Page 96 of Whispers at Dusk
Until she got him to look away, elsewhere.
Mason was close. Listening.
“Okay, now see the rope there? Tie yourself up. And do it right. I’m not an idiot. I’ll know if you create a bad knot.”
“What? I can’t tie myself up!” Della protested. “I mean, you want a good knot? A good knot takes two hands!”
He came and hunkered down before her, the Glock—her own Glock—still aimed directly at her chest.
“You’re a clever girl. You can figure it out. Oh, and I know you’re aware I prefer mySleeping Beautymethod of murder. But if you don’t listen to me and do things just right, I’ll shoot her right now, shoot one of these girls in the head, and her blood and brains spill all over your ethical little body. Got it?” He stared at her with a half smile curled into his lip as he spoke.
“I’ll figure it out,” Della said.
Mason was listening, she reminded herself.
And he was close. But there was a dying girl out there, probably close to them, and Mason would be left with a horrible choice.
They had come full circle. They were back in the bayou. She had believed in him before she had even known him.
Now, she knew him. And during the short but intense time they’d been together, she knew his soul, his heart, and so much more.
He would come. And the chance she needed would be provided.
He would figure it out, she determined, without making choices on who lived and who died.
She closed her eyes for a minute. Mason wasn’t alone out there. They had a team, and local police and law enforcement were out there...
“Keep him talking!”
It was Edmund Taylor who spoke that time, perhaps almost reading her mind.
“We’re all coming in from different angles,” he added.
“I’m almost there!” Mason said.
She smiled, glancing at Gideon.
“What the hell?” Dante demanded.
“Oh, sorry. I was looking at Gideon.”
“Gideon?”
“Oh, not to worry. Gideon is dead. He’s been dead for hundreds of years. Started out as a pirate and became a hero and a great guy.”
Dante leaned back, starting to laugh. “New ploy? You see ghosts? And what is the ghost going to do—other than greet you all as youcross the line?”
“Well, I’m not sure that’s how it works, but if I’m going, yeah, I’d be glad he was there to greet me and to help me along.”
“Did you think I’d panic over a ghost?”
“No. He can’t really hurt you. He doesn’t have that kind of physical strength. But...hmm. You would be surprised by what a ghost can do.”
“I know what he can do,” Dante said. “You tell your dead friend to get out there and find, oh, so Special Agent Mason Carter. Let him know if he comes here, alone, and unarmed—and doesn’t radio any others so they stop looking at old Dante family properties—I’ll let another girl go. Then I’ll have you, one lady, and him. We’ll find out if you do want to live. Or join your ghost!”
“Hey, Gideon, you heard him, huh?”
“I will not be leaving your side,” Gideon said. “Mason will know what to do.”
