into claws and heard a roaring in her ears. But it wasn't the promise of death she saw looking out at her through Austin's eyes that stopped her. He wanted to kill her. She realized that now. And he wanted her to give him a reason to.
No, what stopped her was the memory of the hurt look on Jack's face when he'd left her room and the fact that their last conversation had been an argument. She didn't want to die and have the last words they ever shared be angry ones. She didn’t want to leave Noah alone. She would do anything to survive for them.
With supreme effort she ignored his remark. "Oscar said Roan Davis's treasure was a myth."
"I found a letter that says otherwise."
"The letter that the convict claimed existed?"
But Austin wasn't interested in her questions. He was sniffing her neck again. He touched the hollow of her throat with the point of his tongue. She felt her skin crawl with loathing. He glanced up at her. "Maybe we can still have some fun together, hmmm?"
"There are people downstairs,”she choked out.
"Don't worry. Henry was in the middle of one of his boring my-grandson- the-great-football-player stories. I'm sure he'll be at that for a while."
"They'll wonder why I haven't come down."
"Jack went down without you. That only happens when you fight. And every time the two of you have a fight, you hide out in your room. You're quite the little coward, aren't you? They won't think anything is different this time. Neither will he." Austin sounded supremely confident. "Besides, you don't really want anyone to come up here, do you? I might have to hurt someone."
Now she was afraid. Where before her anger had outweighed fear for herself, the very thought that Austin could turn his knife against Jack or Noah or anyone else terrified her. Austin was obviously hoping that she would choose to play up to him, to willingly give herself to him in an attempt to save her own skin. That happened in the movies all the time.
But this wasn't a movie and she wasn't that good of an actress even if she had been tempted to try. More than likely she would just throw up all over his shoes in repugnance, both with him and with herself. Her only hope was to keep him talking until an opportunity or even a miracle presented itself. Yeah, right, she mocked herself in contempt. It always works in the movies.
"So where's Brett?"
Austin looked bored. "He's in the car."
Okay, so he wasn't as chatty as the crazed villains in the movies. Dana tried again. "That was you in the stairwell."
"Sure." Austin smiled sardonically, as if aware of what she was trying to do. But his over-bloated ego couldn't resist bragging. "It worked out pretty well. I just miscalculated about the railing letting go all at once. The two of you were supposed to fall."
"Why?"
"Well, there's nothing like broken bodies that will just kill a weekend. Whether the fall killed you or just maimed you, nobody would have been inclined to stay here and I would have been free to take my time searching for the treasure."
"That's why the door was open at the top. You had been out there loosening bolts. That's why you chased us. So we could have an accident."
"It wasn't personal." He whispered in her ear, "At least not then." He leaned back and regarded her evilly. "You and the kid just happened to be the ones upstairs at the time. I unsealed the door and left it open. I was right in thinking it would be something you couldn't resist."
"But you were outside with the rest of them."
"I was by the time you fell. Once you began running up the stairs I knew you wouldn't stop until you reached the outside. So I ran out to be with the others, to watch as you plummeted to your deaths. Oh, the horror! Well, maybe not death, but at least serious injury. Imagine my chagrin when you actually held on long enough that I had to help in your rescue." He whispered in her ear again. "What do you think, doll, does that make me your hero? Does that turn you on?"
Dana wanted to gag at the very notion. "Then that night you tried a different tactic. You tried to scare everyone into thinking the castle was truly haunted. How did you get Grace and Rose to come out of their rooms?"
"It is ridiculously easy