The Temptress (21 page)

And how childish she was acting now, she thought. She kept thinking that he'd betrayed her when the truth was, he'd been more than honest with her, never had he insinuated that he wanted any more from her than a job and a good time.

As she watched him, he opened his eyes and looked at her, and for a moment, Chris almost threw herself into his arms. Whatever she felt for him was not returned and she'd better get used to that fact. He didn't love her and she was going to stop loving him—even if it killed her.

“Would you like to see what I found?” she asked.

He gave a nod, but said nothing, just sat there looking at her with hot eyes.

Probably thinks that since we've made love once, we will again. Not on your life, cowboy! she thought.

Turning away from him, she unbuttoned her blouse and withdrew a long narrow belt of what looked to be silver links. “It's mine,” she said, caressing the belt and taking her time before handing it to him.

“It's worn out and it looks old. Where was it? In your carpet bag?”

“No, of course not,” she said, taking it back. “I found it here, when I was looking through Dysan's things. He had several treasures in a little cabinet. I think he found them in the sea—salvage. But I knew right away that this was mine so I took it.”

Tynan looked at her in confusion for a moment. “You mean that you've never seen this thing before but you think it's yours?”

She looked up at him with a stubborn expression on her face.

“Is this your second sight again?” he said and there was laughter in his voice.

Chris merely kept her jaw set and put the belt back into her blouse.

“What is the thing anyway?”

“I think I'll get some sleep now,” Chris said with her nose in the air.

“I didn't mean—” Ty began but he stopped himself. “You want to hear why I have on new clothes again?” he said after a moment.

Chris tried to control her curiosity but couldn't. She was a reporter to the tip of her toes and she was not capable of resisting a story. Reluctantly, she nodded.

He started with entering Red's place secretly and then went on to tell of the men waiting outside for him. He told of his reluctance to wear the sideshow man's white leather outfit, and of at last agreeing.

Chris listened with held breath, in awe of what he wasn't telling her: of how difficult it had been to get to her. She didn't laugh until he started telling her about Chanry and how the man had loved the suit.

“But won't the men chase him when he's wearing the white suit, and won't they think they're chasing you?”

Tynan grinned at her. “That's the idea.”

“Oh, Ty, that's dreadful of you. That man could get killed.”

“Hmph! You'd rather I'd have worn the suit and let myself get killed?”

“That isn't what I meant and you know it.”

“Then you'll be happy to know that I've already heard that Chanry escaped, a little dented maybe, but he's alive.”

“And looking for you, no doubt.”

“I seem to be a popular fellow,” Ty said.

“Do you have any idea why Dysan wants you? He seemed to be very interested in you.”

“I doubt it. He just wanted to see who could get through that gauntlet he set up. Chris, seeing as this might be our last night alive, would you like to—”

He didn't get to finish. “Of all the audacious, disgusting things I have ever heard, that's the worst. After the things you said to me! How dare you ask me something like that! What kind of woman do you think I am?”

“But in the cabin—”

“In the cabin I thought I was in love with you and I thought you were going to marry me. That was
before
I found out what kind of low-life scum you really are, that you have no more feelings for a woman than what you can get out of her. But I can tell you that you will never,
ever
get anything out of me again.”

“I just thought I'd ask,” he said and there was a hint of a smile in his voice. “Let's get some sleep now.”

Chris didn't say anymore but she didn't sleep either as she sat there, her blood boiling. How dare he? How dare dare
dare
he?

She was still angry when the door was unlocked and opened.

A man grabbed Chris's arm before she was out the door, roughly pushing her toward the stairs.

“You're ours once he's through with you,” the man whispered in her ear as she stumbled up the stairs. “And after he's killed the pretty boy,” he added, meaning Tynan who was walking behind them. Another man, holding a rifle, brought up the rear.

At the top of the stairs, they were shoved into the dining room where Dysan waited for them. Dysan didn't say a word as the men tied Tynan to a chair, then left the room.

Dysan lit a cigar, looking at Chris standing at the end of the dining table and at Tynan as he sat immobilized in a chair by the window.

“I have waited a long time for this,” he said at last. “I've spent years planning this, what I would do, how I would do it. I had no idea that you'd drop the answer into my hands so easily.”

As Dysan was speaking, he was looking at Tynan, it was as if Chris weren't even in the room, but she got the impression that she was the answer to which Dysan was referring. She was what Dysan was going to use to do what he wanted to Tynan.

“Before we…die,” Chris said, “could you tell us why? What have we done?”

Dysan took a long draw on his cigar. “I have no intention of telling you anything. By tomorrow, this house will be a pile of cinders and in the ashes will be the bodies of two people. No one will even be able to identify the bodies. Your father will never know what happened to his little daughter.”

“What about the world? Won't they want to know what happened to Nola Dallas?”

Dysan didn't speak for a moment. “You are certainly full of surprises.” He turned to Tynan who was still and silent in the chair. “As well as yourself. She isn't like your usual women.”

“What is it you have against Tynan? And if you think he wants me for anything, you're wrong. I'm nothing to him, absolutely nothing.”

Dysan gave a little smile of delight. “Of course you're not. Now, come here.”

Chris stiffened. “I will not.”

“For every order of mine that you disobey, I will take an hour from his life. You obey me and he lives longer.”

“I can't…” Chris began but she stopped at the look on Dysan's face. She didn't look at Tynan because she was beginning to feel her first anger at him. Why didn't he at least make some form of protest? Did he care so little about her that he'd allow whatever happened to just happen to her?

Chris tried to clear her mind. Tynan wasn't going to help, wasn't going to even say anything that might discourage Dysan so it was up to her. What would she do if she were alone in the room with an aggressive man?

She tried to look about the room without seeming to do so and she saw that on the sideboard were two built-in silverware holders. Inside one of them had to be a table knife. If she could lead Dysan that way…

She began moving toward Dysan, and his eyes never left hers. “What makes you think that I care anything about him? He's only a cowboy who was hired by my father to take me through the rain forest. Did you know that he'd been in jail? My father had to get him out of prison to lead the expedition. He's not my type of man at all.”

Dysan watched her and Chris was glad to see that his eyes went down to her hips a couple of times, from the way she was swaying them, he could hardly miss them.

“I like a man with power.” She was standing close to him now, both of them in front of the sideboard. “Do you have any idea how very wealthy my father is? Can you imagine what an empire you'd have if you were to merge your kingdom with his?”

Dysan looked amused. “Are you trying to seduce me? Do you think you can make me forget what I really want? You are a bystander who got caught in the crossfire.”

Chris was inches away from him now, her face just below his. “I'm trying to save my own neck. If you and I merge, so to speak, we can have control of a great deal. If you murder me, my father will pursue you to the ends of the earth. Your life will be hell.”

“And what about him?”

“What does he matter? Let him go. We don't need him.”

Dysan smiled down at her. “Nice try, princess, but it won't work. The both of you die. Mathison would never let someone who'd once threatened his little girl into his kingdom.”

Suddenly, he grabbed Chris about the waist and pulled her to him, grinding her mouth with his, forcing her lips open and thrusting his tongue inside.

When he released her, her revulsion showed on her face.

He thrust her away from him. “And you think you could pretend to
want
me,” he said between closed lips. “I don't like to be thought a fool. Now come here.”

Chris was really afraid of him now. He wasn't going to fall for anything she'd planned, he was going to torture her in front of Tynan, then kill Tynan in an equally disgusting way—and she wasn't even going to be told why she was dying.

Hesitantly, she walked toward him, and when she was in front of him, she voluntarily put her arms up to go about his neck. She began to kiss his neck, moving over his lips, trying to shift his interest entirely onto her—and while she was kissing him, she was trying to reach the box of silverware behind him.

Feigning passion as he again put his tongue in her mouth, she managed to get the box open, and with one eye open, she saw that there was a set of six table knifes, handles up, in the box. Now, if she could only reach one of them. She was almost there when Dysan suddenly turned and grabbed her hand, her fingertips held an inch above the handle.

“Going to stab me in the back, my dear?” he said before he slapped her across the face.

Chris hit the floor, her hand going to the corner of her bleeding mouth.

Dysan advanced on her, and Chris scooted backward on the floor.

It was just as Dysan reached her and had his hand raised to strike her again that Tynan sprang from his chair and grabbed Dysan about the neck, a small knife held to the evil man's throat. “I think it's time that you pick on someone your own size,” Tynan said.

With that, Ty spun the man around and slammed a right fist into his face.

Dysan went down on the nearest chair and hit the floor next to Chris. Tynan didn't give him time to regain his breath before he was on him again. “You coward!” Tynan said under his breath as he grabbed Dysan and began to beat him.

Chris got up and tried to stop Tynan from killing the man, but Tynan was so angry that she couldn't make him hear her. She kept watching the door, fearing that any minute, one of the guards would come in and take them back to the cellar. They had to get out now while they had the chance.

She jumped on Tynan's back, hoping that her weight would have some effect on him.

Tynan shrugged her off and, again, Chris went skidding across the floor. It was a long moment before Tynan realized what he'd done. He dropped Dysan, allowing the man to slide down the wall to the floor in a bloody heap while he went after Chris.

“That was a fool thing to do,” he said, lifting her up from the floor.

Chris shook her head to clear it. “We have to get out of here while we can. What took you so long to get loose?”

“Have you ever sawed through half-inch ropes with a pen knife? And you didn't look like you were in any misery. Maybe you want to stay here with Dysan rather than escaping with me? Maybe you two can still merge empires once you get rid of the cowboy.”

“Could you go into a jealous rage later? I'd like to get out of here and we still have to get past the guards and the dogs outside.”

After helping her to stand, Tynan went to Dysan and hauled him up. “You're going with us and if the dogs get too near, I'll throw you to them. Chris, hand me that piece of rope.”

As Tynan tied Dysan, Chris looked out the window. “What do you think our chances are? There are guards everywhere.”

“I'm hoping that Pilar and Prescott got away.”

“They didn't. They're in the cellar now,” Dysan said before Tynan put a dirty handkerchief from his back pocket across Dysan's mouth.

“Then we have to get them out,” Chris said, heading toward the door which led to the stairs into the cellar.

Tynan shoved Dysan against the wall and grabbed Chris's arm. “What makes you believe him? If they're locked up, then after I get you out safely, I'll come back for them—alone. You understand me?”

“Because you'll go back to jail if I'm not safe? Pilar and Asher don't matter to you, do they?”

Tynan closed his eyes a moment, then turned back to Dysan and began to search him, removing a small derringer from inside his coat pocket. “All right, let's go. Chris, I'm taking him out the window first, then I want you to follow us when it's safe.” He paused a moment, looking at her. “And I want you to swear to me that you won't do anything stupid like try to get back into the house to find the others. You understand?”

Chris nodded, but she was thinking about Pilar and Asher hidden away in the cellar. Wouldn't it be better if the two of them tried to get them out, instead of Tynan coming back alone later?

“Chris!” Tynan hissed at her as he stood outside the window. Dysan was giving him trouble so Tynan cuffed him once on the side of the head.

There was a low brick wall in the back of the house, a place for flowers and kitchen herbs. Ty crouched down behind the wall, forcing Dysan down in front of him. He kept turning to look at Chris, as if he expected her to disappear and he wanted to be able to go after her as quickly as possible.

They were at the end of the wall when Ty stopped and put his head up. The forest was several yards away and Chris could hear men talking nearby on the other side of the wall and the dogs in the distance. It would probably be only minutes before the guards found them.

Tynan leaned back against the wall and checked Dysan's derringer to make sure it was loaded. “Chris, I want you to stay behind us. I'm going to use Dysan as a shield and get us to the forest. You think you can do that? I don't want any more trouble than I already have. No going back for the others.”

It was obvious that he hadn't believed her when she'd said that she would obey him.

Tynan looked toward the forest for a moment then back at Dysan. “And you give me any trouble and I'll blow your head off.”

“All right, let's go,” he said, grabbing Dysan and pulling him upright.

They left the safety of the wall and stepped into the open ground—but they stopped there because no one was even interested in them. They could see about a dozen guards, one with four dogs on a leash, but not one eye was turned in their direction. The guards were frozen where they stood, staring at something around the corner of the house.

Chris could hear bells in the distance.

“Get back!” Tynan said to Chris, shoving Dysan back toward the wall.

“What is it?” Chris asked.

“I think it's a peddler's wagon,” Ty said. “Pilar used to work on one. If it is them, then we'll do better to leave with them. The dogs will smell our trail in the forest in no time.”

“But how do we get out? We can't just walk to the wagon. And what do we do with him?”

“We leave him here, then we make our way toward the front of the house. We'll figure out a way to make Prescott see us.”

Chris watched as Tynan tied one of Dysan's ankles to a spike in the top of the brick wall, allowing the rope to fall only enough so that Dysan wasn't dangling, but he was very uncomfortable. “Something tells me that I ought to kill you now,” Ty said under his breath. “I think you're going to be nothing but trouble and there'll come a time when I'll regret having missed my chance.” He looked up at Chris. “You ready?”

“Ty, are you sure it's Asher and Pilar? Maybe it's really a peddler's wagon and they're actually locked in the cellar.”

Ty didn't answer but grabbed her arm and pushed her back toward the house. Looking inside the window he made sure no one was about then climbed inside and helped Chris after him.

She followed him as he led her through the house, keeping her back to the walls as he instructed her, while he checked each room they passed for signs of a guard. Once, he slipped inside a room and Chris heard a dull thud, as if a body were hitting the floor, then he returned to the hall and motioned for her to follow him.

Chris didn't question how he came to know the plan of the house so well, but just trusted him. He stopped in a bedroom at the far end of the house.

“It's Pilar, all right,” he said after looking out the window. “She's on top of the wagon dancing, and Prescott is driving. I don't know how much longer we have before they get tired of watching her. On second thought, considering what Pilar's wearing, we may have the rest of the week.”

He turned back to Chris. “How fast can you run?”

“I…I don't know. If someone's chasing me, I guess I can run rather quickly.”

“I'm going to create a diversion and I want you to climb out the window and run to the wagon and get in the back. Think you can do that?”