He took a deep breath and stepped to the back door, lightly knocking.
There was a clicking noise behind him.
Surlock turned and stared at the weapon Ralph held.
“Make one wrong move and I blow your brains out,” Ralph said, and from his expression, Surlock thought he might do just that.
“I offer you no harm,” Surlock told Ralph. “I came to speak about Darcy.”
“Yeah, and you’d better tell us where she is, too.”
The door behind him opened, but he dared not take his eyes off Ralph.
“Is this the man who kidnapped Darcy?” a man behind Surlock asked.
“That’s him all right,” Ralph said.
“I didn’t kidnap Darcy,” Surlock told them. Now he wasn’t so sure he wanted to tell them she was dead, either. He only hoped Ralph didn’t suddenly develop a nervous twitch.
The man stepped from behind Surlock. He had dark hair threaded with streaks of gray. His face was aged and lined with worry.
“Just tell me where my daughter is and we’ll pay the ransom.”
“Ransom?”
“The note that came yesterday said you wanted two million dollars. We’re gathering it now. All we care about is our daughter, and if you’ve harmed her, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
The world stopped moving as the blood rushed to Surlock’s head. “Darcy is alive?” Hope sprang inside him. Hope and joy and a burst of love. The emotions hit him full force, almost toppling him. “She’s alive?” he asked again.
Ah, no, if this was a lie, then he would surely be doomed. He couldn’t bear the pain of losing her twice.
CHAPTER 27
Darcy glared at Excoria’s back. First chance she got, she was knocking this chick’s lights out. Not that she would get that chance any time soon. The bitch had tied the ropes pretty damned tight.
And if Excoria shot her with that tranquilizer gun one more time, she’d do more than knock her lights out. She’d cram the gun down her throat—then knock her lights out.
Even in her dazed state, Darcy recognized the estate next door to her parents’ place. The Bishops were still in France. She was so close to her parents, to her home and everything she loved, yet so far away.
No, that wasn’t quite true. She wasn’t close to Surlock. She had no idea where he was. From what she could gather from El Stupido, he was being used to trade for some high-up official who was imprisoned in Surlock’s country.
When Excoria suddenly turned around, Darcy quickly lowered her gaze and became the docile captive again.
“I’m going to call them.” Excoria reached for her cell phone.
“It’s too soon,” Darcy told her. “It will take time for my parents to gather that much money without raising suspicion.” She only hoped she could stall Excoria long enough for her parents to contact the FBI and get them involved. Excoria had been a little smarter than Darcy had given her credit for and warned her parents she would kill Darcy if law enforcement of any kind was brought in.
“No, I think I should call them.” Excoria paced back and forth, plucking at her clothes as if they scratched her. She stopped to glance nervously out the window. “This was a bad idea,” she mumbled. “Nivla will be really mad if he discovers I didn’t kill you.”
Darcy had to distract the other woman so she would stop worrying about what would happen if the others found out she hadn’t carried out their orders. Excoria was clearly off her rocker. Darcy would never understand why a bunch of terrorists would even enlist this woman’s help. She kept talking about impures.
Apparently, everyone thought Darcy was an impure. They were all lunatics. Maybe they were against people who weren’t virgins and still unmarried. A weird religious cult. Wow, they were going to have their work cut out for them if they planned to destroy all the unmarried non-virgins.
Right now, fear and indecision were written all over the woman’s face. Darcy certainly didn’t want Excoria to regret not killing her.
“You know, there are a bunch of places to hide,” Darcy said. “You could go anywhere you want with the money my parents are going to give you for returning me safe and unharmed.”
Excoria was thoughtful. “Yes, I can, can’t I?”
“You won’t have to take orders from anyone.”
Excoria sighed, then plopped down on the sofa. She’d removed most of the sheets that covered the furniture. Ms. Bishop was going to be really pissed that Excoria was staining her expensive white sofa with her dirty boots. Not that Darcy would mention that to her.
“You could easily afford a house like this,” Darcy said.
Of course, by the time Excoria paid all the taxes, and bought furniture, and paid any HOA fees, there wouldn’t be much left. Besides the fact the IRS would want to know how she’d acquired so much money in the first place. No, she’d let all that be a surprise. That is, if Excoria even had a chance to spend any of the money.
Excoria looked around with a dreamy expression. “I could have all the jewels I wanted, too.”
Obviously, she’d been living in a cave and hadn’t heard the economy was in the crapper.
“Oh, well, yeah.” Darcy nodded her head. “You could drape your body in jewels. Diamonds and rubies. Emeralds as big as your thumb.” Mostly paste, of course. Two mil just didn’t go as far as it used to.
Excoria sighed. “I’ve heard that on Nerak they have jewels just lying around. Can you imagine that?”
Nerak? Darcy had never heard of the place. “Is that somewhere in Australia?”
Excoria snorted. “You still don’t have a clue, do you?”
No, and Darcy doubted she ever would. But, just to play along, she shook her head. “I don’t guess I do.”
“Nerak isn’t another country,” Excoria smugly stated. “It’s another planet.”
Great, the woman was crazier than she’d thought. What? Had they all escaped from a loony bin? Had they taken Surlock because they wanted to break out this Zerod guy? He was probably crazier than all of them put together. Maybe Surlock was a doctor who worked there or something.
A cold chill swept over her. What if Surlock was one of the crazies?
Surlock was not crazy! Just because he had humming in his ears didn’t make him crazy. She had humming in her ears that was steadily getting worse, but that didn’t mean she was crazy. …
Lord, she hoped it didn’t mean she was crazy.
She had to think, and keep Excoria talking. The woman was clearly off her rocker. But if Excoria was busy talking, maybe she wouldn’t be thinking about killing Darcy.
“So, does that mean you’re an alien?” Darcy asked as nonchalantly as she could.
Excoria chuckled, leaning forward. “I’m an alien. You’re an alien.”
“I’m an alien,” Darcy repeated. The situation was worse than she’d thought.
“Part alien, which makes you an impure.” Excoria crossed her legs at the ankles. A clump of dirt fell off one boot and landed on the sofa.
“Oh, I thought it meant I wasn’t a virgin,” Darcy mumbled.
Well, at least now they wouldn’t be going around killing off the non-virgins who weren’t married. That would save a lot of lives.
“And my parents were aliens?” Darcy asked. Uh-huh, sure.
“Only one of them. I know that much about your ancestry. They were disposed of by rogues.”
Disposed of. Hmm, she supposed that meant they were dead. “How sad. Did you kill them?” It was best to play along with the lunatic.
Excoria frowned. “No, of course not. I didn’t become a rogue until a couple of years ago.”
“Up until then you were just your run-of-the-mill alien.”
Excoria cocked an eyebrow. “A Symtarian isn’t an average alien, and New Symtaria is far more advanced than Earth. And we’re not aliens where I come from. You would be the alien.”
“And New Symtaria is a planet.” Wow, now this was getting strange. How could this chick know that she and Surlock had been searching for New Symtaria?