Honeymoon To Die For (44 page)

But he’d sounded so convincing just now.

He’d sounded convincing when he’d told her he’d never wanted a woman the way he wanted her.

She closed the laptop. Bianca’s head pounded with the beginning of a blinding headache that she couldn’t afford to have right now. She walked into the kitchen to dig out some aspirin from one of the Walmart bags on the counter.

Trust your instincts.

Hers were telling her that Ryder was as honorable as she believed, that he did care about her and most importantly that he deserved her love.

She felt a peace settle over her that did more for her headache than any aspirin. She was going to go upstairs and tell him that no matter how hard he tried he would never be able to push her away. That she loved him and he had one person willing to fight for him and his freedom until her last breath.

A tiny noise caught her attention. It struck her as out of place.

The hair on her arms stood up.

She lifted her head to listen for whatever had put her on alert. Ryder wouldn’t sneak up on her and he’d told her the little bell he’d placed just inside the door would ding constantly if someone entered the area he’d secured.

Was there really someone after her?

Or were they really after Ryder?

She tiptoed over to the door that opened onto the back porch and squinted to see if anything moved in the woods.

Nothing.  She took a step back and bumped against a body. A hairy arm whipped around her neck, locking her against him.

Kicking her feet, she sucked in air to scream his hold tightened to cut off her air.

A deep male voice whispered, just a breath away from her ear. “Careful. Someone wants to talk to you, but I can kill you any time if you cause a problem. Make a sound and I’ll snap your neck or stay quiet and you live a little longer. Your choice.”

CHAPTER 48

Blood roared through Ryder’s ears and pounded in his veins. His chest hurt so much he was sure it was because his heart had exploded into a thousand pieces.

He hurried to dig out the K-bar knife from where he’d tucked it inside the small duffle he’d brought up.

Janeen and Sam had done this.

She’d even put Terrence at risk by using his computer. That’s what shocked Ryder most of all. Janeen had been fiercely protective of Terrence for his entire life.

Why had she done this?

How had Ryder not realized his sister was a psychopath? How had he missed that kind of pure evil during all the years he’d lived with her? Had it been Lady Anne’s influence? Or had Sam corrupted Janeen? Turned her into someone who sympathized with terrorists?

It couldn’t be about money. Janeen had more than she could spend.

She resented not being asked to join VDE. Was she doing this to get back at Hubrecht?

Then why screw Ryder?

What did I ever do so wrong to Janeen to deserve this?

He would never forgive Janeen for a lot of things, but the most criminal was what he’d been forced to do to Bianca downstairs. As bad as prison had been, watching Bianca’s misery was worse.

She loved him.

That was gone. Everything that mattered to him was lost.

He stowed the K-bar knife in his boot in case the FBI showed too soon and he had to drop the duffle and run. He carried his and Bianca’s bags back downstairs and paused at the last step. His blood chilled at the silence
.
 

Had Bianca gone outside
again,
after he’d told her not to?

Dropping everything at the base of the stairs, he called, “Bianca?”  He spared a glance at the fireplace
. Still
plenty of wood
stacked to the side.
 

He
stepped around the corner. No one was in the kitchen.

There was an open bottle of aspirin open on the counter.

Her short boots were still sitting by the end of the sofa and her jacket was hanging by the door.

There was no way his common-sense country girl would have left the house barefoot and without a jacket
in October
.

Heart pounding, Ryder ran over to the door and slipped outside. He hurried to check the multiple wires he’d run around the cabin that should have triggered the bell inside to ding when it was tripped.

The wire had been cut in the only spot that would disarm the entire perimeter.

His mind started processing the odds of someone locating the
one
point
necessary
to disarm
his
system without having tripped any detector.

In that moment, everything
gelled. The shootings. Motive and means. His time in Special Forces, and the contracts he’d executed for the CIA. The other snipers he knew. The timing. The ballistics.
His heart hammered in his chest.

All that time he’d spent in the Hole, all those hours spent considering who would have the skills to frame him, and
still
he’d never put it together until this—until his perimeter was breached.

Any man who’d been with him on black ops missions would know Ryder’s preferences for securing a perimeter—specifically how he would’ve secured
this
one.

But Ryder had met only one man during active duty who would know that, plus be able to make the shot that killed Kearn—and who would do it for money.

Munk.

Munk would have made the hit on Kearn for no money. He would’ve done it just to frame Ryder, because Ryder had cost Munk a contract with the military by figuring out that Munk actually
enjoyed
killing.

Way too much.

That animal had Bianca.

CHAPTER 49

Bianca panted, stepping high quickly to keep from being dragged over a log. She had on thick socks but it was little protection against sharp sticks and rocks.

Who was this guy?

His iron-hard fingers were locked around her right arm, hauling her along with no regard for the forest undergrowth clawing at her.

Panic threatened at the edge of her mind. She would beat it back by getting information. “What’s this—”

He dug in his boot and wheeled on her. He snarled, “One warning is all I usually give. This will make two, a record for me.”  The fast-paced hike had not winded him at all. Tall, bulky, but very strong, he had a long-barreled, bolt-action rifle slung across his chest she had no doubt he could handle with lightning speed if she tried to break away.

The struggle to stay upright while being dragged across the rugged terrain sucked the wind out of her rising hysteria.

Think!
If Ryder was in this fix, what would he do?

He wouldn’t be in this fix.

He’d have known before this man got close and disarmed him. Okay, that opportunity was long gone.

Ryder had said she was the one in danger.
I should have believed him.
 

She came up with nothing useful as the guy yanked, pushed and threatened her for a half mile before they finally stepped out of the trees to a view of sloping hills that spread out before her.

A black sport utility was parked nearby. But sitting prim and out of its element on the rough, grass-covered ground was a crimson-red Jaguar.

Terrence?

Not Janeen?

Terrence leaned against the car, arms crossed, casually waiting. Upon their approach, he stepped forward, meeting them halfway to the car, a smarmy smile in place.

“So you’re behind all this,” she charged. Her kidnapper’s grip tightened. She winced.

“Let up, Munk,” Terrence ordered. “We don’t want her damaged ... yet.”

Munk released her.

Bianca rubbed feeling back into her wrist and threw a scathing look at her captor until he rotated his thick head. The dead-flat eyes of a sociopath stared back at her.

If she hadn’t taken his warnings to heart before, she did now.

Keep them talking. Buy time.

She angled her gaze from a face nightmares were made of to one she’d love to knock the smile off of. “What are you going to do, Terrence?”  

Ryder would find her.

Promise me you’ll come for me.

Always.

Whether or not he actually cared about her, Ryder was a man of his word. He would come for her.

“I assumed this marriage had to be trumped up, but I couldn’t figure out if you were just a geek that Ryder seduced or if you were an FBI plant.”

She glowered at him.

“Setting Ryder free threw a kink into my plans until I realized I had a new opportunity, which only got better when it was clear he actually cares for you.”

Bianca laughed, hoping it had a disheartened sound to discourage Terrence. “Boy, did you get that one wrong.”

“I’m not as easily duped as my father, so save your effort.”

“Are you and Hubrecht in this together?”

“Be serious. My father is so clean he squeaks.” Terrence’s eyes flicked up and around as though he waited to see someone else. “But Ryder has never made a true commitment to any woman, which means he
should
be on the run by now. If he is, he owes me for giving him a head start.”

Nausea rose in her throat. Ryder running?

He might if he thought that was the way to bring in the FBI.

The FBI wouldn’t be coming to save her until Ryder’s chip moved far enough away from the cabin to become suspect.

 After that message Bianca had left for Nanci, they might think she was taking a walk with him, but Ryder didn’t know about that message.

She couldn’t imagine how anyone could disarm the chip inserted that close to Ryder’s spine—or cut it out—without seriously injuring Ryder, but she knew without a doubt that if Ryder actually ran to escape he’d have that part figured out.

Which meant the FBI would be busy chasing him with no idea where Bianca was.

No
. She refused to believe Ryder would do that with her in danger. Whatever troubles were between them, he’d earned her trust and she wouldn’t take it back now. But she hoped he’d call in the FBI and wouldn’t play the hero since he had no weapon to use against Munk and Terrence.

As terrified as she was right now, she had a deeper fear. If Ryder came for her, he’d be killed. And if Munk killed her, she’d never get a chance to prove Ryder’s innocence.

Terrence chuckled. “Did you really not consider that he would run? The FBI can’t keep a leash on someone like Ryder. Not a man who was in Special Forces.”  He turned to Munk. “Right? You worked with those guys. You know what they can do.”

Munk said nothing, just stood by looking scary.

Terrence was screwing with her. He had to be. If he really believed Ryder would use this opportunity to escape, wouldn’t Terrence and Munk be hunting for Ryder?

Then again, she had no idea what went no inside Terrence’s screwed-up mind.

Bianca held out little hope of being found, but she’d keep Terrence talking to buy as much time as she could. “Why are you doing all of this?”

“You’re the one who has to answer questions, not me.”

“Come on, Terrence. I know you aren’t going to let me live.” That sounded far more confident than the petrified woman inside her who wanted to start screaming for help. “Putting this together took genius. Satisfy my researcher’s curiosity.”

He shrugged. “We can’t leave just yet. What do you want to know?”

Playing to his ego worked. She could use that. “It can’t be the money. You have to be worth millions, maybe billions. Or maybe you aren’t.”

“Oh, I am, and I will take VDE to even greater heights. But defense spending will rise only as long as there are conflicts and events like the one tomorrow. My father is too set in his patriotic ways to understand the need to keep arms in the hands of the opposition if there is to be a demand for weapons on our side. It’s simple mathematics.”

Dear God. Terrence was behind the attack planned for Sunday?
He
was arming terrorists to generate more demand for weapons for allies? “Why are you dragging Ryder into this?”

“
You
dragged Ryder into this part when you turned him loose.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Ryder being in prison for murder was only one part of his fall from grace, and it was working brilliantly until you screwed it up.” His lips twisted with a heinous smile. “But now that he’s free
you’ve
made it even easier for me to show Father just what a loser Ryder is when his golden boy is credited with tomorrow’s attack.”  

Terrence had destroyed Ryder’s life just to disgrace him in front of
Hubrect?
Bianca’s skin chilled at the calm way Terrence spoke of mass murder. She didn’t know Hubrecht very well, but her gut told her that he cared for his adopted son. “Your father will never believe that about Ryder.”  

“Perhaps,” Terrence allowed. “Either way, I win. Once Ryder and my dear father are gone, all of VDE will be mine. Then it will become a true family business when I bring in Janeen.”

“So she’s in on this?”  

“Janeen? No, unfortunately, she inherited my father’s values.” Terrence nodded at Munk who took a step toward Bianca.

She jerked away, searching for some opportunity to save herself.

Munk was creepy, but Terrence was certifiable.

“Don’t make this any more difficult, Bianca,” Terrence warned.

Moving faster than she anticipated, Munk snatched her arms and pulled them behind her. She couldn’t yank against him unless she wanted to pull her arms out of their sockets. She had nothing to lose, so when Munk started to drag her away, she yelled at Terrence, “You did all this because you’re
jealous
of Ryder?”

Fury seared Terrence’s gaze. He lifted a hand at Munk.

Munk growled.

Bianca twisted to look over her shoulder. This time, Munk gave Terrence the stink eye.

“Let’s get something clear, Bianca,” Terrence said. “Ryder is all that
my
father ever cared about, but
I’m
the real son.”  He pounded his chest. “Ryder was accepted from the first when I should have been number one, but my father hated me. He adopted a bastard and treated him like flesh and blood.”

Okay, Terrence had a valid point and family counseling for this bunch might require a building full of psychiatrists, but this?