Oh, Bonnie, it’s an argument that I’ve had with you all through the years, and I could never convince you. He has it all wrong.
Unless you’ve changed your mind.
“I’ll accept what you say,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you’re right. Because I do know that Bonnie wouldn’t want me to be murdered and thrown into a ditch somewhere like you did her.”
He flinched as if she’d struck him. “No. No. No. I didn’t.”
“You’re protesting too much. Why else would you be afraid of her?”
“She won’t leave me alone.”
“But she’ll leave you alone if you kill me?” Move carefully now. His eyes were glaring at her, and his hands were opening and closing at his sides. “So you take me to this ‘place’ and kill me to please my daughter. Am I going to be allowed to have some clergyman to bless my soul? What about calling your friend, Father Barnabas?”
“No,” he said hoarsely.
“No help to send my soul to heaven? Bonnie wouldn’t like that. Then what about letting me call the man I love to say good-bye? Joe and Bonnie have grown very close through the years. She wouldn’t be pleased that you’d deny me that final solace.”
“You’re trying to trick me.”
“You could listen to the conversation. I deserve to say good-bye. A short conversation, then I won’t ask anything else of you. What harm would it do? You’re taking everything else from me. Let me say good-bye.” She stared into his eyes. “If you do, I’ll tell Bonnie that you were kind to me, that you let me go with gentleness.”
His expression was tormented. Then he spun her around and gave her a push up the trail. “No, I won’t do it.”
Okay, no chance of communicating with Joe. But evidently she’d changed the focus, and Danner wasn’t going to kill her on the trail. She’d take what she could get.
“Wait.”
She stopped and turned to face him.
He thrust his phone into her hand. “Call him. I’m listening to every word. If you try to trick me, then it’s all over.”
Which is what he wanted anyway.
She looked down at the phone. What was she going to say?
Providence?
It was the only clue she had to give him, and she wasn’t even sure that it was a valid one. And how could she-
“Call him,” Danner said curtly. “It’s what you wanted. It’s what you say she’d want.”
Why was she hesitating? She knew that Joe was searching for her though she had no idea how close or far he was to her. She’d try to get him what information she could. If it wasn’t enough to help, then she’d still get to fulfill the purpose she’d given Danner. She had no idea if she was going to survive, and to be able to say good-bye to Joe was a gift that was without price. “That’s right.” She cleared her throat. “I’m just surprised.” She quickly dialed Joe’s number.
It rang three times before he picked up. “Quinn.”
Lord, it was good to hear his voice. “Joe.”
There was a silence. “Eve. My God, where are you?”
“I can’t talk about that, or he’ll make me hang up. Don’t ask questions. I don’t want to waste our time together.” She paused. “We don’t have much time left.”
“What do you mean? I’ll kill him.”
“Hush. Listen to me. I have to make every word count. We’ve been together so long that sometimes I’m afraid that I haven’t said the things that I should. There’s always been Bonnie with us or between us. I didn’t tell you that if you hadn’t come into my life that there would have been no life. You’ve been my friend, my lover, my salvation.” She had to stop as her voice broke. “Pay attention to what I’m saying, Joe, this is important. Fate brought us together that day when you came to my house to try to find my Bonnie. And it’s fate that’s tearing us apart right now. We’ve got to accept it.”
“The hell we do.”
“I’m not going to argue with you. You always do what you want anyway. But I just don’t want you to go through anything more for me. I love you, Joe. Thank you for being in my life.”
She hung up the phone. The tears were running down her cheeks, and she wiped them away on the sleeve of her shirt. She handed the phone back to Danner. Had he caught the word she had slid into the conversation? It had been subtle. Maybe too subtle for Joe, too.
Danner was studying her face. “You do love him. You didn’t love John like that.” His expression was thoughtful, almost sad, and completely without that hint of vague disorientation that seemed to come and go. In that moment, he reminded Eve of the man she’d met when Bonnie had first been born.
“No, and he didn’t love me. You have to be a grown-up to know what love’s about. We were just kids.” She drew a deep breath. “Thank you for letting me talk to him. I’m ready to go to Bonnie now.”
He didn’t move. “I have to do it. I can’t let you go.”
“I know you can’t.” She met his gaze. “But we made a bargain, and I’ve kept my end of it. I think you’ve been having second thoughts, and you can’t do that. It’s your demons that are making you think those thoughts. You take me to Bonnie, and when we get there, you tell me everything. That’s how it has to be. Do you understand, Danner?”
He reached out and gently touched her tear-wet cheek. “I have to do it, Eve.” Then he turned and moved through the brush.
JOE DREW A DEEP BREATH as he savagely punched the button to disconnect the call. He felt angry and helpless, and he wanted to tear the phone apart.
“Joe?” Father Barnabas was gazing at him across the campfire. “Eve?”
“Yes.” He had to think. But he was so torn up inside that he was having to try to calm down and try to be objective. Objective? Hell, no. “Danner let her make the call. It was a good-bye, have-a-nice-life call. I’m going to kill him. And there’s no way you’re going to stop me, Father.”
“No, that has to come from you.” He glanced at Ben, sleeping a few yards away. “You made him a promise.”
“I said I’d try. I didn’t say-” He closed his eyes. “I’m ready to explode. I can’t let him do this to me. I have to go over what she said. Eve’s smart and wouldn’t have wasted time just to tell me good-bye.”
“Was it a waste?” the priest said gently.
Eve’s voice telling him she loved him, telling him that their life together had given meaning to hers.
“God, no.” He opened his eyes. “But she would still have concentrated on finding a way to beat Danner if there was a way. She’d try to tell me where she was or where she was going.” He grabbed his notebook from his pocket. “Give me a minute. I want to put down everything she said word for word and see if I can see anything.”
His hand was shaking as he wrote. Steady it. Don’t think of those words that meant so much, Eve who meant more than life. Search for something else.
“Anything?” Father Barnabas asked.
“Nothing. But there has to be-” He stopped. “Maybe… Here she said for me to pay attention, that it was important.”
“Accept what? Accept fate. That may be the key word.” Lord, he was reaching. But he was desperate, dammit.
“But to unlock what door?” the priest asked.
“I don’t know.” Okay, clear his mind of emotion and think coolly and analytically. Probe deeper. Investigate.
