I slam my hand over my heart. “Jesus Christ,” I exclaim. “You are one sneaky motherfucker. I didn't even hear you come into the room. How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to hear Asher is suggesting running off and doing something possibly suicidal.”
Asher goes up to Rafferty and stands right in front of him. “It makes sense, and you know it does. We have our rules about not going anywhere on our own, but we can't only think of ourselves now. We need to putherfirst. If you don't let me, I'll just go anyway. It makes sense for me to do this and for you three to stay here so you can get to her as quickly as possible when I find the information. We've always been about the revenge and nothing else. It’s why we always said we’d stick together and never risk one of us getting harmed. We needed our revenge more than anything else. Now, though, there's something more important to us. I know I'm not alone in feeling that way. If I get hurt, so be it. If it means we can save Honor, then it's worth trying. Like I say, I'm going either way, but I'd rather go with your support and blessing.”
He pushes past Rafferty and stalks out of the room. When he leaves, it's as if he's taken half the air in the room with him. As if somehow, he sucked some of the energy right out of the vortex we are left standing in.
“Christ, I think he's got it the worst out of all of us,” Rafferty grouses.
“Oh, I don't know, I think I've got it pretty bad, too,” I say with a deep, but short laugh. “What he says is correct, though,” I point out. “One of us needs to go and do some digging on the ground. We need some of your money, and some of Asher’s smarts, and we might luck out and find out where Don could be holding our girl. Once we do, we can go and get her back.”
“What if we're too late? What if he takes her and kills her right away?” Rafferty is normally so controlled, but now his cool blue eyes fill with emotion, and pain turns them a deeper hue than usual.
“He's not going to kill her,” I say. “At least not yet.
“How can you be so sure?”
I sigh and glance at the floor before looking back to him to answer.
“Because if he wanted to do that, he could have murdered her in the cove and dumped her body in the waves. Then we’d have found her body already. He’s taken a risk by snatching her and keeping her alive. He wants to take his time, and he wants to play with her.”
I leave the awful truth hanging in the room behind me as I turn and follow Asher out of the door.
Chapter Five
Honor
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SOME HOURS LATER, DONreaches whatever spot on the mainland he’s been heading toward all this time and guides the boat toward shore.
I’m nauseated from the prolonged swell of the ocean, and I’m sure my face is an interesting shade of green. I hate throwing up, so I’m relieved I’ve managed to prevent myself from vomiting. If I had been sick, though, I’d have made sure it hit Don.
The boat bumps against the jetty, and Don vanishes from view as he does whatever he needs to do to prevent the boat from drifting away again. I try to get a view of where we are, but darkness swathes the land. The moon is a crescent cut out of the indigo sky, and the wave of bright dots of starlight don’t do much to light the way. I strain my ears, hoping to catch the distant hum of cars on a road, or of voices, but there’s only the slosh of water against the jetty and the rhythmic call of cicadas from somewhere onshore.
The heavy thud of footsteps signals Don’s return, and then he’s back, looming over me. He uses the key to unlock the cuffs, but my relief is only momentary as he unhooks the chain, and quickly snaps them shut again, so my hands are now cuffed in front of my body. He grabs me by the forearm, his fingers branding red marks into my skin. He ignores the way I stumble and shake as I trip behind him getting off the boat which continues to bob with the movement of the waves against the jetty. The man is insane.