Act V (33 page)

He stared at her doubtfully. “I wish I
could believe you, but you are such a good girl, I’m sure you’ll go
straight to your cop boyfriend and tell him all about
me.”

“
No, he’s not my
boyfriend.”

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her
until she thought her brains would fall out. “Don’t lie to me.
You’ve been sleeping with him!”

“
That doesn’t mean I love
him. I was using him for protection, that’s all.” God she hoped
he’d believe her.

He pulled her out of the room. “Come
along Desdemona. It’s time to finish what I started. You’re welcome
to try and convince me though. I still plan to enjoy spending some
quality time with you over the next hour or so.”

She pulled against him. “What about
leaving evidence?”

“
Oh there will be
evidence…evidence that implicates your dear Dorsey. There’s only
one question left. Do I need to tie you up again, or would you like
to try this the easy way? You’ll die either way, but I could make
it painless, or not.”

“
You mean you’d leave me
untied?” Her heart felt just a bit of hope.

“
Othello didn’t tie down
Desdemona. Why don’t you try to persuade me?”

There was no doubt what he
meant by that. She wanted to kill the evil, cold-blooded man to
make up for all the innocent lives he’d taken just to get revenge
on his stepfather. But she didn’t have the tools and would probably
just make him mad.
Think of it as
survival, Glynn; you’re acting out a scene.
“I could try.” She reached for him and pulled his face to her
lips. She pressed her lips onto his mouth and tried to remember
what she was going to do to him when she got the
opportunity.

*****

It was twenty minutes away
and that was assuming they had the right place. Brice had his foot
to the floor and Addy was calling for backup.
Oh, please God, let her be there. Let her be
alive.

*****

She pulled him on to the
bed. Michaels had already tugged on rubber gloves to minimize any
evidence. He groaned.
That’s right, relax.
I’ll kill you the first chance I get.
He
began to touch her and she tried not to pull away.

“
I think the Elizabethans
had the right idea when it came to underpants,” he said and started
lifting the chemise to her waist. “I don’t think they’re really
necessary. They just get in the way.” His hand reached for her,
grabbing painfully between her legs, and reacting to the pain, she
slapped his hand away. That was more than even survival would
permit. “What?” he laughed with false surprise, “I thought you
wanted to persuade me?”

“
I do, I just thought we
could go slowly.”

“
Slowly? I don’t care for
slowly. It must look like rape, and so it will be rape.” Quick as
lightening, he grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully above her
head, looping the scarf around it and tying it with a tight
knot.

She started to bat at him with the
other hand. “You said you wouldn’t tie me.”

He slapped her hard, jarring her teeth,
and tied the other wrist. That was when a crash sounded in the
trophy room. He jumped off the bed and ran to the room where he
kept his deadly collection.

Dorsey!
She started pulling at the ties. He hadn’t had time to check
them before he ran off. Maybe with the right combination of pulling
and twisting…One hand slipped free and she almost cried with
relief. Finally, she was able to undo the knot on the other one.
She stood beside the bed for a moment, regaining her balance and
trying to decide what to do. The smartest thing would be to get
out; leave Dorsey to his own devices and escape. That’s what Dorsey
would do if their roles were reversed. But she wasn’t Dorsey. She
never even considered it. Glynnis braced herself and walked as fast
as she dared to the trophy room.

*****

Brice and Addy pulled into the dirt
road Mrs. Itzen had reluctantly directed them to and saw the cabin
in the distance. “Turn off your lights,” he told Addy. “And park it
here. I don’t want him to know we’re coming.”

*****

The scene was frightening, backlit by
the single lamp in the corner. Dorsey stood weaving beside the cot.
Michaels charged him with a gun. “Sit down, Timmons. I’ll shoot you
right here if you don’t.”

Dorsey was still drunk enough to be
stupid. He stumbled toward Michaels and knocked the gun in the
process. Michaels still had it, but they struggled for it now.
Glynnis didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the first heavy thing she saw;
a club with an end like a mace. The spikes looked vicious. She
stumbled forward and lifted it as high as possible, which wasn’t
far, then swung. She felt the end make contact as she fell over. At
the same time, a shot exploded and she lifted her head in time to
see Dorsey hit the floor. He didn’t get up again, or even
move.

She tried to stand but only managed to
trip over the chemise and land on her knees. Michaels turned,
holding his side which was bleeding now in several places. “I’ll
kill you for that.” He lunged for her and she skittered sideways
like a crab. Michaels regained his footing and reached for her
again, this time snagging a handful of brown curls. She felt her
head jerk backward as she tried to move away. It hurt. It hurt so
badly that she wanted to lie down and just die, but she
couldn’t.

There was a pedestal beside her and she
reached for it only managing to knock it over. She shuffled
backward on her hands and knees but he jerked her hair pulling her
toward him again. “You are going to die in the most painful way I
can think up.” He jerked again and she cried out, feeling a clump
of hair release from her head. She was free of him, but not for
long.

Glynnis pushed against the floor,
trying to stand, and instead, found something solid and metal on
the floor beside her. It was a short bladed cutlass. That’s what
had been on the pedestal. That was what she had knocked over. She
held it up in front of her for protection, just as Michaels lunged
at her again. It imbedded itself, deeply into his stomach. Blood
sprayed them both. Michaels fell, staring at the cutlass as if it
were alive. His cold eyes widened and went out of focus.

Sound was coming through the door.
People coming in.

“
Glynnis!” Brice shouted.
He’d given up on the silent approach when he’d heard the commotion
inside. “Glynnis, where are you?”

Thank God it was Brice. She started to
lift up but something exploded. Pain shot through Glynnis and she
dropped back to the floor. Another explosion, and then everything
was darkness again.

Chapter 29

He hated these places, the antiseptic
smells and the beeping. And of course hospitals had all those sick
people in them. There was only one sick person he was interested in
and she remained unconscious on the bed before him. They had taken
the bullet out of her shoulder in surgery with only a little bit of
tissue damage. She had been lucky, nothing vital had been hit.
Glynnis would be sore for a while but she would pull out of it with
only a scar to show for her trauma. She was also lucky that she’d
passed out when she was hit. Brice had taken a bullet once before
when working for the county sheriff. It had come from a crazy
farmer who was convinced that the cops and everyone else who
approached his land were trying to evict him. They were there to
check out reports of gunshots in the area. The farmer had sent out
two rounds. One struck a fencepost, one got Brice on the upper arm,
in and out. He knew what it felt like to have that burn passing
into your body, to feel the tissues tearing. It hurt like crazy.
She’d been out for most of the time, only surfacing briefly to ask
about Dorsey, just before her surgery. She had been shot and she
was worried about Dorsey. Did that mean she was in love with him or
just a kind person? Brice hoped it was the latter and would have to
wait to find out. She hadn’t stayed awake long enough to hear the
answer.

The surgeon said that Glynnis would be
okay, but he wasn’t sure about how her Multiple Sclerosis would
respond to such an invasive injury on top of the other wounds she’d
suffered at Michaels’ hands. It could prompt a relapse or not. It
was an unpredictable disease. Even with a possible relapse, she
could recover quickly with the right therapy. He meant to see that
she got whatever she needed even if she didn’t want it. She was
stubborn in nature and wouldn’t want to hear that she needed to
stay away from the performances for a while.

He wasn’t looking forward to telling
her everything that had happened during the time she was
unconscious. The whole thing had held the makings of a nightmare
but he knew as sure as he was sitting there, she’d insist on being
told. And he still didn’t know how much psychological damage
Michaels had inflicted on her. The doctors had taken her directly
into emergency surgery and hadn’t stopped to check on the
likelihood of rape. That could wait until later…another thing he
dreaded talking about with her.

Her eyes fluttered open and Brice
almost ran to the bed. His voice was warm. “Glynnis, welcome
back.”

She smiled, but the smile turned into a
grimace and fell away just as quickly and Brice knew why. She
probably didn’t have a muscle in her body that didn’t hurt. “Just
close your eyes and rest,” he said brushing her honey brown curls
from her eyes. “You’ve had a tough day.”

“
Carl?”

“
Addy’s daughters are
spoiling him as we speak.”

“
The play?”

“
Your assistant director has
it covered.”

“
Okay,” she gave a
half-smile this time. “Just tell me one more thing…is he
dead?”

Brice wasn’t sure if she meant Dorsey
Timmons or Dylan Michaels. He decided to go with the easier of the
two for now. “Michaels is dead. You disabled him and when he shot
at you, I killed him. You were very brave, Glynnis and he won’t
hurt you again.” He didn’t know how she would feel if she knew that
Michaels had been on his last breath when he managed to shoot her
in the shoulder. If Brice hadn’t shot him, he would have died
anyway. It was hard knowing you were responsible for another
person’s death, even if that person was a murderous
sociopath.

“
Brice?”

“
You said just one more
thing. You’re at your limit.”

“
This won’t take
long.”

“
Okay, but then you
sleep.”

“
Deal. Brice, I can’t
remember if I told you or not, but I love…” Glynnis closed her eyes
and went on with the work of allowing her body to rebuild
itself.

*****

Her mother was sleeping in the chair
beside her bed when she woke up again. “Mama?”

Her mother lifted her eyelids and
smiled. “Hello baby.”

“
How long have you been
here?”

“
Not long, an hour or so,”
she said checking the clock. “Your dad and I took shifts until you
were out of danger, but we went home to rest when the doctor said
you’d be okay. I figured you’d need us later more than now, since
you have such good doctors and nurses watching out for you, along
with the police. Anyway, I just got back a while ago.”

“
How long
have
I
been here?”

“
For a couple of days now,
but the doctor says you can go home tomorrow.”

“
Brice?”

“
You mean the good-looking
detective? You must have made a real impression on him. He hasn’t
left you since you got here. I made him go downstairs to get supper
just now but…”

As if summoned, Brice walked into the
room. He took in the fact that Glynnis was awake and talking with
her mother. “Hi ladies.” He nodded toward Mrs. Nuckolls and then
made a beeline to Glynnis, taking her hand and kissing her
forehead. “Do you think you might be done sleeping now?”

“
I’ve slept enough to last
me a few weeks,” she told him.

“
Wow,”
Glynnis’ mother said, not missing the sparks that sizzled between
the two, “I’m starving. I think I’ll go get some supper myself.”
She kissed Glynnis on the cheek and gave Brice a sideways look as
she left that said,
She’s the only
daughter I have. Take care of her.
He
nodded. His plan was to do exactly that.

“
Mama said you haven’t left
since I got here.”

“
I had some vacation time
coming, and Addy filed all the paper work. He’ll gripe about that
for a few weeks.”

“
Aren’t you
tired?”

He stifled a yawn. “Not too much. I’ve
been sleeping in the chair.”

“
Hmm, that had to be
comfortable.”

“
I’d rather be in my bed,
but I’ll wait until you can be there with me.”

That sounded nice, but for now it
wasn’t going to happen. “The doctor says I can go home tomorrow. I
guess I should get my things from your house now that Michaels is
no longer a threat. You did say he was dead, right?”

“
Right, no more bad dreams
about the Bard for you.”