"Go back into the parlor," Zach said calmly, sparing her the briefest of glances, "and try to keep your aunt occupied. The last thing we want is her out here going into hysterics."
Cassidy nodded, but as she took a cautious step backward, Richard barked, "Stay right where you are." He glared at Zach. "How dumb do you think I am? As if I'm going to let her go where she can call the cops."
"Your aunt's already called the sheriff's department, so if you've got half a brain, you'll beat it the hell out of here while you still can."
"Yeah, right," the younger man scoffed. "Pull the other one, why don't you."
"It's true, Richard," Cassidy said. "Aunt Maureen is furious with you. She told me you're the one who kept reinforcing her fears that the kidnapper would kill David if Zach called the cops like he wanted to. So she didn't hesitate to call them on you."
"Fine." He gave his hair a nervous toss, adjusted his grip on the stock of the shotgun, and glared at Zach. "Give me the goddamn money then, and I'll be on my way."
''Just as soon as you let Glynnis go," David interjected. "I'll give you anything you want. But first, let her go."
Richard turned to look at him, but glanced back every few seconds to keep Zach in sight. He bent a scornful look on his cousin. "You always were a chump."
"Why?" David demanded. "Because I love someone and don't want to see her get hurt?"
"No, because you're such a frigging Little Lord Bountiful. You're just Mister Goddamn Generosity, aren't you?"
From the corner of his eye, Zach saw Cassidy open her mouth to protest. He gave an infinitesimal shake of his head, and to his relief she subsided. Richard had his attention focused pretty firmly on his cousin at the moment, and Zach wanted to keep it that way, since he was using Richard's preoccupation to edge nearer an inch at a time.
"Let me get this straight," David said incredulously. "You're pissed at me because I invited you to live with us and gave you a good-paying job.
"Please. Like you did it from the goodness of your heart." Richard's laugh was bitter. "You're such a hypocrite. You invited us here and gave me a job because you get your kicks out of lording it over all of us and never letting anyone forget you're prince of the goddamn castle."
"That's bullshit!"
"The hell it is." As if sensing danger was approaching, he began to turn back toward Zach.
Lily, who stood on the far side of David, took a step forward. "You know what, Richard? You're a spoiled brat."
He turned to look at her. "Oh, that's good. So says the slut. Did I give you permission to speak, blondie? What are you doing out of the kitchen, meddling in the affairs of your betters, anyway?"
She met his eyes coolly. "I hate to burst your bubble, sonny, but I barely have an equal, let alone a better."
"Yeah?" His gaze did a slow slide over her from head to foot, lingering on her breasts. "Maybe I should take you hostage instead of the little princess here. Those lips look like they could suck the chrome off a trailer"
If Zach's anger had been cold before, now it was red hot. He took the final step separating them and wrenched the shotgun from Richard with one hand while shoving his sister toward David with the other. "You're beginning to seriously piss me off, junior," he snarled and, flipping the weapon around in his grip, pointed it at the younger man. "Move over next to the bannister."
Richard didn't follow orders fast enough to suit him, and Zach gestured sharply with the shotgun. "March! You don't wanna test me right now, Ace, because trust me on this, I don't need much incentive to pump both barrels into your kneecaps."
Richard marched.
Zach didn't blink until he had Richard where he wanted him. "Lily, give me your belt, will you?"
She unfastened the narrow silk-cord-and-leather accessory and slid it off, dangling it a second later within his line of vision.
Zach traded her the shotgun for it. "This is the safety," he said, stroking this thumb over it as he passed her the weapon. "It's on, but all you have to do is push this little latch up, and it'll be ready to shoot. Blow his balls straight to hell if he so much as breathes wrong."
"Oh, believe me." She looked Richard directly in the eye. "That won't be a problem."
Zach's mouth crooked up, and he raised his eyebrows at the erstwhile extortionist, who was staring in horror at the shotgun trained on his crotch. "You're looking a little green around the gills there, Richie. I bet you're kind of regretting those crude sexual innuendos right about now, huh?" Staying out of Lily's way, he shackled Richard's hands to the ornately turned dowels connecting the bannister to the risers. Then he straightened and looked over at his sister, who was being held in a fierce embrace in Beaumont's arms. "You okay?"
"I am now." She clung to David, but brandished one of her sweet smiles at him. "Thank you, Zachariah."
"Hey." He shrugged. "You were the trouper here. And it was a group effort anyway. Everybody helped."
"Then thank you all." Her smile widening to encompass the two women, she snuggled her cheek into David's shoulder.
Zach heard car tires crunching down the drive just as Mrs. Beaumont walked out of the parlor.
"The sheriff is here," she said. She looked at her nephew, manacled to the banister with Lily's dainty little belt. "Well." She walked right up to him, and for a moment Zach thought she might slap Richard's face. But she merely looked him up and down and said in the coolest, most levelheaded tone Zach had yet to hear out of her, "You ungrateful pup. I hope you rot in jail."
Richard's lip curled. "Thanks, auntie. I guess asking you to post bail is out of the question then, huh?"
She looked as if she would hit him then. Her hand came up, and she took an incensed step forward.
But David said, "Mom," and she swung around to look at him.
"He's not worth it; don't waste your energy. Come meet Glynnis. I've been wanting to introduce my two favorite girls to each other for quite some time now."
Mrs. Beaumont turned back and looked at Richard for a long, silent instant. Then she gently patted his cheek. "He's right, dear. You aren't worth it." Ignoring the impotent fury that filled her nephew's eyes, she about-faced and walked over to the young couple.
A moment later, Zach watched Mrs. B. stroke a hand down Glynnie's dark hair and heard her coo, "Aren't you just the prettiest little thing?"
Shaking his head over her effusiveness for a young woman whose existence she'd had a hard time even remembering a few short days ago, he went to let in the deputies.
Jessica jerked in surprise when the door to her sitting room suddenly banged open. Lifting the washcloth off her eyes, she pushed up on one elbow and peered at the bedroom door.
"Jess!"
Her heart began to bang against her ribs at the sound of Christopher's voice, and she had to steel herself against her usual melting sense of surrender when he strode into the room and crossed to the bed.
He sat on the edge of the mattress and reached out to touch her bangs. "You cut your hair." Then he shook his head, as if unable to believe he'd mentioned something so immaterial. "Lily told me you were sick."
God, he was handsome, and she wanted so much to pretend she hadn't seen what she had seen at the Olga Cafe. But she was through pretending; she simply could not do so any longer and still face herself in the mirror. She shifted away from his touch. "I am sick. Sick of this marriage."
"What?" He visibly paled.
"I saw you, Christopher."
"You saw me what?" He looked at her with baffled green eyes. "Where? What are you talking about?"
"Don't toy with me, okay? And don't play the innocent; it makes me want to scratch your eyes out." She shoved herself more fully upright and scooted back until her shoulders pressed against the headboard. Picking up a throw pillow, she clutched it to her roiling stomach. Then she met his gaze head on. "I saw you with that woman at the Olga Cafe today, after you specifically told me you'd be—"