to. But Jordynn didn’t need to check on him. She knew where he would’ve landed, and knew, too, what his options for escape would be. He might’ve hurt himself, but five feet wasn’t far enough to make her worry about broken bones. Not too much, anyway. What did concern her was getting to him before the two armed and dangerous men who were somewhere out there. That...and what they might do to him if he’d knocked himself unconscious. Or worse, if he was disoriented and wandered into their sights.
And what are you going to do stop them?
She shoved down the voice in her head. Not trying to help Dono wasn’t an option. So while her captor peered out the window, she spun on her heel and darted in the opposite direction. She leaped down the stairs and flew into the hall, then moved to open the door. But as she stepped back to fling it open, she slammed straight into a body. And it was most definitely not Dono’s.
Jordynn tried to pull away, but it was too late. The big man on her doorstep was stronger. Faster. And clearly more experienced at capturing people than she was at escaping from them.
She barely reached the doorstep before his arms were around her, spinning her hard and shoving her against the exterior wall of the house. Jordynn’s chest scraped along the wood siding making her cry out. Her yelp earned her a sweaty hand over her mouth, and a heartbeat later, she was being turned again and lifted.
At the end of the driveway, she could see Tom, her neighbor, heading for his car.
Please, please!
Jordynn inhaled through her nose and tried to scream. But it was no use. The man’s palm was pressed too firmly to her lips, his grip on her chest too tight. All that came out was a wheeze. In seconds, he’d pulled her through the door, shut it again, then dragged her to the living room. There, he set her down, then shoved her roughly enough that she landed on the rug. Bits of the shattered coffee table dug into her body. She forced herself to ignore the pain.
Breathing shallowly, Jordynn crawled to the sofa and gripped its edge. She looked up, but didn’t dare stand. Especially not when she spied Ivan, pacing the room in front of the man Dono had tied to the chair. His face was dark and dangerous, and he didn’t bother to stop moving to glance at her as he addressed the man who’d tossed her in.
“Rope her up,” he ordered. “Pull some of that stuff off the Nose to do it.”
The Nose?
But Jordynn didn’t have time to consider the oddity of the nickname. Or to worry that it sounded just a little too pseudo-gangster for her liking. Because the big, rough man had begun to unwind the wire from the unconscious one. And she knew where it was going to wind up next. Her feet itched to outrun the inevitable.
“Now what?” the big man asked as he finished his task.
“I’d like to shoot them both and be done with it,” Ivan muttered.
“The boss—”
“I know what the boss wants.”
Jordynn kept her eyes down, pretending not to follow the exchange. Pretending it didn’t scare the living hell out of her.
Ivan sighed. “We wait, Denny. Hank will take those two gun-happy guards outside, and he’ll help them circle the block until they find Grady.”
“He’s gone? Thought he fell out a damned window.”
“He did. Then he got up and ran off.”
The bigger man—Denny—moved toward her, the wire in his hands. Jordynn cowered back. And wished she could help it. But he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He just grabbed her hands, held them together and wrapped the wire around her wrists. Tight enough to hurt. Far tighter than necessary. When he had her secured to his satisfaction, he lifted her from the ground and tossed her unceremoniously onto the couch.
“So Grady got away. Again,” he said. “And you really think he’s gonna stick around?”
Ivan’s eyes skimmed over Jordynn, then he went back to pacing. “He came this far. He won’t leave her. Trust me.”
Jordynn finally managed to find her voice. “Donovan let me think he was dead.”
Both men turned her way. Denny with his eyes narrowed, and Ivan with his expression impassive.
“What makes you think he’ll even bother to come back?” she added.
Ivan shrugged. “Checking up on you was his sole reason for coming back to Ellisberg. All we had to do was drop a hint that you might be in trouble, and he sure as hell came running.”
A hint?
Jordynn squeezed her jaw tightly for a second to keep from asking what he meant. To keep from revealing that she hadn’t the slightest clue about what was really going on.
“But now he knows I’m safe,” she said instead. “So he’s not going to just come back and endanger himself.”
“He knows you’re stuck here with me and Denny and Hank and the Nose. And our guns,” Ivan corrected. “Should be more than enough to motivate him.”
Jordynn shook her head. “No. He already knows you’re not going to kill me. You told him your boss wanted to chat.”
Ivan tapped his gun on his thigh, then cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. Jordynn’s heart skipped a nervous beat at the expression on his face, and she had a funny feeling her plan to divert their attention away from chasing down Donovan had gone wrong.
He smiled, confirming her suspicion. “You’re right. He probably does know you’re not in immediate danger. Denny?”
“Yeah?”
“You still a pretty good shot?”
“Nine out of ten.”
“Good. Tie Ms. Flannigan’s feet together, and gag her, too.” Ivan dug into his pocket and dragged out a set of keys. “My car’s in the alley behind the house. Take her out there, drop her in the trunk, then start the engine and walk back up to the house. You can wait by that big tree in the yard for Grady. He won’t be able to resist the opportunity. When he gets close...shoot him in the knee—maybe both knees—then toss him in the backseat.”
Jordynn fought a gasp and made a last-ditch effort to save herself from being used as bait. “What if he’s not close enough to see?”
“He is.” Ivan sounded utterly sure.
She might’ve argued a little more, but Denny was on her again, his hands working fast to stuff a piece of balled-up cloth into her mouth. When he was done with that, he used another piece of wire to secure it in place, then bound her ankles. In under two minutes, he had her strung up and lifted onto his shoulder.
As he carried her from her living room to the door, Jordynn couldn’t decide what she wanted more—for Dono to be where they assumed he was so he could save her, or if she hoped he’d run for real. She valued her own life. But she couldn’t stand the thought of being
