Conceal, Protect - By Carol Ericson Page 0,65
for every bad thing that happened to someone close to her.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going down that road.” She swirled the dark red liquid in her glass. “I’m not saying I’m the cause of Ted’s suffering, but my existence as the favored child, the legal child in the family, wasn’t easy for him.”
J.D. took a swig of his wine.
She dipped her head to his shoulder, and he smoothed the hair back from her face. He didn’t believe for one minute this would be their last night together, but if she thought that and it drove her back into his arms, he’d take it. Slowly.
“Do you want some more wine?”
“I’m okay.”
“I need another, and I hate drinking alone. One more.” She placed a hand flat on his belly. “You still seem all keyed up to me.”
Did she think he was a jerk for getting pumped up about this confrontation? It wasn’t as if Ted’s kidnapping made him happy. But now that it had happened, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on a couple of Zendaris’s people.
He had to show her he could relax, too. He downed the last sip of cabernet and held out his glass. “Sure. One more.”
She grabbed her own glass from the floor and headed back to the kitchen. “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“The first thing we do is stall, so we can get some backup.”
“Do you think they’ll hurt Ted?”
“No. They need you. If they don’t have Ted or they injure him, you’re not going to cooperate. They have you right where they want you, but they didn’t count on the full force of Prospero dropping on them like a hammer.”
She returned, carrying two full glasses of wine. She handed one to him and cradled her own with two hands.
“So I’m going to stall them when they call back with instructions.”
He sipped the wine. Its warmth seemed to bring him down a few notches. Noelle was right. He needed to unwind. He took another sip.
“Yeah, stall. Tell them you can’t get away from me, that if you go out to meet them I’ll follow you.”
“They’ll believe that.” She put the wine to her lips and her eyes glowed over the rim of the glass. “They’ll think getting to Zendaris is more important to you than saving my brother.”
“Exactly.” His head dropped back against the love-seat cushion, and then lolled to the side. It was almost too much effort to lift it. The heat from the fire and the warmth from the wine had woven a sleepy spell around him.
It’s a good thing he didn’t have any plans for Noelle tonight since he doubted he could make it to the bedroom at this point.
“You tired?” His lids felt heavy as he looked at her, and he blinked his dry eyes.
“It’s been a long day.” She took the glass from his limp fingers before he could drop it. “We should go to sleep.”
“Sleep?” He tried to turn his wrist to look at his watch, but the motor skills required to do that wouldn’t obey his brain. “It’s surly.”
Surly? His tongue felt thick. He felt...drugged.
* * *
NOELLE TUCKED A pillow behind J.D.’s head. If he had to sleep sitting upright, she wanted to make sure he didn’t wake up with a stiff neck—especially if he planned to come to her rescue.
Reaching down, she picked up her full wineglass and hurried to the kitchen, carrying J.D.’s half-empty glass as well. She peered into the swirling red liquid—no hint of the small white pills she’d crushed and dissolved in the wine.
She dumped the contents down the drain and ran the water. Even though he hadn’t finished the entire glass of wine, he just needed to be under long enough for her to escape the house and be on her way to the meeting with Ted’s kidnappers.
She couldn’t wait. She couldn’t do this on J.D.’s terms. He didn’t understand. She couldn’t be responsible for another death.
But he’d still get a shot at Zendaris’s flunkies.
She ripped a sheet of paper from the notepad by the phone and scribbled on it. She secured the note on the coffee table with J.D.’s empty wineglass. He should have no problem seeing that when he came to. She just hoped she hadn’t drugged him too heavily.
She dried her hands on a paper towel and tiptoed to the front door, where she lifted her jacket from a hook. She’d give them their stupid password and then grab Ted and get out of there. Maybe by that time,