Page 50 of Evening Shadows

Bev set her rose-themed china coffee cup back on a matching saucer. “He’ll pay. So will Jesse.”

Sam’s eyes flitted back and forth between the two. Disgust swamped her when Alejandro reached for Bev’s hand, entwined them and kissed the back of hers.

Good God. Since Bev apparently had Alejandro’s full support, she also had the men employed at the compound.

“Okay, you’ll have to explain everything to me. But I think, if you want to have him beat up more later, you’d want him aware of it instead of out of his mind with hunger and thirst. Or if you’re waiting for Jesse to join us, you’d want to keep him alive. So unless you plan to kill him right now”—Please, God don’t let her say yes—“then feeding him makes sense. It doesn’t need to be extravagant. Some tortillas and some water would even do.”

Again she held her breath. Something told her she’d end up doing that quite a bit more with Bev in her state.

“That makes sense,” Bev agreed. She turned to Alejandro. “Would you see to that, honey?”

Didn’t they have a ton of servants and guards?Oh,Bev must want her alone. Perfect. Time to play her role and thank goodness Ken wouldn’t see it.

Watching Alejandro leave, Sam turned back to Bev and put on an excited look. “Bev, you’ve done it.”

The woman lifted a shoulder as if it meant nothing. “When you didn’t make it happen, I had to do something.”

Stuffing a piece of tortilla in her mouth to keep from spouting something that would blow her true feelings, Sam waited. After swallowing and taking a drink of bottled water, she sighed dramatically. “I know. I just never got in a situation where I could make it happen without getting caught. I mean, I wanted them to pay, not me. I’ve paid long enough. Just like you.”Time to pick up your feet with how deep you’re shoveling it there, Sam.

Having Bev scrutinize her every word and facial expression made the ruse challenging since she didn’t want her to know that Sam couldn’t have gone through any plan.

“I want Ken and Jesse to die, side by side, like Lance and Adam,” Bev stated with a calm as if that were a normal statement that didn’t involve murder.

She closed her eyes against the loss of her husband, but she’d moved forward, and Ken had her heart now. She’d protect him with every fiber of her being.

“Well, then,” Sam said. “We’d best get Jesse back here. Had I known your plan, I’d have made sure he hadn’t been the one who took responsibility for Cody.”

Bev didn’t even wince at the mention of her son, and pain for Cody trickled through Sam’s heart.

“Okay, tell me how many men are out there and who they are.”

Sam almost snorted aloud at Bev’s request. Like she’d rat out men who had risked their lives for this woman’s son.

“Well, one man stayed behind, but the others left with Cody to return him home to you.”

The click of Bev’s perfectly manicured nails on the table grated on her nerves. “Will they come back for you?”

Walking a tightrope, she nodded. “Someone will. It might not be them, but someone will.”

Alejandro walked up behind Bev’s chair. “Where do we find this Jesse?” Returning to the seat he’d vacated, he offered, “We could send someone to his home and collect him.”

Water almost snorted out Sam’s nose at that. They could barely get on the grounds of Jesse’s homestead if they had a passcode. Devon’s system would catch them in a heartbeat.

“That could work,” Bev agreed. “We’ll keep Ken alive until then.” She turned back to Sam. “Where does he live?”

Continuing to dig deeper into her acting skills, she shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to his home.”Lies, lies, lies.

Several ideas spun through her mind. If she showed her agreement with Bev, she wouldn’t be returned to the cell. If she didn’t show her agreement, she had no idea what they would do to her.

Acting as if a light bulb had gone off in her brain and her path became clear, she excitedly said, “Wait, I know how we can get it.”

“How?”

She smiled brightly. “An idea is formulating in my head to get that information, but tell me everything that’s going on and your full plans, and I’ll make sure we can make it work. Together.” She nodded as if agreeing with herself and pasted on what she hoped displayed as a sinister smile. “Oh yes, I think we can make this work for both of us.”

19

With great effort that occasionally wavered, Ken bit back the aches in his body. Weak from blood loss, dehydration, and hunger, he wouldn’t allow it to topple him. Putting light weight on his leg and limping around the room had been successful. It hurt like hell, but he could manage. For how long at a time, he could only guess.

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