“Alex?”

“Yes, he usually works on Sunday evenings in his office. He has a separate line there as all of you do in your own quarters. The call was brief. It said simply that you’d been taken and would be held until the ransom demands were met. No demands were made at that time.”

And where had she been held? Dark. All she could be certain of was dark. “What did Alex do?”

“He went directly to your father. You were searched for. Monday morning your car was found on a lane about forty miles from town. There’s a plot of land out there you own. It seems you have a habit of driving out there just to be alone and poke around. Monday afternoon, the first ransom demand was made. That was for money. There was no question about it being paid, of course, but before the arrangement could be made, another call came. This one demanded the release of four prisoners in exchange for you.”

“And that complicated things.”

“Two of them are set for execution. Espionage,” he added when she remained silent. “It took the matter out of your father’s hands. Money was one thing, releasing prisoners another. Negotiations were well under way when you were found on the side of the road.”

“I’ll go back there,” Brie mused. “To the place my car was found and to the place I was found.”

“Not right away. I agreed to help you, Brie, but in my way.”

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Which is?”

“My way,” he said simply. “When I think you’re strong enough, I’ll take you. Until then, we move slow.”

“If I don’t agree?”

“Your father might just take Loubet’s plan more seriously.”

“And I’d go nowhere.”

“That’s right.”

“I knew you wouldn’t be an easy man, Reeve.” She walked a few feet away, into a stream of moonlight. “I haven’t much choice. I don’t like that. Choice seems to me to be the most essential freedom. I keep wondering when I’ll have mine back. Tomorrow, after I meet with my secretary …”

“Smithers,” Reeve supplied. “Janet Smithers.”

“What a prim name,” Brie observed. “I’ll go over my schedule with Janet Smithers in the morning. Then I’d like to go over it with you. Whatever it is I’m committed to do, I want to do. Even if it’s spending hours shopping or sitting in a beauty parlor.”

“Is that how you think you spend your time?”

“It’s a possibility. I’m rich, aren’t I?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then …” With a shrug, she trailed off. “Tonight, before dinner, I lay in the bath and wondered. Actually, I thought of you and wondered.”

Very slowly he dipped his hands in his pockets. “Did you?”

“I tried to analyze you. In some ways I could and others not. If I had a great deal of experience with men, it’s forgotten along with everything else, you see.” She felt no embarrassment as she walked to him again. “I wondered if I were to kiss you, be held by you, if I’d see that part of me.”