Roland sounded close to tears. “We split all the money. I told you it has to be this way because the publisher pays more with just my name on a book.”
“You wouldn’t get a freakin’ Euro without me. An’ we wouldn’t be in this fix if you ’adn’t started everything by messin’ with that girl’s speech. Bloody stupid prank you pulled. Nobody with the brains in a donkey’s arse deliberately makes an enemy-especially not one that rich.”
“Eugene Long humiliated me. I had to get back at him. He said my books were dreadful, and he said it in print where people could read it!”
“So the bloody ’ell what? They sell in the millions! And they’re our books, not yours. Don’t you forget that.”
“Look, Will, why don’t we talk about this when we get to Rio?”
“We got something to do first-an’ this time
“What are you talking about?” I heard sudden panic in Roland’s voice.
“ ’Er,” Parker said. He kicked me in the stomach. It hurt, but I willed myself to stay nonreactive. “I’ve been doing every bloody thing! I tried to scare ’er off the scent by letting myself be seen watching ’er at the library. Then when I figured she’d gone to see old man Long, I slashed ’er tires. I took care of Ingram for you before he could expose you as a fraud and spill the beans about me doin’ most of the work on the books.”
“Now wait. You killed him for Yvette, too. He was blackmailing her-”
“Leave ’er out of this. Not a word out of yer ’ole about ’er or I swear to God I’ll shoot you for real, not like that trick we pulled at the coffee’ouse.”
I heard Roland gasp. Or maybe it was a choked-back sob. When he spoke again it was in a defeated tone.
“The plane for Rio leaves at nine o’clock. If we’re going to get there in time to go through all the security… What do you want me to do?”
I felt rough, strong hands pulling at the cloth around my wrists.
“Untie ’er ankles,” Parker said.
I heard Roland kneel down-his knees actually creaked. He began to fumble with the binding around my ankles, pulled the fabric off, and stood again.
My hands and feet were free now, but I lay limp and kept my eyes closed.
There was a tremor in Roland’s voice. “She’s so still. Maybe you killed her.”
“She’s got a pulse. Maybe she’s faking. We’ll see.”
I braced for another blow-
“No!” Roland cried. “Don’t do that. Here, this will tell us.”
I felt liquid splash against my face, but I didn’t flinch. A drop went between my lips. It was tea.
“ ’Elp me get ’er on ’er feet,” Parker said.
The two men, each grabbing an arm, pulled me upright. I let my head fall forward toward my chest and remained a dead weight.
“This way,” Parker said.
I felt myself being dragged… dragged toward fresh air. Out onto the balcony.
Oh, God! They’re going to throw me over!
I felt the men prop me up against the waist-high iron railing.
Suddenly Roland began to sob. He dropped my arm. I heard him shuffle backward. “I can’t!”
Cursing, Parker leaned forward, his head against my chest. One of his hands held my arm and the other reached down behind me toward the back of my knee-
Now!
I let out a blood-curdling scream, twisted around, scratching at his eyes as I thrust my knee as hard as I could toward his groin. I only caught him on the thigh, but I was close enough to the sensitive area that he let out a yelp.
Cursing again, he threw his arms around my torso in a grip so hard I cried out in pain. He was squeezing the life out of me!
Desperate, I threw my body side to side, forward and back, twisting. Putting most of my weight behind it, I stomped on his foot with the high heel of my shoe. He grunted and slapped me. But to slap, he had to loosen his grip.
I was pushing at him-he was shoving at me, ramming my body against the railing. Each smash against the small of my back was agonizing. I spiked him again with my heel, simultaneously twisting enough to open a few inches between us, but suddenly-
The balcony’s railing gave way.
Clasped together, we went tumbling out into empty space.
A voice inside me cried, “It’s too soon!”
Somebody screamed.
And then there was silence.
46
My eyes began to open.
The room was dark, but there was light spilling in from somewhere. As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I could see just enough to know that I was in unfamiliar surroundings, hearing an unfamiliar sound. A soft beep…
With growing consciousness came the awareness of pain. My head throbbed. My whole body hurt. I couldn’t move my left arm.
Where am I?
As my vision sharpened, and objects near me came into focus, I realized I was in a hospital bed. I couldn’t move my left arm because it was in a cast.
Trying to ease the pain, I shifted my body and moved my right hand-and felt another hand.
A third hand?
I groaned.
And the extra hand closed over mine.
“Hey… you’re awake.” A man’s voice broke through my haze. A familiar voice.
“Nicholas?”
He leaned toward me and I saw his face. Nicholas was in the chair next to my bed.
I’m alive.
“You gave us one hell of a scare,” he said. “How do you feel?”
“Everything hurts. What time is it?”
“A few minutes after three o’clock in the morning. You had a big crowd here until midnight: me, O’Hara and his wife and daughter, Liddy and her husband, and Phil Logan acting like General Patton, demanding the best care for you, threatening to sue the hospital if your broken arm didn’t mend perfectly. The attending doctor finally threw us all out. As we were going down in the elevator, Phil Logan was grinning. He said that your solving a murder was going to be great for your ratings.”
“If everyone had to leave, how come you’re here?”
“I waited downstairs for a little while, then I came back up and used my charm on the floor nurse.” He moved his face closer to mine. “Do your lips hurt?”
“That’s about the only part of me that doesn’t.”
His mouth descended on mine for the lightest, most gentle kiss I’ve ever felt. “Hello, Sleeping Beauty,” he said.
“Not such a ‘beauty,’ I’ll bet.”
“You are to me,” Nicholas said.
“What happened-how did I get here?”
“You fell off a third-floor balcony.”
“No.” My memory came back in a rush. “No, I didn’t fall. He tried to push me over, but I fought-oh, my God. We
