She did as he said, sliding forward on her butt until she reached the open door. The other man, tall, with dark hair and cold eyes, grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.
Darcy looked between them as a horrifying thought occurred to her. She could see their faces. Which meant she could easily identify them. Which led to the logical conclusion that they didn’t plan for that ever to happen. They weren’t going to let her go.
She wasn’t ready to die, she thought frantically. Not now. Not like this. Joe was…
Joe might be dead. No, she couldn’t think like that. He was strong; she would be strong, too.
Instinctively, she twisted away from the man. She managed to get free, but with her feet tied, she couldn’t run. She teetered, then fell to the sand. Seconds later, something hard slammed into her ribs as Ian kicked her. She screamed.
“That was a warning,” Ian said coldly. “Next time I
She couldn’t catch her breath. The pain was incredible. It was like fire along her rib cage. Had he broken something?
Ian stood over her. “Here’s the thing, Darcy. You’re our prisoner, and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you cooperate, I promise to make your time with us as pleasant as possible. If you don’t, I’ll hurt you. Those are simple rules, right? You can understand them.”
She nodded slowly. “What do you want?”
“To use you as a bargaining chip.”
Not good, she thought as she sucked in air. Not good at all. “The president doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. I’m guessing I can change his mind. See, it’s a great policy right up until someone you love is kidnapped. We’ll start with polite requests, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll send you back to him in pieces. I know that sounds scary and I’m sorry about that. We’ll give you something for the pain, but it’s probably still going to hurt. We can’t help that. The point is when we send your finger or your ear or your hand to the press, your dad is going to be a whole lot more willing to give us what we want.”
She was going to pass out. The good news was, she wouldn’t have to listen to Ian anymore. He was speaking so calmly, she thought, unable to believe any of this was really happening. How could Ian be doing this? Ian, who had stayed at the Marcelli house. Ian, who had dated Mia and driven them all crazy with his talking.
“They’ll find you,” she said.
“I don’t think so. They won’t know where we are, and I’ve found a spot they’ll never even look.”
He nodded at the other man, who then pulled her to her feet, bent down, and shoved his shoulder into her midsection. When he stood, the pain of her bruised side nearly made her pass out. She thought she was going to throw up.
They started walking toward a small boat pulled up on the sand. She didn’t like boats, especially small ones. She didn’t like being kidnapped, either, she thought grimly.
“We’re going to a cave,” Ian said. “I found it years ago, when I went fishing around here with my grandfather. I used to think it was a really cool hideout, but I never thought I’d use it for a headquarters.”
She slipped free of the man’s shoulder and felt herself falling and falling. When she hit the boat, the impact was hard. Her head cracked against a wooden seat.
“Watch it, Jesse. We don’t want to kill her.”
Not yet, she thought as the world started to fold in at the corners and then fade to black. Not yet.
Joe stared at the maps spread out on the counter of the kitchen. Where would they take Darcy? They had an hour’s head start, which gave them a lot of leeway. Still roadblocks were already up, and the heavy fog meant all regional airports were closed.
Would they try to get distance between themselves and the winery or were they holing up close by? What would he do?
Joe touched the largest map, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t figure out the plan. Ian had done this. He’d been the enemy all along, and no one had noticed.
Had he planned this from the beginning? Joe didn’t think that was possible. No one had known Darcy was coming here more than forty-eight hours before it had happened. Which meant Ian had taken advantage of a lucky break.
Who was he? The name had to be false, along with the identity. He’d been completely clean. No one that clean pulled off something like this.
“The bleeding’s slowed,” Paige said, sounding relieved. “Hold on, Alex. The helicopter will be here soon. You, too, Brenna.”
Brenna waved from her sprawled position on a kitchen chair. “Don’t worry about me. I’m sure I’ll be in labor for hours. I appreciate the ride, though. Right now the thought of a thirty-minute car trip is very disheartening.”
Nic crouched next to her and held her hand. “Just breathe, okay.”
She smiled at him. “I can breathe and scream. I’m good at both of those. It’s the whole birthing process I’m worried about. And the fact that I swear I can feel more than two feet pressing against me.”
Joe blocked out the conversation and concentrated on the maps. But before he could figure anything out, Mia walked over and touched his arm.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He took a second to give her a hug. “It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is. I’m the one who brought him here. I can’t believe I didn’t know who he really was. I traveled with him, I slept with him. I should have guessed.”
“You can only see what you see. You can’t read minds.”
She shook her head. “I should have known. Somehow.”
Joe led her into the dining room. “Did he ever say anything about his family? About friends? Do you have any names?”
Mia stared at him. “No. He talked about his grandfather all the time. The one who took him fishing. But not his parents. He was more interested in mine. I just…” She stifled a sob. “He was so excited about meeting Darcy. I thought he was starstruck. Then, later, he asked me all kinds of questions. I figured he had a crush on her or something. But it wasn’t that. Now Alex is shot, and they have Darcy, and it’s all my fault.”
She began to cry. Joe pulled her close and kept his mouth shut. A part of him did want to blame Mia, but he was as guilty as she.
Darcy regained consciousness when she was carried from the small boat and put onto a canvas chair in the middle of a cave. Her hands and feet were still tied and her ribs ached, along with her head. If this kept up much longer, she was going to be one big bruise.
She waited until Ian and someone she hadn’t seen before walked away, then she raised her head and looked around. The cave was larger than it looked from the outside, for which she was grateful. She’d grown to dislike small, dark spaces.
The boat had been tied up next to one just like it on the side of the cave, not that far from where she sat. On the other side were a couple of tables covered with electronic equipment. Bottled water and canned foods filled a pallet by the rock wall.
She could hear men talking, which made her nervous. She didn’t want to know who they were. She wanted to be set free and not be able to identify them later so they wouldn’t have to kill her.
The cave itself seemed to bend around, perhaps creating a second room. She wasn’t sure, as she couldn’t see it, but that’s where the voices came from. Maybe the rest of them would stay there, she thought.
Ian reappeared. He walked toward her and held out a length of chain with bands at each end. “For your ankles,” he said cheerfully. “So you can’t get away. Oh, in case you’re wondering, these are heavy. If you head for the water, you’ll sink right to the bottom. No swimming for freedom, Darcy.”
He was so calm, she thought. Calm to the point of pleasant, which just wasn’t right.
When he bent at her feet, she thought about kicking him but decided it wasn’t the time for an escape. Not when she was tied up and didn’t know how many other men were around. He secured the chains around her ankles, then unfastened the ropes. Finally he used a smaller chain to attach her left arm to the chair itself, leaving her right arm and hand free.
“Thirsty?” he asked, motioning to the bottles.
