Page 60 of Daredevil Lady and the Mysterious Millionaire (The Hidden Hearts Collection #3)

“Geez, what’s the matter with Rory, Pete?” Angelo was saying. “First she tells us to get a move on with the packing, now she insists she wants the balloon ready.”

“I dunno,” Pete replied. “I wish Tony would get back here. Rory always explains things to him.”

“Not lately. Rory hasn’t been right in the head since she fell in love with that Morrison,” Angelo grumbled. “She doesn’t even remember she dropped the Seamus into the ocean, that the only balloon left fit for travel is the Katie Moira.”

Pete’s face lit up with sudden inspiration. “Hey, maybe that rich woman up there is giving her some kind of commission. Maybe we won’t have to move after all.”

“I guess that must be it.”

The boys appeared satisfied enough that they worked more swiftly.

Only Duffy remained uneasy. Maybe he shouldn’t have left Rory alone with that woman.

Maybe he ought to burst up there and see what was going on.

But if Rory was learning anything from Mrs. Van Hallsburg, his appearance would ruin everything.

Yet what would Rory want her balloon for all of a sudden? Duffy didn’t believe for a moment Pete’s naive suggestion that the Van Hallsburg woman wanted to hire one of the contraptions.

Yet who could guess what might be running through the lady’s mind? Mrs. Van Hallsburg must be under a tremendous amount of pressure owing to his investigations. Duffy had seen people do some really crazy things when their world threatened to crumble apart, even ones as ice-blooded as Mrs. Van H.

His nervousness mounting, Duffy inched toward the stairs just as the warehouse door creaked.

He hoped it was that Tony kid returning.

A little older, he appeared to have more sense than those other two boys.

As the door opened to reveal a pair of broad shoulders, Duffy experienced a feeling of relief.

Better than the Tony kid, it was Morrison.

Zeke didn’t enter with his usual arrogant stride, but lingered on the threshold, as though unsure of himself, expecting to be tossed out on his ear.

His clothes were so rumpled he looked as though he had spent the past few hours being steam pressed in hell.

But that was nothing compared to the haggard expression on his face, the craters beneath his eyes, the clear signs of a man who had been on an all-night binge.

“Mother o’ God, Morrison,” Duffy called out. “What have you been doing to yourself? I’ve seen week-old corpses in better shape.”

As he came forward, Zeke merely regarded him with a dull stare, not even barking out his usual demand to know what Duffy was up to. “Where’s Miss Kavanaugh?”

“Upstairs,” Duffy said with an upward motion of his thumb. “I’m glad you’re here. Something funny’s going on. Look, she’s getting one of those balloons ready and?—”

“Damnation!” Zeke strode to glance through the open doors of the warehouse, back toward the dock, where a familiar loud hiss rattled the windows. The sight of the balloon straining skyward brought a spark back into Zeke’s listless eyes.

“You don’t even know the half,” Duffy said. “That friend of yours, Mrs. Van Hallsburg, is upstairs with Miss Kavanaugh, and I can’t begin to imagine what the devil?—”

“Mrs. Van H.! Up there with Rory?”

Duffy scowled with impatience. Wouldn’t the man ever let him finish his sentences? Apparently not, for Zeke shoved Duffy out of the way, his jaw hardening, as he started to rush up the steps.

But it was not necessary. Rory was already on her way down, Mrs. Van Hallsburg a step behind, but not far enough that Rory couldn’t feel the muzzle of the gun jammed up against her ribs, the weapon concealed by the folds of her dress.

She had been stalling as long as she could, seeking a way to flee or overpower the woman. But it had been impossible as Mrs. Van H. never kept her gun more than a hair’s breadth from Rory’s side. One false move and Rory knew she was dead.

As she descended the stairs, she forced herself to remain calm, to exhibit a bravado she wasn’t feeling. Just wait until she got Mrs. Van H. up in her balloon, she reassured herself. The sky was her domain, the balloon’s mysteries hers to control.

Intent upon her thoughts, Rory was halfway down before she realized a man was storming up the risers. Zeke’s appearance was so unexpected, it was all she could do not to fling herself into his arms with a cry of relief and joy.

But close behind her she heard Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s sharp intake of breath, then the threat. “One move, one plea for help, and I’ll shoot him directly between the eyes.”

Would she? Despite Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s icy facade, Rory sensed the woman was mad enough to do so. Rory shrank back from Zeke’s approach, calling out. “Zeke. Damn you. Get out of here.”

He frowned, but kept coming. “Rory, what in blazes is going on?”

“None of your business,” she said desperately. “Just go away.”

“I’ve engaged Miss Kavanaugh’s services,” Mrs. Van Hallsburg said. “We’re going on a journey together.”

“What! The hell you are,” Zeke snarled. As he took another step, Rory felt Mrs. Van Hallsburg tense.

“Stay away,” Rory cried. “I mean it, Zeke. Don’t you dare to touch me.”

The vehemence of her command brought him up short.

“I told you before I didn’t want to see you anymore. Now you and Duffy just get out of here before I have you thrown out.”

She tried to telegraph a far different message to Zeke with her eyes. She wasn’t sure he understood, but after exchanging a glance with Duffy, he backed off enough to allow Rory and Mrs. Van Hallsburg to proceed down the steps.

Rory had an impulse to shout out a warning and run, but Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s grip on her arm was too firm, her gun hand never wavering.

“How very touching that you came to bid me farewell, John,” Mrs. Van Hallsburg sneered. “But it seems the least a boy could do for his mother.”

His mother? In her astonishment Rory nearly forgot herself and jerked away. How crazed was this woman to say such strange things?

Not crazed enough, Rory realized, a dull ache lodging in her heart, compounded of horror and empathy for Zeke. She could see the truth of the woman’s bizarre words upon Zeke’s face, shame mingled with loathing. Duffy’s eyes fairly popped from his head as Mrs. Van Hallsburg continued to taunt Zeke.

“You are my son. I hope you never forget that.” There was a deliberate cruelty in her voice as though she couldn’t resist taunting him one last time.

“Maybe I won’t, but I’m sure as hell going to try,” Zeke said. He watched as Mrs. Van Hallsburg tugged Rory toward the balloon.

“Damn it, Morrison,” Duffy said. “Aren’t you going to do anything? Let’s grab that witch and?—”

“You fool.” Zeke grabbed Duffy by the coattails to halt his impulsive rush forward. He whispered harshly, “Can’t you tell she has a gun jammed against Rory’s side?”

“Then what are we going to do? We can’t just let Rory go off with her. That woman’s crazy.”

Duffy didn’t need to tell him that. But Zeke stood frozen, beset by the sensation of helplessness that had surged through him from that minute upon the stairs when he first realized the desperate peril Rory was in.

What the hell could he do? There was no way to wrench Rory out of Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s grasp without Rory being hurt or worse.

All he could do was follow, clinging to the hope that there would be one moment when Mrs. Van H. would be distracted, lose her grasp upon Rory—one split second when he would be able to act.

Yet it was as though Mrs. Van Hallsburg sensed the direction of his thoughts, for she didn’t allow her concentration to waver for an instant, not even as she and Rory clambered into the gondola. Rory’s assistants were too caught up in the launch of the balloon to notice anything amiss.

Rory’s chin was raised in a valiant effort to conceal her fear, but the pleading look in her eyes seared Zeke.

Was there a chance that Mrs. Van Hallsburg would let her go once Rory had served her purpose, helped her to escape?

As the lines were being cast off, Mrs. Van Hallsburg shifted her gaze to meet Zeke’s, her impassive features flushed with a taunting triumph.

Zeke knew that whatever Rory did, she was going to die.

As the balloon lifted off, he charged forward. Shoving past the astonished Angelo, he grabbed onto a dangling rope and tried to hold the balloon earthbound. But he hadn’t counted on the sheer power of the hissing behemoth above him.

The balloon yanked him up as though he weighed no more than a rag doll, his feet kicking nothing but air.

He heard the startled shouts from below and made the mistake of looking down at the wooden dock spinning rapidly away from him.

For a second, he felt a rush of dizziness, the familiar nausea, but he forced himself to look up.

The rope abraded his palms as he strained to climb upward and pull himself into the basket.

Dragged down by Zeke’s added weight, the balloon rose a few feet above the warehouse and no higher.

Horrified, Rory peered over the side of the basket.

She forgot her own danger in the face of Zeke’s struggle for his life, fearing that any moment she would see his hands slip, his body hurtle back to smash against the docks.

She made a frantic attempt to tug on the rope, help pull Zeke up to safety. A futile gesture. Idiot, she rebuked herself. The valve line, she needed to pull on the valve line, release enough air to lower gently, allow Zeke a chance to drop safely back to the ground.

But as she spun about, she was chilled by a burst of laughter from Mrs. Van Hallsburg. She saw the woman striving to release some of the ballast so the balloon would surge even higher.

Rory leaped to stop her, but Mrs. Van Hallsburg brought her gun back to bear.

Rory slapped the weapon aside, deflecting it just as it went off, the shot whizzing harmlessly past, singeing one of the ropes.

The gun flew from Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s fingers, vanishing over the side of the gondola.

With a shriek of fury, Mrs. Van Hallsburg lunged for Rory’s throat.

Rory fought with all her might to hold her off, but despite her brittle elegance, the woman seemed possessed of a demonic strength.

Rory felt herself driven relentlessly backward.

The basket pitched and Rory lost her balance.

Mrs. Van Hallsburg shoved hard and Rory cried out as she fell, tumbling into nothingness.

She grasped wildly, her fingers managing to close over the side of the basket. For a terrifying moment, she thought she couldn’t hold on. She heard Zeke roar her name, glimpsed him swaying on the rope just beneath her.

But she dared not look down. Mrs. Van Hallsburg’s pale face hovered above her, the woman’s length of white-gold hair blowing free in a witchlike tumble. She grasped Rory’s fingers, her nails biting into Rory’s flesh. Slowly, remorselessly, she began to pry Rory’s hands away.

Rory’s legs flailed against the tangle of her skirts. Her hands throbbed with pain as she felt her sweat-slickened fingers start to slip.

“Zeke!” she cried. Below her, she sensed his struggles to scale the rope and reach her in time. She felt her foot strike against his shoulder just as she lost her grip.

Her cry seemed borne away by the wind as she plummeted, knocking against Zeke.

He grabbed for her, his fingers clamping ruthlessly about her wrist, arresting her plunge with a suddenness that nearly wrenched her arm from her socket.

His other hand barely clutched the end of the rope, his incredible strength the only thing between them and certain death.

His face was beaded with sweat, the cords of his neck muscles taut with the strain, and Rory knew he couldn’t maintain this for long.

Above them she had a glimpse of Mrs. Van Hallsburg, the woman’s features contorted beyond recognition as she worked frantically to release the ballast, her smile insane.

Zeke gave a roar of rage and despair. He suddenly stared downward as if mesmerized, and to Rory’s horror, he let go the rope.

As Rory fell, she had no time to even cry out. She struck ground much sooner than she anticipated, slamming down, the breath driven from her lungs. She felt Zeke landing hard beside her.

For a moment she was too dazed to comprehend anything more than that by some miracle, they had dropped to the roof of the warehouse.

After gulping in a few painful breaths, she struggled to sit up and reach out to Zeke, see if he was hurt. But he was already drawing himself up to his knees, gazing anxiously at her.

“Rory. Are you all right?”

She nodded and he swooped her into his arms, cradling her against him as though he would never let her go.

Every muscle in her body ached, but she reveled in the feel of his strength, the reassuring thud of his heart thundering in rhythm with her own.

The danger was past. They were safe, but to her astonishment, she burst into tears.

“Hush, darling. Don’t cry. It’s all over now,” Zeke said, brushing the hair back from her brow in a familiar gesture, the rough texture of his fingers gentle.

“It was like a nightmare. She-she?—”

“She’s gone, Rory. She’ll never have a chance to hurt you again, damn her.

” He twisted his head, glancing skyward.

Rory followed his gaze toward the vanishing speck that was the balloon.

She knew it would have surged upward when she and Zeke dropped off, but not at such a rate as that.

Mrs. Van Hallsburg had to be releasing the ballast like a madwoman, out of ignorance or design, propelling herself upward to those cold regions of sky where the air was too thin.

Suddenly Rory recalled her dream of the night before and she understood its significance.

“I suppose she will manage to escape,” Zeke said bitterly. “Get away with everything she’s done.”

“No,” Rory whispered, a chill working through her. “There’s no escaping the banshee.”