The Lost Daughter. Diane Chamberlain

to rub the small of her back. “If you take me home now,” she said to Tim, obviously guessing he was the softer of the two men, “I can make sure they go easy on you.”

      “No way,” Tim said. “I’m not crapping out on Andie.”

      “You’re a fool,” Genevieve said.

      “Look.” Tim touched her arm, and she snapped it away from him. “You sit here with Marty and I’ll get you some tea and something to eat.” He looked at CeeCee, nodding toward the kitchen.

      “Sit down,” Marty ordered her. CeeCee felt a little afraid to leave her in his care. The woman lowered herself to the old couch, looking defeated and suddenly very tired.

      In the kitchen, CeeCee lifted her mask. “Oh, God, Tim, please don’t leave me alone with her!”

      “Put the mask down,” he snapped, and she dropped it over her face again. Tim filled a pot with water and set it on the stove. “She’s going to be fine,” he said. “She’s really a pussycat.” The red mark on his cheek suggested otherwise. “Don’t get too close to her, though. She might try to grab your mask or something.”

      “I just … I …” CeeCee stammered. “She’s so much taller than me.”

      “Babe.” He held on to her shoulders. His smile was meant to reassure her, but it was tight and uncertain. “I’m sure this isn’t going to last long. It’s actually good that she’s pregnant. It makes her less able to cause you any problems, right?” He waited for her to answer and she offered a reluctant nod.

      “You’re doing a wonderful thing for me,” he said. “For my family. Whatever you need, anytime, I’ll be there for you. I owe you.”

      Be there for me how, she wanted to ask? How could he be there if he was going underground? But she knew better than to bring up that subject again.

      “Now look.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a gun, and she backed away.

      “It’s not loaded, right?” she asked.

      “Actually, it is,” he said.

      She took another step backward until she was up against the pantry. “You said it wouldn’t be. Take out the bullets.”

      “I think it’s better if it’s loaded. Just in case. I don’t mean you would shoot her.” He looked suddenly worried. “Whatever you do, don’t shoot her. She’s all we’ve got to trade with. But you might need to shoot the ceiling or something to keep her in line. She’s feistier than I anticipated.”

      “Oh, Tim, I don’t want a gun!”

      “The safety is on,” he said. “Let me show you how this thing works.”

      She watched carefully as he toggled the safety back and forth. She supposed he was right. It would give her more confidence if she had a weapon. It didn’t matter that Genevieve was taller or bigger or stronger if she was the one with the gun.

      She took the gun from him, her gloved hands trembling.

      “Man, you haven’t stopped shaking since we got here,” he said.

      “Not since you left me here, actually,” she admitted. “I can’t stop.”

      “It’s all going to work out, I promise,” he said as he took a tea bag from the box in the pantry. “That asshole governor will want to keep this quiet and get her back before anyone’s the wiser. He’s that way. Very private. So I want you to stop worrying, okay?” He lifted her mask a couple of inches and planted a kiss on her cheek.

      She poured boiling water into a mug, spilling some of it onto the worn wooden counter.

      “You get the cookies,” he said, taking the mug from her. “And try to calm down. Don’t let her see how rattled you are.”

      She was worrying him, she thought, as she put a few sugar cookies onto a plate. Disappointing him.

      Genevieve was still sitting on the old sofa when they walked back into the room, and Marty stood at the window, looking less confident than he had a few minutes earlier.

      “I heard something out there,” he said. “A thud or something.”

      “It’s nothing.” Tim set the mug on the coffee table.

      “I heard it a lot while you were gone,” CeeCee said. “I think it’s just a branch brushing against the porch.” How was someone as paranoid as Marty going to survive on the run? She placed the plate of cookies next to the mug, taking one of them for herself, although she was hardly hungry. She needed something to do with her hands.

      Genevieve suddenly picked up all four of the cookies and threw them at the men. Then she threw the plate at CeeCee, catching her on the side of her face. Of Sleeping Beauty’s face.

      “You bitch!” Marty was on the woman in a flash, pinning her arms to the sofa, and CeeCee saw a sharp flicker of fear in her eyes.

      “Leave her alone,” she said, surprised as the words left her mouth. “You can’t blame her.” It suddenly occurred to her that befriending the woman might be the right approach. Her sympathy for her was genuine. As Marty backed away, CeeCee could tell that Genevieve was struggling to keep from crying. Her lower lip quivered and her eyes blinked back tears. She sat down next to her. “It’s going to be okay,” she said.

      Genevieve stared at her. “What have you let these guys talk you into?” she asked.

      CeeCee quickly stood again as she felt the upper hand slip away from her. “I think for myself, bitch,” she said, but Genevieve’s eyes bored hard into CeeCee’s until she had to look away.

      Tim pointed to the governor’s wife. “Do what Sleeping Beauty says, or there’ll be trouble,” he said. “Marty and I are leaving.”

      “I don’t feel well,” Genevieve said, her hand rubbing her back again. “I could be going into labor.”

      “Right,” Tim said with disdain. He looked at Marty. “You ready?”

      “You bet,” Marty said, but he opened the door slowly and peered outside before walking onto the porch.

      CeeCee stood next to the coffee table, watching the men leave. She listened to the van doors slam shut and the engine cough to life, and she thought, What now? She felt Genevieve’s eyes on her. The woman hadn’t touched her tea. “Do you want more cookies?” she asked.

      Genevieve ignored the question. “So, what happens now?” she asked. “Will they tell my husband where I am and he can come get me?”

      A horrible thought. Surely they wouldn’t send the husband here. She’d be a sitting duck if he showed up.

      “They’ll come get you and take you back,” she said, as if she knew that for a fact.

      “Where are they going now?”

      “Someplace where they can call your husband.”

      “Why didn’t they call him from here? Then I could talk to him and let him know I’m alive. That would make more sense.”

      “There’s no phone here.”

      Genevieve rolled her eyes. “Then why didn’t they take me someplace where there is a phone?”

      It was a good question and CeeCee didn’t have the answer. “Look,” she said, “this is the way it is, so we’ll just have to make the best of it.”

      Genevieve suddenly got to her feet and CeeCee panicked. “You sit down!” she said.

      She thought Genevieve was going to ignore her, and she suddenly realized she’d left the gun in the kitchen. Her voice must have carried power, though, because the woman dropped onto the sofa again.

      “I wasn’t kidding that I don’t feel well,” she said. “My back aches.”