Nora Roberts: High Noon

"They're not hurt. He hasn't hurt anyone but the security guard."

But her hands had gone clammy. "They're smart, sensible women, and they won't do anything to get themselves hurt."

"If he knows who they are…" Duncan began.

"He doesn't. He couldn't know they'd be in there. He isn't looking at them. It isn't about them. I need you both to go stand back there. Don't say anything, don't do anything. He doesn't know who they are, my connection to them, and that's vital to keeping them safe. I have to call him back. He can't hear anything but me now."

She signaled as Mike Vince came in. "I'm not asking you to go outside. I'm trusting you to let me do my job. You trust me to do it. Sykes,

ADA Louise Hector and her mother-in-law, Beatrice Hector, are inside. I'm calling him back," she said to Vince. "I want you to listen. You have anything, anything at all to add, to help, any question, you write it down. Don't speak. I don't want him to hear your voice."

"Christ, Lieutenant, Christ, I can't believe Jerry would do something like this."

"Believe it." She shoved a pad and pencil at him, then made the call. "Right on time."

"What can I do for you now, Jerry?"

"How about a car, and a plane waiting for me at the airport."

"Is that what you want, Jerry?" She read the note Sykes put in front of her. "A car, a plane?"

Fifteen hostages, cuffed together in a circle. Explosive device in the center of the circle.

"And if I did?"

"You know I'd try to get it for you. Might be able to swing the car. What kind of car would you like, Jerry?"

"I've been looking at those Chrysler Crossfires. Gotta love the name, and I buy American."

"You'd like a Chrysler Crossfire."

"Might. Loaded."

"I'll try to get that for you, Jerry. But you know that you'd have to give me something for it. We both know the way this works."

"Fuck the way it works. What do you want for the car?"

"I'd have to ask if you'd release some hostages. Anyone with a medical condition to start, or children. Jerry, will you tell me if there are any children in there?"

"I don't do kids. If I were going to do a kid, I'd've done yours. Had plenty of opportunities the last couple years."

"Thank you for not hurting my daughter," she said as her blood ran cold. "Jerry, are you willing to release some hostages if I can get you the car you want?"

"Hell no." He laughed himself breathless.

"What are you willing to give if I can get you the car you want?"

"Not a fucking thing. I don't want any goddamn car."

She curled her hand around a bottle of water someone had set in front of her, but didn't drink. "You're saying you don't want a car, at this time?"

"Could've put a pipe bomb in yours. Thought about it."

"Why didn't you?"

"Then we wouldn't be talking right now, would we, you stupid bitch."

Mood swings. Conversational tone, then adversarial. Drug use?

"I understand you want to talk to me. So tell me, Jerry, what can I do to help resolve this situation?"

"You can pull out your piece, stick the barrel in your mouth and pull the trigger. How about doing that? I'll let all the female hostages go if you blow the back of your head off while I'm on the line. I want to hear it."

"If I did that, we couldn't talk anymore. You told me you wouldn't talk to anyone but me. If anyone else tried to talk to you, you'd kill someone. Do you want to talk to someone else, Jerry, or to me?"

"You think you're going to build a rapport with me?"

"I think you have things to say to me. I'm here to listen to you."

"You don't give a fuck about me. You didn't give a fuck about her."

"I understand that you blame me for what happened to Angela."

"You let her die, same thing as killing her. She bled to death while you fucked around with the men who put the bullet in her. I had the shot. In the first hour I had the kill shot, but didn't get the green."

Lies. Probably believes he had the shot now. Needs to believe he could've saved her.

"None of us knew she'd been so seriously hurt, Jerry. They lied to us, to all of us. None of us knew Angela was hurt at all in that first hour."

"You should've known!"

Fury. Grief. "You're right, Jerry, I should've known. I should've known they were lying." She read the next communique that came in with a runner. "I understand you loved her, and she loved you."

"You understand nothing. "

Agree with him, Mike Vince scribbled on his pad. Don't say you understand or you know. Only make him madder.

"How could I, really? You're right. How could I understand that sort of bond? Most people only dream of having that. But I do understand that you were going to be together. You should've been together,

Jerry. You should've been able to run away together and be happy."

"The fuck you care."

His voice was calmer, and she nodded at Vince. "I guess, well, I guess I've dreamed of having what you and Angela had. You know things weren't good for me and Roy. He never loved me the way I think you loved Angela."

"She was my goddamn life. If I'd taken that shot, we'd both still have a life. You saved the men who murdered her, but you didn't save her."

"I failed her. I failed you. You want to hurt me, I understand that, I understand why. But how does what you're doing now balance the scales?"

"They can't be balanced, you fucking cunt. Maybe I'll shoot this asshole Arnie between the eyes. Does that balance the scales for you?"

She picked up the water now, but only to rub the cold bottle over her forehead. "Killing him isn't going to hurt me, Jerry."

"I want you to beg me not to, like you did with Roy. Hear that!

Hear that?" he shouted as someone screamed. "I've got my gun pressed dead center of his forehead. You beg me not to pull the trigger."

"Why would I, Jerry, after what he did to me? After I thought about doing it myself if I could."

"You know what they'll say about you if I do it?"

"Yeah. They'll say maybe I didn't try hard enough, maybe I didn't put myself into this because, underneath, I wanted him to die. I wanted him to die hard. But you know, Jerry, I don't care what they say about me. You pull the trigger, he's gone, and it changes the situation out here. It takes a lot of the weight off me. You know how it works. You do a hostage, Tactical steps it up. So you want to pull the trigger? I don't lose a thing. Is that what you want, Jerry?"

"Wait and see."

He cut off the line, and Phoebe dropped her head in her hands. "Jesus, Lieutenant," Vince managed. "You gave him permission to kill a hostage."

"Which is why he won't." Please God, don't let her be wrong. "If I'd asked him, begged him, not to do it, he'd have done it. And he'd strap the rig on one of the others."

She pushed to her feet when Sergeant Meeks burst in. "You think I didn't hear that? You think I didn't hear you invite him to kill my boy?" He lunged at her. It took Sykes, Vince and Duncan to put him down, hold him down while he cursed at her. "My boy's in there because of you. If he dies it's because of you."

"He's not in there because of me, but if he dies, yes, that's mine. Get him out. Get him out of here."

"When are you going to talk to him about the hostages?" Phin grabbed her arm. "Why don't you give him something, give him something so he'll let the women go."

"I can't-"

"My wife, my mother are in there. For God's sake, for God's sake, you need to get them the hell out."

"I'm going to get them out." She couldn't allow herself to see them-Ma Bee's dark, steady eyes, Loo's slow, sultry smile. "I'm going to call him back, and we're going to work at this until everyone's out. Phin, you have to stay calm. If you can't, I'll have to have you removed. I'm sorry." She looked from him to Duncan now. "I'm sorry."