LITMIR.BIZ

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that serves as tissue.”

      Her stomach retched. Still she straightened her dress as best she could, wishing she’d worn something that buttoned to the neck—not that she owned any dresses like that.

      “Bring it on,” she said, going for fake bravado. She could do without the outhouse, but she did need to see what was outside this room and to search for an escape route.

      “Actually, we have indoor plumbing these days,” Reggie admitted. “But I don’t advise drinking or even washing your mouth out with it. Pipes are rusted.”

      He walked over to the door and opened it, then motioned for her to lead the way. “Almost forgot,” he taunted, just as she reached the door. “I have a bracelet for you, though not nearly as becoming as the earrings your Spanish lover gave you.”

      So he knew about not only the necklace but the earrings as well, information she hadn’t had until minutes before the champagne arrived.

      Reggie obviously had an accomplice on the inside. But who? The only employee Quaid had brought to the States was Javier Aranda, a longtime friend who had come two weeks before Quaid’s arrival to check out the hotel where Quaid had reservations and to meet with Ruth and Jade. Javier had left to fly back to Barcelona a few days after Quaid’s arrival.

      Reggie slipped the handcuffs around her wrist and locked them. “That way,” he said, shoving her past him.

      The bathroom was down a short, narrow hallway. Just past that she glimpsed a large square room with a range, a refrigerator and a dinette set, all old and worn enough that they’d feel at home in the Smithsonian.

      Reggie shoved her again, this time into the bathroom. “The door stays open a crack,” he said. He took out his gun and waved it around threateningly before stepping away and leaving her alone.

      He wasn’t taking any chances with her escaping, but he wasn’t going to shoot her, not as long as he thought she knew the location of the costly necklace. That was the one thing in her favor.

      Inhibited by the cuffs, she struggled to get her panties down and take care of business. As she pulled them up again, Reggie’s words came back to haunt her. He’d searched her for the necklace, and that obviously involved more than just patting her down.

      There was no mirror, so she pulled up her dress and examined her body as best she could. No bruises around her thighs, breasts or abdomen, though there was a nasty one on her left arm. No bite marks around her nipples. No pain inside her that would indicate rape.

      Thankfully, Reggie was apparently too obsessed with finding the necklace to concern himself with anything else. As bad as things were, they could have been worse. She’d hold on to that and take it as a good omen.

      A quick look around the bathroom revealed nothing but soap, a damp hand towel on a hook and a dead cockroach.

      No blades. No scissors. No bottles or mirrors she could break into a shard of jagged glass. She lingered at the stained sink, letting the lukewarm water splash over her hands as she soaped them repeatedly. Slowly a plan began to form in her mind. Risky, but it beat certain death by a mile.

      She shook her hands to dry them rather than use the dirty towel. Fear gnawed at her stomach like claws, but she refused to give in to it. She clenched her teeth and forced a steady breath as she prepared to face Reggie with her lies.

      He kicked open the bathroom door, sending it slamming against the bathroom wall. “You’ve stalled long enough, Jade.” He peppered the demand with a stream of four-letter words.

      Reggie handed her a bottle of water as she stepped out of the bathroom. She took it before he changed his mind. She drank half the bottle before he shoved her back toward the room that had become her prison.

      Once inside, he kicked the door shut again.

      “Where’s the necklace, Jade?”

      She sighed as if she’d lost the battle of wits. “How about a deal?”

      “You don’t have a bargaining tool.”

      “If you kill me without a deal, you have no necklace. And I can assure you that you won’t find it on your own.”

      “What’s the deal?” he asked.

      “I’ll go back to the hotel with you and show you where to find the necklace. We sell it on the black market as a team and I get half the profits.”

      He smirked as he pretended to be considering her offer. He’d agree, of course. Nothing to lose since even if she gave him the necklace, he’d kill her—unless she found a way to escape first. Her life literally depended on that.

      “Once I have the necklace in hand, then we talk money. But you don’t go with me. You’re a killer on the run, remember? You tell me where to find the necklace. If it’s not where you say it is, I kill you. Couldn’t be much simpler than that.”

      “I go with you or no deal,” she countered.

      “How big a fool do you think I am? If someone spots us at that hotel together, we’ll both be arrested.”

      “If you want the necklace, you do it my way.” Her chances for escape would be much better in the city. “Get me the appropriate clothes and shoes and a wig. I’ll go in disguise. If someone from the hotel sees me, they’ll assume I’m a fellow detective.”

      “Do you really think I’d trust you to go back to the scene of the crime and not alert someone what was going on?”

      “You will if you want the necklace that you’ve already killed for. Fifty-fifty, partner.”

      Reggie clenched his fist and looked as if he might be about to plant it in her face. Instead, he spit out a stream of curses.

      “A dark-colored wig and not the cheapest one you can find,” Jade specified. “They scream fake. Pants and shirt, size six. Shoes, size seven. Something comfortable.” That she could run in. “And a toothbrush and toothpaste so that my foul-smelling breath doesn’t stink up the lobby.”

      “You won’t be in the lobby.”

      But he didn’t say she wouldn’t be going to the hotel. This could work.

      “I’ll think about it,” he said. “But if you double-cross me...” He pulled his gun again and let it do the rest of his talking for him.

      She didn’t need the reminder. She’d come up with a plan to buy time and perhaps get back into the city. Now she needed a plan to stay alive.

      “I’ll be back soon,” Reggie said. “In the meantime, think about your poor dead Spanish lover and know if you make one wrong move, you’ll be joining him at the morgue.”

      “Quaid wasn’t my lover.”

      “Why not? Weren’t you good enough for him?”

      Reggie opened the bedroom door, then looked back at her with a stupid smirk on his face. “Oops, almost forgot. I shouldn’t leave you locked up this way.” He took out a key, loosened the cuff on her left wrist and then dragged her back to the bed.

      This time the bastard fastened one link around the iron headboard before relocking the cuffs.

      He laughed as he swaggered to the door. “Enjoy yourself, darling. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

      * * *

      FURY ERUPTED AND Jade stamped her foot so hard the old floorboards groaned. Enough energy wasted on useless rage, she decided quickly. Handcuffs and heavy iron bedstead notwithstanding, she was alone for an extended period of time. This might be her best—or only— opportunity to come out of this alive.

      If something happened to Reggie while he was gone, and she couldn’t unlock the handcuffs, she could die of thirst out here or be bitten by spiders or stinging scorpions. Who knew what crept around this place?

      She forced the creepy thoughts aside. She had to think rationally.

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