She froze, swallowing.
“Drop your weapons, my dear,” Stephan said pleasantly. Then he snapped out a single word in a terrible fury.
“Now!”
Time.
Time was of the essence, Mark knew.
Stephan had been toying with them all along. He hadn’t cared how many he sacrificed on the way to his ultimate showdown. Mark even knew that Stephan had planned for him to discover his lair at last. Planned for him to feel desperate.
Planned for him to come alone.
But there was no help for it.
He slipped from the ambulance and disappeared into the crowd.
He could see Canady standing in the center of the storm, fielding questions, commanding men, and he dialed the lieutenant’s cell number.
“Canady speaking”
“It’s Mark.”
“Where the hell are you?”
Mark didn’t answer. Instead he gave Sean an address and said he was on his way.
“No! That’s what he wants you to do.”
“I know. But it’s also what I have to do,” Mark said, then hung up before Sean could voice a further protest. Then he punched in a number for Montresse House, passed on the information he had received from Susan, then said, “Tell Jonas. He can get there faster.”
Then he hung up—and moved.
As Lauren stared at Stephan, the front door of the house opened and she was stunned to see Heidi and Deanna walk calmly down the steps to flank.
“Let’s go inside, shall we?” Stephan suggested.
“What are you two doing here?” Lauren asked her friends, ignoring Stephan’s words.
Neither one appeared to even hear her.
Stephan smiled knowingly at Lauren. “Actually, they’re both rather happy to be with me. They’re both so lovely….” He ran his fingers down the sculpted angle of Deanna’s cheek. “She really is a beauty. And, I’m sure, very talented. And this little one…I love a pale blonde.”
“If I drop my weapons,” Lauren said, “we’ll all be in your power.”
“A cab brought you out here, and a cab can take them back,” Stephan said, as pleasantly and easily as if they were eager to leave a party early.
She held on to her weapons and saw a flash of anger cross Stephan’s face.
“I want guarantees.”
“You don’t have the right to ask for anything,” he told her coldly.
“You have to let them go. Both of them.”
They were at an impasse, staring at one another. She thought she could use every last drop of water she had on Stephan. But would it be enough?
Five of his followers were still “alive.” And Stephan himself was so strong, capable of healing himself of wounds that would kill a lesser…creature..
Even as the thought passed through Lauren’s mind, Deanna silently took up a position in front of Stephan, and Lauren realized that the friend she was trying to save was willing to protect him with her own life.
“Shall we go inside?” Stephan asked.
“No, not until I see the two of them safely away from you.”
Stephan shrugged. “You have a phone. Call a cab. Go ahead.”
She hesitated, then carefully kept the one pistol in her hand as she stuffed the other into her waistband and fumbled for her phone. Stephan simply stared at her, politely smiling, as she ordered the cab and hung up.
His smile deepened. “You’ve been so hard to find, Lauren. Somehow I knew, though, that you were out there somewhere. I must have sensed you would be here when I came to New Orleans. And then I saw you, through that crystal ball, and I have been patiently waiting for you, aching for you, ever since.”
“Patiently waiting?” she said. “Interesting. As far as I can tell, you’ve been running all over town seducing women.”
“Only to get your attention,” he told her.
“You have my attention. What you don’t have is my trust.”
“You called for a cab yourself,” he reminded her. “Who knows? Maybe the fellow who dropped you off will just turn around and come back.”
“Maybe he’ll report this place to the police.”
