spotlight. Then tightly, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You know why. Look at your reaction. Now can we focus on the kidnapper, who’s going to show up any minute?”
“Fine,” he snapped. He wiped a hand down his face and around to rub the nape of his neck.
When he turned back around, his features were carefully neutral and his voice was all business. “What do you know about this place? Where’s the door?”
She ignored his curt tone and pointed behind them. “There’s a staircase back there. I hear the door open. I see light until he closes it. Then he comes down the stairs. Twelve. Twelve steps.”
Deke tried to concentrate on her words. She was absolutely right. They needed to get out of there before their captors came back.
But all he could think about was her…condition. And she was right about his reaction. Years ago she’d come to him, worried that she might be pregnant, and he’d lost it. Yelled at her.
Scared her. His heart twisted with regret for an instant, then leapt again in renewed panic.
The idea of having a kid scared him. More than anything he’d ever come up against—before or since. And he’d faced a lot.
But a baby. His mouth went dry and his chest tightened.
Damn it, he didn’t have time to be distracted by emotion. He had to focus. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to concentrate on the danger. To forget that his ex-wife was carrying his child.
He growled under his breath and looked in the direction she’d indicated. He recognized the stairs. Their shape stood out as a darker shadow ascending into blackness.
The basement was so damn dark, and the light from the window above was waning. He was pretty sure, based on his instinctive sense of direction, that the window faced east.
He’d driven in from the east, from nearby Casper.
He wasn’t sure what good that information did him, but at least he was oriented now.
“It’s getting dark out. What else have you seen? Did the man bring a light with him?”
Mindy’s hands were cradling her belly and her head was inclined. A serene expression made her face as beautiful as a Madonna. Amazingly, even in the darkness of the basement, she glowed. She was lush and beautiful. He wanted her so bad he ached.
Stop it!
She looked up, frowning. He could see her processing his words. “No. The last time, he and another guy were dragging you. I couldn’t figure out what I was hearing until you grunted.” She smiled. “No mistaking that growl. Anyhow, when they took off my blindfold I tried to take in as much as I could before they left and closed that door. I saw something over there, beyond that stack of wood. Maybe a door, or an opening of some kind.”
“Stay right there,” Deke ordered, pointing at her feet. He moved carefully toward the place she’d indicated. The entire floor was dirt, and littered with boards and logs along with pieces of broken furniture.
Within minutes it would be too dark to see, but his senses took in the shapes of the shadows and the musty smells. He figured that there was very little down here newer than fifty years old.
Finally, his outstretched hands touched the wall. Mindy was right. Complete darkness had already encroached on this end of the basement. He ran his hands over the rough-hewn boards. If there was a door, he couldn’t find it.
He rapped on the wood, listening for a hollow echo. No luck. Every place he knocked sounded solid as a rock.
Finally, as a last resort, he reached in his pocket and pulled out the disposable cigarette lighter. He shook it. Fairly full. Striking it with his thumb, he used its light to quickly examine the wall.
“Deke?”
Mindy’s scared voice, harsh with the strain of holding herself together, tore through him.
“Just a minute, sugar,” he said, studying the crevices between the boards. If there was an opening in this alcove, he couldn’t find it.
The lighter was beginning to burn his thumb, so he let go, then turned around and made his way back to her.
“Okay. I’m going upstairs and check things out. You stay here. You were right about the alcove, but I can’t find a door anywhere, and we’re almost out of light.”
“Deke, you can’t go up there. You said they wanted you to get out of the knots. That means they’ll be waiting up there to ambush you.”
“I’d be surprised if they weren’t. But I’ll deal with them. When I call you, we’ll make a run for it.”
Mindy shook her head. “No. It won’t work. You can’t—”
“Have you got a better idea? Because I don’t. Our only other choice is to wait until they come back, and I’m not going to fight them down here so close to you. You could get hurt. Now give me my knife and stop arguing. You’re wasting time. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“You don’t know that—”
“Nothing ever has.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
Deke clenched his jaw. The arguing had always come so easily. Just like the sex. Two things they’d always gotten right.
They’d learned early how to push each other’s buttons.
“My knife, Mindy.”
She handed it to him.
He closed it and stuck it in his pocket. Then he dropped the disposable lighter down inside his boot.
“Grab those ropes and sit back down. I’ll wrap them loosely around your hands and feet, so you’ll look like you’re still tied up if they—” he paused “—get past me.”
“Wait. I don’t understand.”
“If they come down here, I want you to look like you’re still tied up. That way they can’t blame you for trying to escape. Just me.”
Mindy slowly bent down, reaching a hand out to steady herself against the wall.
Deke grimaced. This was going to be harder than he could have imagined. She was so handicapped by her pregnancy that she couldn’t even bend down. He cupped her elbow.
“Okay, never mind.” He led her over to sit on the wooden crate and fetched the ropes.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
He took her hands and carefully looped the rope around them. Then, bending in front of her, he wrapped the second rope around her feet.
He straightened. “Good. In the dark, it’ll look like you’re really tied up.”
“I feel like I’m really tied up. Are you sure about this?” Her voice was edged with panic.
“Trust me, sugar.” His mouth flattened in a grimace, just like it did every time he said those words to her. She couldn’t trust him. He knew it, and she knew it. He’d let her down too many times.
“But how—”
He placed into her palm one end of the rope that was wrapped around her hands. “Hang on to that end of the rope. When you pull it the ropes will fall off. The ropes around your feet aren’t secured at all. Just kick them.”
“Deke, I don’t like this.”
He glanced at the lone window, high above their heads. Then, closing his eyes, he formed a mental blueprint of the main floor of the hotel in his brain. “If the desk is there, and the stairs are there—” he muttered, tracing the most likely route out of the building.
“Listen to me, Min. That window faces east. My car