“I’m sorry,” she said, suddenly realizing how quiet he hallway was, and that they were alone, just the two of them. “I should have been paying better attention to vhere I was going.” She attempted to step around him.
He blocked her path, large and immobile. Forebodng snaked along the surface of her skin and kicked up he adrenaline in her system. He smiled, the gesture as dark and evil as his black eyes. Full-fledged terror gripped her. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to bolt, but he anticipated her intent.
He grasped her arm so brutally, she sucked in a sharp breath, cutting off the protest forming on her lips. Before she could recover from that painful assault, he forcefully guided her down the hallway, away from the ballroom.
“Make a sound and you’re dead,” he informed her his tone as feral as his threatening words.
SITTING AT their dinner table while he waited for Paige to return from the ladies’ room, Josh casually glanced a his watch for the seventh time in as many minutes.
He had a clear view of the corridor that led to the res room, and no one had entered or exited from that direction since Paige. Tension tightened the cords in his neck and bunched the muscles along his shoulders. Where another minute crept by with no sign of Paige, he grew even more restless, his eyes shifting from the hallway to Carranza and back again, his mind flipping through a multitude of scenarios-none of which were pleasant.
A young man Josh had seen with Carranza throughout the night approached Victor, and Josh watched as they exchanged words. Carranza’s expression took on a cold, calculating presence, and he nodded to his messenger. Excusing himself from the group he’d been visiting with, Carranza then exited the ballroom through the main entrance.
The fact that Carranza had departed in the opposite direction to where Paige had gone did little to reassure Josh. His gut twisted with an awful premonition. A discreet but urgent nod from the bartender confirmed his suspicions.
Something had happened to Paige, and she was in trouble.
Forcing a calm he was hard-pressed to maintain, Jost headed toward the brass-and-mahogany bar. He waited anxiously for the couple in front of him to order and receive their drinks, then leave to mingle. Once he was alone with the bartender, Josh stepped closer to the brass railing, careful not to make eye contact with the undercover officer on the opposite side of the bar. The other man kept busy as well, clearing the empty glasses a waiter had delivered.
“I’ll take a club soda,” Josh said, aware that Bridget was keeping an eye on him from across the room.
The bartender set a glass with ice on the pour pad and used a spigot to fill it with the carbonated liquid. “Study. West wing. First level.”
The officer’s words were low and clipped, but Josh latched on to each one, knowing that somehow, between the network of other undercover officers planted around the estate, and any information or clues Paige might have been able to utter while being abducted, they’d managed to determine her location.
This was it, he realized. The moment they’d planned for.
Josh didn’t know the layout of the mansion, could only go by the bartender’s brief, vague directions. He had to get to the first landing, but how? Bridget had moved to talk to a small gathering of people near the entrance of the ballroom and would no doubt waylay him should he attempt to leave. A glance toward the corridor leading to the rest room nixed the idea of finding the same back stairway Paige had taken with her own personal guide. Two burly men dressed in black stood near that hallway like obedient rottweilers.
Feeling trapped, frustrated, and trying not to think about the fear Paige was experiencing, Josh searched for an alternate escape, and found only one. Taking his drink, he moved around the room, keeping an eye on Bridget. When a guest temporarily diverted her attention, he slipped out onto the balcony, startling the two women who stood outside, taking in the cool evening air.
So much for disappearing unnoticed. Knowing his choices were limited, Josh nodded amicably at the pair, set his drink down on a glass-topped table, and climbed over the wrought-iron railing. One of the women gasped, while the other stared at him, both shocked at his behavior.
He grinned and winked, striving for a charm he was far from feeling. “If anybody should ask, you didn’t see me,” he said, hoping to buy himself time with their cooperation. Sliding down the railing, he gripped the ledge of the balcony, straightened his body, then dropped to the ground nearly ten feet below. Pain shot up his legs, but he gave it little thought-he hadn’t broken any bones and that was all he cared about.
Drawing his weapon and crouching low, he made his way to the back entrance of the manor and slipped inside. All was quiet; Carranza’s staff was upstairs, attending the party. Heading toward the west wing, he negotiated what seemed like a maze of hallways. He checked every room he passed, murmuring his location as he moved along so he’d have backup when he needed it. Time seemed to drag as he stealthily searched the lower level of the mansion, listening for sounds and voices behind closed doors. Sweat beaded his brow and his heart pumped frantically in his chest when each room turned up dark and empty.
Where in the hell was she?
WHERE IN THE HELL was he?
Paige swallowed the panic rising in her throat, desperate not to succumb to the blinding terror hovering just below the facade of calm she’d managed to maintain in Carranza’s and his thug’s presence.
With a firm push between her shoulder blades, the thug nudged her deeper into the study, toward the large marble-topped desk Carranza stood behind. The room smelled of leather, fine tobacco and money. The combination of odors made Paige’s stomach clench; the insidious glimmer in Carranza’s gaze made her entire body tremble.
She lifted her chin, refusing to cower. “I don’t appreciate being manhandled by the hired help.”
Carranza appeared amused. “If you hadn’t been so difficult about parting with the necklace, none of this would have been necessary.” Hands clasped behind his back, he circled the desk and slowly approached her. “I would have been happy to compensate you a few thousand dollars for the necklace, and we could have parted without any complications. Unfortunately, you’ve forced me to take a more drastic approach.”
She flinched when he reached out to unclasp the necklace, shuddered in revulsion when his fingers brushed along her neck. She thought about using the gun strapped to her thigh, but with Carranza in front of her and the thug behind her, she knew she was outnumbered and outmuscled.
So, she endured Carranza’s touch, grateful when he finally pulled his hands away from her body. His expression turned euphoric as he gazed at the diamonds and emeralds in his hand, his eyes taking on a glimmer of greedy excitement. Even his breathing changed as he stroked the glittering jewels, growing deep, eager, almost aroused.
She watched him walk back behind his desk, lift a painting from the wall, and open the safe behind it. Lifting a black velvet-lined tray from the vault, he placed it on his desk. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds and an assortment of other jewels sparkled in the light-a heal of treasures Paige suspected had been pilfered, just as the Ivanov necklace had been.
“Ahh, now my collection is complete,” he murmured ecstatically, more to himself than anybody else in the room.
She broke out in a cold sweat, shivering despite the warmth of the room. Where was Josh? she wondered desperately. She’d dropped as many clues as to her whereabouts as she possibly could without being obvious. Had something gone wrong?
Carranza glanced up at her, regret clouding the exuberant light in his eyes. “I really do apologize that things have to end this way, Mrs. Montgomery. But there’s something about you I don’t trust, just like that husband of yours.”