closed his eyes for a moment, and twisted his body as I tried to knee him. Without dislodging his hold on my throat - nowhere near as debilitating as the first time he strangled me, but still inhibiting - he spun me around so I was pressed up against the wall, his body pinning me into submission. "I do not have time to play ridiculous games with you. You will exculpate me now, before I lose my temper."
"Fine," I said, exhausted, sore, and heartily tired of the handsome man whose mouth was close enough to kiss...and bothered by the fact that I could even think such a thought. "I forgive you for kidnapping us, assaulting me, and attempting to strangle me. Happy now?"
"Stop playing with me!" he snarled, his fingers tightening. "You have the Gift! I saw it! I demand my reward! I demand exculpation!"
"I forgive you!" I bellowed back at him, praying he would go away and be deranged with someone else.
He really was an incredibly handsome man...I firmly squelched that line of thought. Physical attractiveness had nothing to do with anything.
The man sighed, releasing me as he stepped back. I hadn't been aware that he had lifted me off the floor, but I slid down a few inches until my feet touched the floor, and kept on going when my legs gave out on me. I slumped against the wall, divided between the desire to cry and the urge to whack the man across the kneecaps with a blunt instrument.
"At last," he said, opening his arms. He stood that way for a moment, as if he was waiting for something, his ebony eyebrows pulling together as he looked down at himself. "It didn't work."
"What didn't work?" Sarah asked, watching him closely. I shot an unhappy glance at her as I got to my knees, hauling myself up onto the edge of the bed, where I clutched both the book and the lamp.
He looked at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. "When did you say you received the Gift?"
"What gift? No one has given me a gift."
"How long have you known her?" he asked Sarah. She plopped down onto the bed next to me. I was delighted to see that the smitten look was gone from her face, although her calm acceptance of the kidnapper was at odds with her very vocal threats to the local police about the actions her husband would take if the man was not caught promptly.
"Since seventh grade," she answered.
"Has she always been like this?"
"Obstinate, you mean?" Sarah smiled. "Stubborn? Unyielding?"
"Hey!" I objected, poking her in the hip with the book.
"Rigid and unimaginative and one-track-minded? Oh yes, she's always been that way."
The kidnapper looked at me, his lips pursing slightly. "Pity."
"I object to being talked about as if I'm not sitting right here!"
Sarah patted my hand. "She's also smart, very curious, has a soft spot for underdogs, and is unswervingly loyal to anyone she calls friend."
"I may have one less before the day is out," I grumbled, mollified by her praise.
"I see," the man said, frowning down at me. My fingers tightened around the base of the lamp.
Sarah laughed and put her arm around me. "She's also my best friend, and someone I trust with my life. If you need her help with something, she'll do everything she can to make it happen."
"Will you stop putting words in my mouth! I do not countenance criminals!"
"I am not a criminal," the man said with a thoughtful look at us both. He snagged the chair from the end of the bed and set it before the door, sitting on it with a belligerent look at me.
"I could scream for help, you know," I told him.
"No one would hear you over the noise," he answered. "I'm going to get at the truth if it takes me all night. When did you last see Hope?"
"Oh! The faery?" Sarah asked, clasping her hands together. "I can't believe I forgot about her! Portia said she saw her while I had run to town to get my camera. That would be about two - "
"Sarah." I cocked an eyebrow at her.
"I was just trying to be helpful."
I ignored that and leveled a long, hard look at the man sitting across from us. My first impressions of strength had not diminished at all by exposure to him. His face was all hard angles, high cheekbones and a blunt, square jaw doing as much as his obsidian eyes in imparting a sense of ruthless