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They wanted to use her to get to Grace. That much was obvious. Talking about Grace’s little girl… though everyone believed that Susannah Hart was Ricky’s Hart’s child, Grace confessed to Maria once that she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.
Not that she cheated on Rick, or slept with other men once they got together. She didn’t. Loyal to a fault, Grace adored her husband. But there was no denying that, right around the time she got pregnant, she woke up after being drugged to find Tommy Mathers laying in bed with her.
They were both dressed: Tommy in his expensive suit, Grace wearing a wedding dress that he had changed her into while she was unconscious. He could’ve done anything to her while she was out, and if he did… well, it was technicallypossiblethat he might have impregnated Grace before his fateful swan dive that evening.
Maria doubted it. That precious little girl had too man of Rick’s strong featured to be any other man’s child, but if Mathers’s brother seemed so intent on controlling Grace—and, by extension, Su—then maybe he knew something that no one else did.
Maybe Boone did, too. After all, before his recent fixation with her, didn’t he say that he would take Grace for himself to see what it was about her that obsessed his former boss so?
Is that what was going on now? Still trapped to the bed, an unwilling participant in their conversation though she never made a sound, were they planning for Mase—if itwasMase—to go over Grace now?
And, if so, what was going to happen to her?
She never understood why she’d been taken captive and moved to the Hamlet Inn of all places in the first place—until her first captor buzzed again. “Stage three,” he repeated, and now that she was listening for it, she had to admit his voice was similar enough to her old friend’s. “You know what to do.”
A thunderous expression twisted Boone’s features before a muscle ticked in his hard jaw. “Yeah, I know.”
“Think of it this way. Ken just wants the ballerina and her baby and then we both get everything we deserve. No one said that you can’t take the woman you want with you.” He paused, and though the radio crackled when his voice came over the receive again, Maria could’ve sworn he said, “I am.”
What?
No!
Boone shifted on the other bed, purposely giving Maria that crooked half-smile he’d been shooting her more and more the last day or two. True to his word, he didn’t touch her unless he was freeing her to use the bathroom or shifting which cuff was attached to the chain locked to the headboard. Even then, he didn’t take liberties, though he didn’t have to. There was an unsaid promise ofsoonhanging over the cramped, stuffy room.
And, now it seemed as thoughsoonwas finally here.
Maria desperately wanted to ask what was going on. What their plans were, and what stage three entailed. The words caught in her throat. It was like she was struck speechless, unable to make a sound—
“Then make the buzz, okay? It’s line 0-1-9.”
—at least until she heard her masked captor’s next instruction.
Maria’s head jerked up as she gasped. All along, she’d been pretending to ignore the conversation so that she could feign ignorance later if she had to, but when she heard that call signal for the Hamlet communicators…
“Tesoro,” she whispered softly.
That was Sly’s line.
Why would they be conspiring together to call Sly?
No longer feigning that she was completely oblivious to what was going on, she watched as Boone ended the call with her other captor before changing the channel on his communicator and dialing out.
The world seemed to stop as she waited for Sly to answer—
“Sheriff Collins, Hamlet Sheriff Department. What’s your emergency?”
His hand gliding up his thigh, his destination obvious, he kept his eyes cast toward Maria as he pointedly lifted the radio to his mouth.
“Hello, sheriff. This is Nathaniel Boone. Sergeant. 050-63-1205.”
Maria’s heart wouldn’t stop pounding. Straining her eyes, hoping she could still hear Sly’s response over the rampant, frantic thud, she held her breath—
“Boone.” Sly’s voice was flat, and she could only imagine the way his dark skin flushed furiously. “What the hell are you doing on this line?”
“Listen closer and I’ll tell you. You see, I have a proposition for you…”
CHAPTERTWELVE
