Countdown - Iris Johansen [127]
Jock gave her a troubled glance. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember,” he repeated. “I’ll get the coffee.”
Jane didn’t speak again until they were back on the road. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I guess I’m a little nervous. We’re getting so close. You’re sure you know where Reilly is located?”
“As sure as I can be.” Jock lifted his coffee to his lips. “We’ll go to the place where I had my training. He’s so sure that I won’t break my basic training that I’d bet he’s never left it. It would be an admission of failure, and Reilly’s ego wouldn’t permit it.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“I have a few more places to search that he doesn’t know I know about.”
“And how did you manage that?”
“I didn’t manage anything. That wasn’t an option during that time. His housekeeper, Kim Chan, dropped information about them between her training bouts with me.”
“What kind of training?”
“Sexual. Sex is a driving force. Reilly used sex along with everything else to maintain control. And Kim was very well versed in sexual pain of every sort. She enjoyed it.”
“I’m surprised Reilly would tolerate anyone around him who would talk out of turn.”
“Kim wouldn’t dare let him know that she’d let anything slip. She might not even remember she did. She had perfect confidence that Reilly’s conditioning would hold and that she didn’t have to be careful with me. She’s been with him for over ten years.”
“A personal relationship?”
“Only in that they feed on each other. He lets her have a certain amount of power and she does whatever he tells her to do.”
“You seem to remember her very well,” Jane said dryly. “No blanks there.”
“Kim liked me wide awake and drug free when she had her turn at me.”
“But you’ll have your payoff now.”
“Yes.”
“No enthusiasm? You told me you hated Reilly.”
“I hate him. But I can’t think about it now.”
“Why?”
“It would get in the way. When I think about Reilly, it’s hard for me to think of anything else. I have to find him and make sure he doesn’t hurt the laird.” He changed the subject. “According to the map, the next city is Salt Lake. If we dump the car at the airport, it may not be found for days. We’ll pick up another car and do the same thing at—”
“You have it all planned.” A hint of sarcasm inflected Jane’s words. “I feel like a chauffeur.”
He gave Jane an uncertain glance. “You don’t believe we should do it that way?”
She made a face. “Of course I do. I’m a little on edge. It’s a good idea. We’ll stop in Salt Lake. I’m actually feeling a little more optimistic about this, though I still don’t condone your blackmail. Even if you’re on automatic, you have a heck of a lot more experience at this than I do. It’s a little like turning Reilly’s weapons against him.”
Jock gave her a pleased smile. “It is, isn’t it? It makes me feel better when I remember that.” He glanced down at the map again. “We should probably get a four-wheel-drive SUV next time. The radio weather said there was going to be a blizzard in the Northwest in the next few days. The roads get pretty rough in bad weather in the area we’re going to.”
One Day
How much farther?” Jane’s eyes strained to see through the windshield. “I can’t even see the white line on the highway.” The snow was spinning across the tarmac in front of their SUV like a whirling dervish.
“Not far.” Jock looked down at the map on his lap. “Another few miles.”
“This area is pretty desolate. I haven’t even seen a gas station for the last twenty miles.”
“That’s the way Reilly likes it. No neighbors. No questions.”
“Trevor told me the same thing about MacDuff’s Run.” She glanced at him. “But the other side of the coin is that it’s difficult to get help to isolated places like this. You said that you’d let me call out the police or anyone I wanted to contact the minute we got to Reilly. You didn’t tell me that they’d have to brave a snowstorm and the wilderness primeval to get here.”
“You’re not being fair. I didn’t know there’d be a snowstorm. Though this isn’t a blizzard yet. The squalls have been coming and going. Give it another couple hours.” He smiled. “And,