A Billionaire's Redemption - By Cindy Dees Page 0,73
you were kidnapped, ma’am.”
Melinda did the strangest thing then. She burst into tears. No kidding. Wet stuff on her cheeks, sobbing hysterically, tears. Gabe was flabbergasted. The Iron Maiden knew how to cry? Wow. She must be a whole lot more messed up than she’d been showing initially.
The questioning paused until she could collect herself, but then continued onward, albeit more gently after Melinda’s breakdown. And so it went. Agent Delaney pressed for details, and Melinda steadfastly denied knowing anything significant about the kidnapper. No matter what questions the FBI agent asked, no useful information was forthcoming from his ex-wife.
Although, every now and then, Melinda would tense slightly or give away some tiny facial expression of anger. But all the while, she clung to him like a pitifully scared child. When the agent suggested a polygraph test, Melinda burst into loud tears once more and buried her face against his chest. He’d never seen her act even remotely like this before. She was definitely a lot more rattled than he’d expected.
When Melinda’s crying bout refused to wind down, Agent Delaney gave up with a visible sigh, and retreated from the room. The moment she left, Melinda’s tantrum eased.
“It’s okay, Mel,” he soothed her. “No one’s going to make you take a polygraph. You’re the victim here. They’re just trying to catch your kidnapper and were hoping you could help.”
“Well, I can’t!” she exclaimed, pushing away from him. She turned her ire on the nurse. “Get me some damned painkillers, already.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. The doctor will have to prescribe those.”
“Well, what’s he waiting for? The Second Coming?” Melinda snapped.
This was more like her. Funny how he’d forgotten how nasty Melinda could be. Maybe he’d been around it for so long he’d gotten numb to it. Willa would never dream of being so mean to anyone— Stop it. Stop comparing the two women!
The nurse answered Melinda with thin patience, “The FBI asked that you not be medicated until they’d had a chance to speak with you.”
“Clearly, they’ve spoken with me. So get that damned doctor in here to do his damned job.”
Yup. Melinda was back to her usual bitchy, domineering self.
Agent Delaney poked her head back into the room just then. “Oh. I forgot to ask earlier. Did your captor have any sort of an accent in his voice?”
Melinda sagged against Gabe immediately. He caught her weight in surprise as she answered tiredly, “No. None. Midwest neutral.”
“Thanks.” Agent Delaney smiled pleasantly as she backed out of the room.
Melinda sat back up and snapped at the nurse. “Now, get me that doctor.”
Thoroughly confused, Gabe stood up. “Let me go see if I can find him for you.” The nurse threw him a grateful look. Little did she know he was escaping as much as he was trying to help out.
Agent Delaney was lounging against the opposite wall of the hallway, and straightened up to walk beside him as he headed for the nurses’ station. “Interesting woman, your wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“She always that big a drama queen?”
Gabe stopped and turned to face the agent as he considered her question. He answered slowly, “Yes. But not in that way. I’ve never seen her cry in all the years I’ve known her. And she’s not usually so...”
“Erratic?” Agent Delaney supplied.
“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of touchy-feely.”
“She’s quite an actress, your ex-wife. What drew you to her in the first place?”
An actress? That was an interesting observation. But it hadn’t been what attracted him to Melinda. He explained, “She’s shockingly charismatic. Tends to disapprove of you when you meet her. Makes you want to earn her approval.”
“Which she always withholds just a little,” the agent added blandly.
He nodded. “I suppose it’s her way of tying people to her. I always figured she was more insecure than she wanted to let on. Afraid people would abandon her. Her mother abandoned the family. She’s pretty estranged from her siblings.”
“Mmm,” Agent Delaney said noncommittally.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” he asked her, impatient to get back to the business of finding Willa.
“Not right now. You’ve been more helpful than you know,” the FBI analyst replied. “I’ll call you if I have any more questions.”
He stopped briefly at the nurses’ station to relay Melinda’s request that the doctor prescribe her some painkillers, and then he headed out quickly. Whether he was running from Melinda or toward Willa, he couldn’t rightly tell. Both, maybe.
It was fully dark by the time he got back to the last known location