"Several days' drive south of here," he said shortly and then added, "We'll head out after I've caught some sleep. I've been up for two days watching the apartment. I'm too tired to start a long drive right now."
"Two days?" Jo asked with amazement. She'd thought it had been only one night, but then recalled how many times she and Nicholas had made love and that they'd passed out and slept between each and realized it could have been two days. No wonder she was starved. They'd taken breaks a couple times to eat up the rest of the pizza, and Jo had found some canned soups left behind that she'd warmed up for them at one point…
Yes, it definitely could have been two days, she thought now and then wondered about the defensive tone of Ernie's voice as he'd spoken. It was as if he thought he had to make an excuse for not heading out right away and she might think less of him for having to sleep. She had no idea why he'd care what she thought.
"I don't care," he snapped and then kicked the bed, making it shake violently. Jo presumed it was an effort to wake the girl in the bed, but if so, it failed. The girl moaned, but didn't wake up.
"Goddammit, Dee, wake up," Ernie snarled, bending over the bed to slap her violently across the face. The crack of sound in the room was loud enough that Jo winced in sympathy, but it worked. The girl woke up. She seemed sluggish and a bit out of it, however, and Jo wondered if her lack of body weight really was a result of heroin addiction. The woman Ernie had called Dee moaned in protest as she opened her eyes, a moan that died when she spotted the man bent over her.
"Ernie?" Dee sat up slowly, relief covering her face. "You were gone so long, three days, I thought you'd left me."
"I told you I'd be back," he growled with disgust. As reassurances went, Jo thought it was rather poor indeed, but then if what Ernie had said about not having any interest in sex was true, she wasn't his lover. It left Jo wondering just what this Dee was to him.
"She's dinner… and my servant," Ernie announced, obviously reading the question in her mind. He glanced to Dee. "Aren't you?"
"Yes, Ernie," she answered almost absently, her eyes full of resentment as they traveled over Jo. Her voice was bitter when she asked, "Who is she? My replacement?"
"She's for my father," Ernie said shortly. "Now get up and make yourself useful. Have you eaten since I left?"
"Yes. Three meals a day as you ordered," she said quickly, slipping her feet off the bed to get up. "And I've been taking the IV blood too. A bag a day even though you weren't here."
"Good, order something else now, I'll be hungry when I wake up and you're no good to me if you're too weak to drive after I feed."
Dee nodded and moved to the phone beside him to begin punching in numbers… which told Jo they'd been staying here long enough for the girl to memorize the number of the local delivery places, but she had other things on her mind. Turning on him with disbelief, she asked, "You have her take transfusions and then feed off of her? Why don't you just drink the bagged blood and leave her alone?"
"I don't like cold food," he said, glaring at her. "Be glad I'm not feeding on you."
"Why aren't you?" she asked at once.
"Would you give a dinged-up gift to your father?" he asked dryly.
Jo grimaced. She supposed she should be grateful, but it was hard to be grateful that he wasn't going to hurt her before he handed her over to his father to do what he would.
Ernie glanced to Dee as she placed her order. He frowned as she ordered a calzone with a side salad and then said, "Make sure it's enough for two." When the girl glanced at him in question, his eyes narrowed. "Don't question me, order it. She's eating too."
Jo glanced to him with surprise at the comment. She hadn't expected him to bother.
"Even a condemned prisoner gets a last meal," he muttered. "I'm not an ogre."
"Forgive me," Jo murmured dryly as Dee hung up the phone. "But you're hoping to buy your father's affections like a John buys a prostitute's favors by giving me to him… knowing he'll kill me. I just assumed you were a bastard."
Ernie's eyes narrowed, a growl issuing from his throat, and then he suddenly turned and grabbed Dee by the hair at the nape of her neck, yanked her head back, and sank his teeth into her throat with a violence that made Dee cry out in pain.
Jo tried to turn guiltily away, knowing the woman's unnecessary suffering was her fault for angering Ernie, but he'd taken control of her body again and she couldn't move. Her eyes wouldn't close either when she tried. He wanted her to watch what she'd brought about and she gave in with resignation, knowing it was little more than she deserved for angering him and causing it in the first place. It seemed since he didn't want to take a "dinged-up gift" to his father, Dee was going to pay for any temper she stirred in him.