to the bathroom and found it to be equally small, with a single vanity and an enclosed glass shower a few feet away. Pristine white tiles on the floor and inside the shower. No window, as Doane had told her.

But there was a small duffel resting on the closed lid of the toilet.

She slowly unfastened the case and opened the lid.

Underwear, pants, tunic tops. A plastic bag with shampoos, soaps and other personal items.

A chill went through her. And every brand was the same as she used every day at the cottage. For the first time, the claim that Doane had made about those years of long surveillance actually hit home.

She felt … violated.

She zipped the duffel shut and turned and leaned against the vanity. This privacy invasion was such a small thing in the scheme of what Doane had done to her.

No, it wasn’t. The very intimacy of the act loomed large indeed. It made her want to break something, anything. That’s right, do something stupid just to relieve her feelings. Put things in perspective and be a grown-up. It was the only way to—

She had caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror over the sink.

Her face was pale and dirty, her hair tangled. Her clothes were rumpled and mud-stained. She looked like a victim, dammit.

She was not a victim.

All right, pull yourself together and show that bastard he had not done anything to you that couldn’t be overcome, she thought. Use what he gave you and make it your own.

She locked the door and turned on the shower.

*   *   *

“I’M AFRAID THESE DINNERS ARE
cold. You took longer than I thought,” Doane said, when Eve came out of the room forty minutes later. “I wasn’t expecting you to take a shower.”

“No, you probably thought I’d hurry back out and let you make me jump through hoops.” She strode toward the chrome table in front of the kitchenette. “I won’t jump through hoops for you, Doane.” She sat down at the table and gazed at the pot pie on the plate. “You’re right, unappetizing.” She began to eat. “It doesn’t matter. I’m hungry.”

“And you don’t want to become weak,” Doane said quietly as he sat down across from her. “Now I did expect that from you. You’re a strong woman, mentally and physically. You’d have a horror of losing that strength. I just didn’t expect you to bounce back so quickly.”

“Why am I this hungry? How long was I unconscious?”

“It’s been almost twenty-four hours.” He took a bite of his pot pie. “We had a long way to go.”