Raven’s Prey(36)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“Never mind,” he muttered abruptly. “We can talk this all out later. Right now I’m in a hurry. Have you got everything you’ll need?” He came to a halt in front of her and gestured at the suitcase in her hand.

“Need for what?” She glared at him warily.

“For a vacation in New Mexico, naturally,” he drawled. “That’s where we’re going this evening.”

“Not on your life!” She jumped backward and tried to slam the door. It caught on the immovable object of his booted foot. “Judd, I mean it! You can’t do this! Not in this country!”

“This is between you and me,” he grated. “It’s got nothing at all to do with the laws of the nation.” He thrust open the door and reached for her.

Honor dropped the suitcase and turned to flee. It was a useless exercise. Without any apparent effort Judd caught her lightly around the waist, pulling her back against him. When she tried to strike out at him with her hands he snagged her wrists. Holding her as she panted and struggled in the circle of his arm, he withdrew a length of fabric from one pocket.

“Judd, don’t you dare!” Honor choked, outraged. But he ignored her, binding her wrists with a few deft twists of the fabric strip. She opened her mouth to scream and found herself gasping for breath as he heaved her easily over one shoulder.

By the time she recovered enough to attempt another shout for assistance Judd was picking up her suitcase and locking the front door. Then he was striding back down the walk toward a dark car parked at the curb.

“This is kidnapping!” she charged furiously as he stuffed her not urgently into the front seat of the car and slid in beside her.

He started the engine, not glancing at her as he pulled away from the curb. “I see it more as a matter of recovering temporarily strayed property. Who was he, Honor? And if you make a try for that door I’ll stop the car and tie your feet, too.”

She slanted a baleful glance at him but withdrew her questing fingers from the door handle. The car was moving too swiftly now, anyway. She’d probably be killed if she tried to jump. Her outrage and anger simmered at a high level but she certainly wasn’t feeling suicidal. There was another factor involved here, too. Now that he’d actually put his hands on her again she realized she wasn’t genuinely afraid of him. Incensed, furious, angry, all of those, but not precisely afraid. He hadn’t hurt her when he’d caught her and bound her hands. In fact, when she considered that he had been in a cold rage when she’d first seen him this evening, his touch had been surprisingly gentle. But, then, never in the time she had known him had Judd Raven actually hurt her physically.

“Honor?” he prompted darkly. “He was a friend.” She was aware they were on the Interstate and wondered briefly at their destination. The airport?

“That Melbourne guy you told me about?”

“Yes! A friend! Do you know what a friend is, Judd? It’s someone you can talk to. Someone you can share your troubles with. Someone who understands you. Someone who wants to help you when you’re in trouble.”

“You didn’t go to him for help when you got in trouble with Garrison and Prager,” Judd pointed out flatly. “You ran all by yourself to Mexico.”

“I didn’t want to expose him to any danger.”

“Because you knew he couldn’t handle it?”

“For heaven’s sake, Judd! What’s the point of all this questioning?” she gritted, sinking into her corner and staring morosely out the window at the passing lights of the city.

“If we had [_been friends _]before you found yourself in that mess with Garrison and Prager, would you have come to me for help?” he persisted coolly.

She shot him an uncertain glance. What was he getting at? “Talk about an academic question! What on earth makes you ask that?”

“Just curious. Would you have asked me for help, Honor?”

He was deadly serious, she realized. Sighing, she gave up the attempt to avoid the question. “Maybe,” she’ admitted cautiously, knowing very well that she probably would have run to him when she had returned from Hong Kong. “But then there would have been the problem of getting you to believe me, wouldn’t there?” she tacked on too sweetly.

That brought his midnight eyes to her profile in a quick, scorching glance. “If I’d been your friend I would have known Garrison and Prager weren’t related to you,” he said simply.

“Ah. The logic of the situation would have been clear right from the start, is that it? I understand. How much do you charge your friends for your assistance in situations like that? Is there a different rate from the one you charge Maddock, for example? Or strangers like Garrison and Prager? How do you work it, Judd? Do you have a sliding scale based on ability to pay?”

“Honor, shut up,” he bit out savagely. “Just shut up or I’ll lose my temper with you.”

“I’m a little upset with you myself at the moment I’ve already lost my temper, in case you hadn’t noticed!”

His hands tightened on the wheel but his driving remained smooth and controlled. “Was Melbourne trying to turn your ‘friendship’ back into something else? Does he want to sleep with you?”

“No!”

“Do you want to sleep with him?”

“Judd, I’ve told you, he’s just a friend,” she shot back in growing exasperation. “He was engaged to another friend of mine named Evie Newcomb. Before I left for Hong Kong they were having some problems. Today Steve called me up and said he and Evie were through and could he cry on my shoulder. I said yes. That’s what friends are for, you see, Judd.”

“Why did he break off his engagement? Does he want you back?”

“This is getting ridiculous! No, he did not end the engagement because of me! Evie got a job in Denver and left town.”

“So?”

“So Steve has a job here in Phoenix. They’ve decided they can’t stay engaged very easily when they’re going to be living so far apart. There. That’s the end of the story. Satisfied?”

“He should go to Denver and bring her home if he wants her.”

“That sounds like a solid male viewpoint on the problem.”

“What did you advise him to do?” he asked, sounding curious now.

“I advised him to go to Denver and get a job there so he could be with Evie.’’

To her great astonishment Judd seemed to consider that. “That’s another possibility, I guess. In any event he shouldn’t have been out crying on your shoulder tonight.”