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Dead Aim(18)

By:Iris Johansen


She slowly opened her eyes.

Blue eyes. The fireman with blue eyes.

“It's only aspirin.” He was holding a glass of water and two pills. “It will take care of the headache.”

“I'll vote for that.” She swallowed the aspirins and water and handed the glass back to him. He wasn't dressed in the fireman's uniform anymore. He wore a red flannel shirt and jeans, but he still had that air of complete confidence that had impressed her on the stairs.

Stairs. She came abruptly wide awake. She wasn't in the stairwell any longer. She was lying on a couch. She looked beyond him to see a fire leaping briskly in a huge stone fireplace that climbed to a rough-hewn beamed ceiling.

Definitely not a hotel room.

“Where am I?”

He set the glass down on the end table. “At a lodge in the mountains.”

“What?”

“The situation was heating up. It was necessary that I get you out of sight for a while.”

She sat up on the couch. “Who the hell are you?”

“Judd Morgan. Don't worry, I'm no threat to you.”

And she was supposed to believe him? Even when she'd been only half conscious she was aware of—what? Coldness, confidence, an overpowering presence.

He nodded as he saw her expression. “Considering the company you've been keeping lately, I don't wonder you're suspicious. But if I'd meant you any harm, I'd have had every opportunity to put you down while you were sleeping.”

“And why was I sleeping? I felt perfectly normal. I shouldn't have fallen—”

“Just a harmless sedative, but it kept you out for the length of time I needed it to. I had to get you out of there and in a safe environment, and that was the most efficient way to do it.”

“A sedative? You knocked me out?”

He shrugged. “Like I said, the most innocuous way of accomplishing an end. Even the headache will be gone soon.”

“Why would you do that?” A phrase suddenly sank home. “Safe environment?” Anger was quickly replacing the shock. “My God, are you with the police or FBI? I told them I wouldn't go along with—” He was shaking his head. “Then why the devil would you do something like this?”

“John Logan made me an offer I couldn't refuse.”

She looked at him incredulously. “He paid you to do this?”

“Well, he didn't tell me to snatch you. Only to make sure you were safe and his wife would know that.” He smiled. “Unfortunately, I couldn't do one without the other.”

“You bastard. Kidnapping is a federal offense.”

He nodded. “So I've heard.” He moved across the room toward the kitchenette. “I've got a stew on the stove. It should be ready in fifteen minutes if you want to wash up.”

“I don't want to wash up. I'm getting out of here.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, not possible. You don't know where you are, and I have the keys to the Land Rover outside. You could try to walk, but it's started to snow and you'd probably not make it to anywhere near civilization before you got hypothermia.” He glanced at her handbag lying on the coffee table. “Oh, and I took the gun and telephone out of your bag. I didn't think photographers carried deadly weapons as a rule, but I guess your work has taken you into some hot spots.” He moved over to the stove. “Fifteen minutes.”

She stared at Morgan in rage and frustration. She wanted to murder him. “They'll be looking for you. Leopold was sending an officer to meet me in the lobby.”

He nodded.

“I'm not going to put up with this. I won't be kept a prisoner so some son of a bitch like you can earn a few bucks.”

He didn't answer.

She had another thought. “Jesus, you set that hotel on fire, didn't you?”

“Just your rental car in the parking garage. I parked it far enough away from the other cars so that it wouldn't cause more than a minor problem.”

“Just? Minor problem?” She was working her way through the scenario. “You had it all planned. You were probably the one who called the fire department. You even had a fireman's uniform ready. Why?”

He didn't look up from the stew he was stirring. “I always believe in being prepared. Your father was a fireman. I knew you'd be suspicious of anyone else, but you'd instinctively trust anyone who wore the uniform.”

She felt a chill go through her as she remembered how safe she'd felt when he touched her wrist in that stairwell. He had thought it all out and come up with a plan that had caught her at her most vulnerable.

She shook her head. “I still can't believe Logan would authorize a kidnapping.”

“I told you, he didn't exactly authorize it. I just made it part of the deal that he'd cover any action I thought necessary to protect you.” He shrugged. “There was an outside chance that you might not even have had to know I was around. But when I saw the way the situation was shaping up, I knew I had to get you away.”