Page 49 of Evening Shadows

Shaking her head, she stood. “Lie down and let me see what you’ve got going on.”

As he maneuvered himself back on the cot, he waggled his eyebrows. “Do you want to seeeverythingI’ve got going on?”

His good humor told her he’d moved forward, and while they weren’t perfect, they were together. So, like a giddy schoolgirl, she tittered and blushed.

After she poked and prodded Ken, she then tore strips from the bottom of her T-shirt to cover his bullet wound since it’d seeped during the night. Once finished, he stood and stretched to loosen up the kinks and tight limbs so he’d be ready for whatever came.

Even though their stomachs rumbled, they didn’t discuss the lack of food.

Heavy footfalls approached—she preferred that better to the silent guard—and Ken stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the door. And blocking the guard’s view of her.

The air around her rattled with some noise. Ken actually growled at the guard. Just one more thing to like about the man.

A key rattled in a lock and a heavily accented voice directed, “Girl.”

It’d been a good thing she’d been hidden as somehow she didn’t think he’d have appreciated her rolling her eyes.Girl, indeed.

“No,” Ken asserted, animosity dripping from him.

Needing to at least see what transpired in their cell, Sam lifted herself on her toes, stretching her neck to peek over Ken’s shoulder. He must’ve sensed her movement because he shifted to block her view. What she’d seen made her blood run cold.

The guard filled the entrance. No wonder Ken didn’t want her to go. She gulped, and her heart pounded loudly in her ears. If she’d misjudged the situation, going with this man would be wrong. Very wrong.

Ken stiffened, and a trill voice interrupted the showdown between the two men. “Jose, you did great work on him,” Beverly Shodun said.

Sam closed her eyes against the pain of witnessing the evilness of the woman she’d called her best friend.

“Sam, quit hiding behind the man responsible for our husbands’ deaths.”

Before stepping around Ken, she whispered near his ear, allowing her hand to press against the arch of his back a moment, “Trust me.” She’d lost that with him once, so she could only hope he’d give her the chance.

Clearing Ken, she came face-to-face with a crazy woman. “Bev,” she said with feigned relief. “Thank God you’re here. They’ve kept me locked up. Had I known you’d be here, I’d have complained louder.”

Bev studied her as if judging whether to trust Sam. Crazy people had some sane moments. Bev would too so she’d have to watch herself.

With a broad smile, Bev waved her out of the room and she followed. “I’m sorry. I just arrived this morning and they didn’t know.”

Widening her eyes, she asked, “I don’t understand? What about Cody? HIS rescued him. They were bringing him to you. Jesse and one of the other men left with him.”

Bev stopped about midway down the long hallway. “You mean Jesse isn’t out there waiting to rescue you?”

Furrowing her brow as if in confusion, Sam asked, “Bev, what’s going on? This doesn’t make sense. You hired us to rescue Cody from here. We did and he’s not here, but now you are.”

She waved her hand as if to flick off the topic and began walking with Sam on her left side. “Oh, that.”

Sam bit her lip waiting for Bev to expound, but she didn’t. The cell door slammed behind her, and she wanted to look back at Ken and assure him she was acting but didn’t risk anyone noticing. Instead, Bev led her into a large dining room with bold red colors.

“Sit, Sam.” Bev kissed Alejandro on the cheek before taking a seat beside him. Sipping coffee, he appeared perfectly sane. Yet he seemed to still have a relationship with a crazy woman. And it looked as if he’d bought into her scheme. Finally, Bev had the means to make trouble for Jesse and Ken.

She wanted to press Bev for her plans and their release, but she knew better than to let her cards show. Besides, her stomach rumbled, and they knew she’d had nothing since she’d been brought into their custody. She needed fuel to keep her strength up.

As she eased into a high-back chair, she thought her words through before she said them and what her possible rebuttal would be. “Are you going to feed Ken?”

She held her breath for the answer. The depths of Bev’s sanity remained unknown.

Looking at her as if she were crazy, Bev halted before drinking her coffee and asked calmly as if starving a man was normal. “Why would I?”

Sadly, she’d expected that question. “What do you want with him?”

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