“I don’t like it,” Hannah said firmly.
“I don’t, either,” Rider told her. “So we’ve got to do what she wants us to, so she’s not so angry, okay?”
He gave her a squeeze and got to his feet. When Paige rejoined him, he pitched his voice low to speak to her.
“You’ve got to back off, Paige. You might push him too far and somebody could get hurt.”
“Including you?” she snapped, although no louder than he had spoken; she might be angry, but she was still thinking. And he’d had that coming, from her point of view.
“Including me, you and the children. Give it a rest, at least for a while. Let’s get them settled. It’s going to be a long night.”
She said nothing more, but began to do as he said. She had a couple of the older kids go to the little ones’ cubicle—warily watching Tarak every step of the way—to gather up the mats that were there. They brought them back and then moved the chairs out of the way and laid them out. There were extras, but not enough for all the older kids. Kyle took it upon himself to volunteer the boys to rough it. Lani quickly vetoed that idea.
“Girls can be just as tough as boys,” she said firmly.
“Tougher,” Kyle said easily. “You have to have the babies.”
Rider smothered a grin but gave Kyle an approving wink. Kyle in turn gave him a sideways look that Rider couldn’t quite read, although it clearly meant something.
Paige then began the lengthy process of taking the little ones to the bathroom. The older ones she merely escorted, so they wouldn’t have to go past the guard alone. Once that was done, and she had the littlest ones settled on the mats, the older ones at least sitting on the floor, Rider casually moved toward her, putting himself between her and Filipo so that he could turn his back to the young guard.
“Let’s move the sofa up here,” he said, loud enough for both guards to hear, gesturing toward the raised computer center. “If we put it up there on the platform then you can see everyone and anybody who might need something.”
For a moment she looked puzzled; there wasn’t really anything to be gained by moving it, she could see everybody anyway and he knew she knew that. But when he mouthed “Say yes,” at her, after a moment she just nodded.
“All right,” she said, loud enough for the guard to hear.
It took them a couple of minutes to lever the sofa up onto the computer platform and get it exactly where he wanted it. Paige clearly didn’t understand why it needed to be exactly there, and there was barely room for it, but she helped him, anyway. So, he thought, there was at least some small amount of trust left.
Or she was just withholding final judgment, waiting a bit longer before she wrote him off entirely.
By the time they were done with everything, it was completely dark, although not as dark as it could have been, thanks to the moon. Paige went from child to child, reassuring them with encouraging words that Rider wasn’t sure she believed herself. But they seemed to believe her and began to settle down for a night she’d told them to think of as camping out. And if she lingered a tiny bit longer with Kyle, Rider didn’t think anyone had noticed. Finally she retreated to the sofa they’d moved, and sank down onto it wearily.
Their two guards had taken chairs to their respective doors and appeared to be settling in for the night, their attention divided between their prisoners and the outside, and broken only by their regular rounds. Time spun out. When at last he was certain neither of them was looking, he walked to the back of the sofa to once more make sure it was in the right place. Then he went to stand behind Paige, leaned over and put his hands on her shoulders. He felt how incredibly tight her muscles were, just before she instinctively tensed. He rubbed gently and leaned over farther.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her. “I promise.”
He doubted that she believed him. He didn’t blame her at all, since he had no idea himself if he’d be able to keep that promise.
Chapter 10
She didn’t understand. The terrorists, with their scare tactics, disgusting methods and pseudo-noble demands, seemed downright simple to understand next to Noah Rider. One minute he was acting afraid of his own shadow, next he was calming the kids. He’d been so good with them, even though he insisted he knew next to nothing about dealing with children. And now he was rubbing the tenseness out of her shoulders and telling her it was going to be okay in a voice she almost believed.
Barely aware of what she was doing, she leaned back into his hands, only realizing how knotted her muscles were by the feel of strong yet gentle fingers working them, easing them. She closed her eyes. Just for a minute, she thought. Just for a minute she could stop thinking and just feel the warmth spreading beneath his hands. Just for a minute, and then she’d get back to worrying about their situation.
She felt him move and opened her eyes. She realized he was now kneeling behind the sofa. She started to turn her head, but stopped when he whispered, “There’s nothing more you can do right now.”
She nearly shivered at the feel of his breath against her ear. And then his fingers brushed the skin at the back of her neck and she did shiver. How could he do this to her with just a touch, and in the middle of chaos?
She made herself concentrate on his words. “I can’t just sit here,” she said, speaking as quietly as he had, hoping that in the darkness nothing would draw the guard’s attention.
“That’s all you can do for now. You have the kids to think about. If anything happened to you, think what it would do to them. Look how upset they got when that bastard hit you.”
And you almost got shot, she thought, shivering anew at the memory. She didn’t flinch at all at his epithet. It fit in most senses of the word.
But he had a point. She hadn’t thought of that. She knew the kids liked her, as well as they could like any teacher they’d only been with a few weeks. And the little ones especially had taken to her. And it would be the little ones who would be affected most if something happened to her.
“Just wait until morning. Things may change by then.”
“You mean they may go away? Get what they want and leave?”
Noah sighed. “Not likely. Not if they want somebody out of jail in Arethusa. The government won’t negotiate. I’ve worked with them when we were making the deal for Redstone Bay, and they’re pretty hard-nosed.”
“What could change, then?”
“Maybe Ares will have other things to think about besides a spokesperson and leave you alone for the moment.”
“Like how to terrorize everyone into being too afraid to resist?” It was all she could do to maintain a whisper.
“That is the usual MO, I believe,” Noah agreed.
How could he sound so cool, almost casual, when she knew he was as frightened as she was? She’d seen it in his face, in his body language. Did the darkness, and the fact that their captors couldn’t see them make that much difference?
Another little shiver rippled through her as she realized the tiny tug she was feeling on her hair was Noah. It felt as if he were running her ponytail through his hands, as if he liked the feel of it.
“Why don’t you try to rest?” he asked softly. “You’ll need to be on your toes tomorrow.”
“How can I rest with those two ready to shoot anything that moves?”
“They’re not going to shoot you. Not when their leader wants to use you.”
She’d already reached that conclusion, but it didn’t alleviate her concern very much. “What about the children?”
“I doubt they’ll chance shooting one of them, either. They may need them later, for leverage.”
Paige tried to smother the exclamation of hatred that wanted to break free at the thought of these evil men using children as bargaining chips, with no more feeling than if they were the palm trees that abounded on the island.
Noah came around the couch and sat down next to her. “Try not to think about it right now,” he urged. “They’re just getting set up. Nothing’s lik
ely to happen tonight.”
She wished she could be sure of that. Noah put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She hadn’t the energy to resist and didn’t want to. It just felt too good to have somebody to lean on. Maybe Noah wasn’t Arnold Schwarzeneggar, but this would have been so much worse if she’d been alone.
She listened to his steady breathing, to the occasional rustle as a child shifted on one of the mats. Noah generated a wonderful warmth, and after a while it was all she could do not to snuggle even closer and drift off.
“Just doze,” he told her softly. “You know you’ll wake up if one of them needs you.”
She supposed he was right. When Kyle had been younger, he couldn’t make a sound, even down the hall, without her coming awake to check on him.
She stifled a yawn. Those had been precious days. Days when all was right with her world, when her child trusted her implicitly and when she’d believed her husband had loved her. Then terrorists had destroyed that world, just as they had now.
No, she told herself as she stifled another yawn, Phil had already destroyed it. All the terrorists had done was destroy the facade, tear the lid off Phil’s secret life, when they had taken down that plane. Even if they hadn’t killed him, he would have been gone. The only difference was that it would have done even more damage to Kyle.
She’d saved him that, at least, she thought sleepily….
Paige came awake with a start, with no idea of how long she’d been asleep. A little confused and groggy, she listened, wondering if one of the children had stirred, awakening her. But she heard nothing from them. And the guards had not moved. They were still in their chairs, angled so they could see outside but still hear anything above a whisper in the schoolroom.
In that instant she thought of Noah and realized that he and his comforting warmth were gone. But he was there, moving more quietly than she ever would have thought possible for a man of his size. He was behind the sofa, which puzzled her, since the only place he could have been coming from was the bathroom, yet that was the other direction. His rising must have been what had begun to rouse her, although she hadn’t really awakened until his return.
Then he was beside her again, and she felt the urge to curl up against him. At first she fought it but then wondered why. These could hardly be called normal conditions, so she couldn’t be blamed for what she wanted, could she?
And he certainly didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he shifted to make more room for her, gently urged her to pull her feet up and lie back against him. Before she really realized it, they were lying on the sofa, her back to his chest, and it felt so good she didn’t make the slightest protest. Not that she wanted to.
He was even warmer than before, and his breathing seemed a bit quicker, as if that short trip to the bathroom had been an exertion.
She hadn’t found it too pleasant a trip herself, under guard, she reminded herself.
She tried to think, but it was difficult when she was so close to Noah, in such an intimate position. And she was still tired, she guessed, as she tried to figure the time. Then she gave up and whispered a question to the man who would know better than anyone.
“When are the first guests scheduled?”
“The day after tomorrow,” he said. Then she felt him shift, saw him lift his arm to look at his watch. “Make that tomorrow,” he corrected, “it’s nearly one.”
That startled her. She hadn’t expected to sleep at all, yet she’d slept more than two hours. But then, she’d done the same thing when Phil had been killed, slept as if it had been the way to avoid the reality that had suddenly crashed in on her. That was, until she got served those papers the day she’d buried him. After that she was beyond the healing power of sleep for a very long time.
But now, even amid this horror, she felt oddly soothed with Noah so close. And after a few minutes she drifted off once more.
“Ms. Cooper?”
The tiny voice brought her bolt upright. She glanced around. The nearest door was closed. Filipo must be on his patrol. Then she saw that Noah was gone again, but she didn’t dwell on it, because the voice had belonged to little Stevie. He’d been too scared to risk going near the guard earlier, so she’d half expected to see him when the need to go to the bathroom grew urgent.
“I’m sorry, I gotta go.”
“It’s okay, Stevie,” she said. “I’ll take you.”
Perhaps Noah was already there, she thought, as she led the child through the maze of other children, some sleeping, some afraid to, she was sure. When they got close to the door, she picked up the terrified little boy and carried him past Tarak, wondering if the man never slept.
The door to the bathroom was open and the room stood empty. Puzzled now, wondering where Noah could be, she waited while Stevie took care of his business. Then she took the boy back and got him settled. She did her best to reassure him, gave him a kiss on one tear-stained cheek and patted his shoulder. She checked on the others. More were asleep than she’d expected. But she suspected from the too-tightly closed eyes of some that the demeanor of sleep was only a pretense. Not that she could blame them.
She knelt beside Kyle. His eyes came open instantly. She reached out and cupped her son’s face, unable to stop the tears that welled up. Even in the faint light Kyle looked scared. He began to speak, but she hushed him with a quick shake of her head.
“They can’t know who you are,” she whispered to him. “They’d try to use you to get me to do what they want.”
Kyle’s eyes widened in realization. Paige longed to embrace him, but knew she didn’t dare treat him any differently than the others just in case the guards were watching. Hugging the little ones was one thing, but if she hugged Kyle she’d make him stand out far too much. Possibly enough to make them curious, although they seemed to be more focused on the outdoors now, as if the relative calm inside didn’t need their attention anymore.
They think they have us beaten, she thought as she moved on. The thought infuriated her. They might be captives, they might be helpless for the moment, but they were not beaten. She wouldn’t allow them to be beaten.
She returned to the sofa, still not knowing where Noah was. The children settled back into silence. She glanced at the guards, who seemed intent only on watching the exterior. Neither of them seemed to be aware one of their prisoners was unaccounted for.
Unless they did know.
Her breath caught in her throat as the possibility sliced through her mind. What if they weren’t looking for him because they knew where he was? What if they’d done something with him?
What if they’d killed him?
She tried to fight down her wild speculations. Surely she would have heard something. They might be deadly assassins, for all she knew, but surely they couldn’t just slip in and kill a man and drag him away without making a sound.
But maybe they had lured him outside somehow and done it there. Maybe even now Noah was lying dead in the moonlight in this tropical paradise turned to hell.
She shivered, even though it was a typically balmy night. She wrapped her arms around herself and curled her legs up under her on the sofa. She missed his solid warmth more than she ever could have imagined, much more than she should have, given she’d only experienced it for such a short while. The thought that now she might never solve the mystery that was Noah Rider made her feel even colder.
…I was so attracted to you myself.
His words echoed in her head, the words she’d never expected to hear, words that explained so much, words that validated all her own tangled feelings of the past five years. She’d thought she’d been hideously out of line, throwing herself at a man who had been too kind to crush the fragile spirit of a grieving woman. The knowledge that she hadn’t been alone, that maybe, just maybe, she’d acted at least in part on some subtle signal he might have given her, did more to ease her mind about what had happened back then than any amount of trying to rationalize it because of her emotional state.
/> And it also made her suspicions all the more agonizing. If he was really dead…
She fought off the images that assailed her. She tried not to think at all as the night stretched on and on. She didn’t allow herself to lie down, afraid it would happen again, that while she slept another of their number would disappear.
The barest whisper of sound from behind her made her go still, holding her breath. She flicked her gaze to both guards; neither had moved. The sound again, this time punctuated by a slight rubbing noise. She checked the guards again, then risked a quick peek over her shoulder.
What she saw stunned her. A square of the custom flooring of the computer platform had been pushed aside, leaving a darkened gap. And up out of the darkness beneath the school, rising like some sort of night creature, came Noah Rider.
A gasp escaped her, and he spun around in the act of quietly replacing the square. In the instant she opened her mouth to speak he was there. He swooped down on her like that night creature he’d brought to mind and did what she never would have expected.
He kissed her.
Sudden and fierce and hot, he kissed her. He cupped her face in his hands and took her mouth with his inexorably. For an instant she simply sat there, unable to react, to think, even to breathe. And then a burgeoning heat welled up, billowing through her with a speed that shocked her.
What had been fierce suddenly gentled. His lips went from demanding to coaxing, and when he silently pled his case she responded, opening to the gentle probe of his tongue. He tasted her, slowly, the barest swipe of his tongue over the ridge of her teeth. She responded, unable not to, with a tiny flick of her own tongue to the tip of his, and heat rocketed through her again when she heard him make a low, harsh sound.
He broke the kiss then, and for a moment they just stared at each other. She could hear his breathing, even quicker than when she’d noticed it before. Or maybe it was her own. She didn’t know.
He came around the end of the sofa, just as he had the last time she’d awakened. He hadn’t been coming back from the bathroom at all, she thought. He’d come up through the floor then, too.
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