Be Careful What You Wish For(38)

“I’ll kill you and take your bodyguard hostage,” she said. “I don’t like you, and I’m not going to let you send me away from Sean. I’m feeling more than a little pissed at you right now. Don’t test me, because you’ll end up dead.”
He studied her for a moment longer, and she let some of the hate she felt toward him show in her eyes.
He’d offered to kill her more than once, threatened her continually. She’d do what had to be done.
He must have believed her, because within moments he held the SUV keys and the men were walking back toward town.
“Do you have a cell phone?” she asked. He nodded his head.
“I want you to get on the line and call Sean. I want you to tell him that he needs to meet us at the airfield.”
“How do you know I can reach him?” he asked.
“You’d better hope you can,” she replied. “I’m going to get tired eventually, and when that happens, I’ll have to shoot you and make a run for it. If I let you go now, you’ll kill me, and believe me when I say that if I have to choose between my life and yours, you’ll lose.”
He nodded his head again, and reached into a pocket. She watched closely, half expecting him to come out with another weapon. What she’d do if he did, she didn’t know. She wouldn’t back down, though. It was too late for that.
His hand came out again with a small flip phone, and he flicked it open with a nonchalance that belied their situation.
“Sean, your woman has taken me hostage,” he said after a moment, speaking as casually as if describing an insect he’d found on his shoe. “She’s going to kill me if you don’t meet us at the airstrip.”
He looked at her and held the phone out.
“He wants to talk to you,” he said.
“Nope,” she answered, shaking her head. “I’ll give him two hours to get out there. If he doesn’t come, I’ll shoot you in the knee. It will get worse after that.”
He nodded slowly, and relayed the message to Sean. Then he closed the phone with a smooth click, and nodded toward their vehicle.
“Shall we?” he asked, his voice almost gallant.
“After you,” she replied mockingly. He gave her a slight bow and opened the door for her.
* * * * *
An hour and forty-five minutes later she was starting to sweat.
If Sean didn’t show up soon, she would have to shoot Valzar. She didn’t want to do it, couldn’t imagine inflicting that kind of damage on another human being. What did a man’s knee look like after a bullet tore through it? She was desperately afraid she’d find out in the next twenty minutes.
Holding him hostage was tiring. She knew he had men all around her, knew that they probably had guns.
Every moment she expected to feel a sniper’s bullet hit her, but so far they were doing well. They were holed up in the tiny concrete block hut on the edge of the airstrip, and she felt relatively safe. It would be hard for anyone to get a clean shot at her, at least while she was inside. Of course, she’d had the element of surprise on her side when she’d brought him here. Leaving the shack would be much trickier, if not impossible.
Seven long minutes passed, and for the first time she began to seriously doubt that Sean would come.
Valzar watched her, eyes following every nervous tick of her feet, monitoring the trembling of her hands with a calm that was creepy. Then his cell phone rang, the sudden noise making her jump. She nodded at him to answer it, and he did.
“It’s Sean,” he said softly. “He’s waiting outside.”
“Tell him to come in,” she said. “No weapons, please.”
He gave Sean the message, and she stood, directing him to join her with a wave of her gun. A moment later there was a knock on the door.
“You can come in,” she called. Sean stepped inside, looking at her with a strange expression on his face.
“This is a little extreme,” he said softly, gesturing toward her hostage.
“Oh really?” she asked caustically. “It seems pretty in line with everything that’s been happening around me lately. One more hostage situation isn’t much, all things considered.”
“What are you hoping to accomplish with this?”
“I’ve made a decision,” she said softly. She looked to Valzar, and then nodded her head toward the door. “You can go, *.”
Valzar’s expression didn’t change. He strolled out of the building without a second glance at her, although he shared a meaningful stare with Sean. What that meant she had no idea, and she didn’t care.
They would be leaving soon anyway. Sean started toward her, and she waved the gun at him threateningly. He froze.