“You’re on speaker. I don’t need to tell him.”
“Then I’ll say good-bye, Lassiter,” Nicos said. “Our association has proved to be of enormous benefit to me. I never dreamed that just taking Patrick would cause you to bring me such a wonderful prize as Margaret. Enjoy her for the time you have with her. But please don’t damage her. I regard that as my privilege.” He hung up.
Lassiter was cursing as he turned to her. “You didn’t have to talk to him. I could see what it was doing to you.”
“You’re wrong. I had to do it,” she said numbly. “I couldn’t do anything else or he might have thought you were trying to fool him. I’ve seen him blow up when he thought that was happening. He doesn’t think; he just strikes out.” She swallowed hard to ease the tightness of her throat. “He would have struck out at Patrick. One telephone call and Patrick would have been dead. I had to do what he wanted.”
“Is that how it worked with the two of you?” His eyes were blazing in his taut face. “To keep the peace, you gave in to everything he wanted of you? How could you take it?”
“Sometimes I couldn’t. But I tried; it was safer for everyone.” She had to get out of here. It was bad enough that Nicos’s words, Nicos’s voice seemed to linger, echo in the air. She could feel Lassiter’s frustration and rage and it was hurting almost as much as Nicos’s venom. “I’m going now. I have to leave.” She turned toward the door. Escape. Run away. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“No, stay.” His voice was hoarse. “I’m not going to let you run out of here and then have to remember the look on your face all night. Everything seems to have gone wrong, but I’ll make it right. I’ll find that password. I’m not going to let you go back to him.”
“I know you don’t want to do it.” She didn’t look at him as she opened the door. “I know that.”
“But you believe I’ll do it anyway. My God, after listening to that son of a bitch talk to you like that? I’ll find that damn password.”
“I hope you do.”
He was suddenly in front of her, his hands grasping her shoulders. “Listen, I put you in this position. You’re right: I tracked you and then took you down. But I had no idea it would turn out like this. I thought I could use you to stall, set up an exchange, and then get my hands on Nicos.”
“Yes, you told me.”
“I don’t know why the hell Nicos got it into his head that he wouldn’t negotiate. Salva said there would be no problem with an exchange. It seemed as if an ambush would work.”
She still didn’t look at him. “It probably would have worked if Nicos hadn’t had that date in mind. After that, there was no chance.” She had to say one more thing before she broke free of his hold and got out of here. “He meant it, you know. He’ll do exactly what he said he’d do to Patrick if I’m not there day after tomorrow. There won’t be any question. You won’t be able to bargain or bribe or procrastinate. Patrick will die that day.”
“Look at me.” His hands tightened on her shoulders as she lifted her eyes to his face. “Why the hell did you tell me that? Do you want me to send you back to him?”
“I don’t want Patrick to die. You had to know.” She tore away from him and called back over her shoulder, “Find that password. You told me you needed three or four days, maybe a week. Well, you don’t have that any longer. You have two days. But if you don’t find it, you’d better start thinking about what’s going to come next. Because that’s what I’ll be thinking about tonight.”
She slammed the door behind her and ran down the walk to her room. Her hand was shaking as she unlocked the door and threw it open.
Two minutes later, she had thrown off her clothes and crawled beneath the coverlet on the bed like a wounded animal. Nothing new. Nicos had always made her feel wounded and helpless.
No, not at first, not until he’d found the key to punish and take away her independence. It had been a long time after she had run away that she had regained that freedom. And that sense of oppression had come flooding back to her in a smothering tide as she’d spoken to Nicos tonight.
Fight it. She couldn’t let it happen again. He didn’t have the weapon that had broken her any longer. She didn’t have to let him win.
But he had another weapon in Sean Patrick and he was using it against Lassiter. She couldn’t turn her back when she had seen that photo that had torn her emotions apart. She could see it before her now and the memory was as fresh and painful as when she had first seen it.
All right, try not to remember it yet. Right now, lie here and concentrate on healing from that hideous encounter with Nicos. When she was just a little calmer, she would force herself to go over things she knew about Nicos that might help locate the password. See, she was getting better. She had almost stopped shaking.
Then she would pray that Lassiter’s work tonight would be successful, that the password would magically appear on his screen. It wasn’t impossible. Prayers were sometimes answered.
But Rosa’s prayers had not been answered. Neither had Margaret’s when she had been on Vadaz Island.
Then don’t count on prayers. Think about what alternatives might succeed if they didn’t find the password.
And she started to shake again.
Sadness.
Desolation.
Fear.
The emotions as well as the words were all surrounding her. She thought at first it was that strange calling she’d heard earlier in the evening.
It was not. It was her own emotions that she had to fight so desperately tonight.
Sadness.
Desolation.
Fear …
5:15 A.M.
Margaret turned off the shower but stayed there a minute trying to gather the effort to get out and start what had to be done. She would have welcomed the calling that had come to her yesterday while she standing here in this spot, just to have another reason to delay.
No cry.
No calling.
And she had to stop being a coward and face what she’d decided had to be faced. She got out of the shower and grabbed a towel. Maybe all this worry was for nothing. Maybe when she went to Lassiter, she’d find those prayers had been answered.
But when he answered the door to her knock fifteen minutes later, her hopes plummeted. He had a dark stubble on his face and his eyes were strained.
“You’re too early. I’ll get it. Come back in a couple hours.”
It was the answer she’d dreaded. “Did that brute-force thing work? Are you close?”
He didn’t answer her. “I’ll get it.”