Twenty minutes passed. Again, Shannon yanked on her bonds and thrashed on the bed. She drilled her gaze into his, attempting to spur him into action. Nothing. Anger filled her. How dare he treat her this way! What about their relationship? Was this some test? Some punishment? Some lesson? For what? Why?
Shannon began to twist her hands to loosen the ropes. She worked until her wrists were raw and blood was running down her arms. Still Blane did nothing but stare at her. As tears of pain and anguish began to run into her tangled hair, she closed her eyes and prayed for enlightenment. Her fears and anger mounted. She began to struggle wildly, accepting the pain of her actions. Through the gag, she tried to make as much noise as possible. She finally obtained a reaction.
Blane walked to the bed and stood near her waist. While staring oddly at her, he withdrew his knife. Instead of severing her bonds as she expected, he cut the nightgown from her body. He held up the ruined garment as if it were a war prize, grinned victoriously, then nonchalantly dropped it to the floor. As he replaced his knife in its sheath, his sardonic gaze roamed her supple, helpless body from head to foot. As if he could not resist the impulse to touch her and to provoke her, he slowly passed his warm fingertips over her chilled skin.
To Shannon, his hands felt like punishing weapons whose fiery and lethal surface enticed searing chill bumps over her quivering flesh. His hand was exceptionally gentle as it caressed her face, as if gingerly exploring fragile features. Blane’s fingers drifted down her throat, traveled her collarbone from end to end, and moved deftly up each outstretched arm and back again. He used those tightly controlled weapons to circle each breast. As he playfully teased the peaks with smoothly trimmed nails, he chuckled before bending forward to encircle and tease them with his burning tongue. Again he laughed softly and satanically as the peaks responded to him.
Blane returned his attention to his taunting journey over her body, relishing his power to arouse her. Using the back of his fingers, he guided them over her stomach, across each rib, around her navel, and downward to venture over the fuzzy red covering between her thighs. He glanced at Shannon’s face when her body stiffened. It was a bright red, and she was crying with her eyes closed. Her reaction halted him.
Blane didn’t continue his exploration. He sat beside her and scolded, “You shouldn’t have forced me to punish you, Blue Eyes. As much as you need killing, I can’t be the one to do it. Lord help you, Shannon, because somebody will do it before this war’s over. I wish you had been for real.” That night in Washington, he hadn’t been able to frighten a confession from her. Tonight would be different. He knew exactly how to terrify information from her. First, he would have to convince her that he was cold-blooded and cruel, that he was serious about his impending actions.
Shannon’s eyes opened. She stared at him. What was he saying? He wanted to kill her? Like Elisha, he sounded as if she had hurt him!
“There’s only one way to keep you from using your beauty and charms on other unsuspecting men. This will hurt, but it won’t kill you,” he hinted, holding up the sharp knife. “I learned many skills and tortures from the Indians. When I finish tonight, all you’ll want to do is hide from everyone for the rest of your life. Even though your hair will grow back, the scars I put on your face and body won’t ever go away. Not even the best doctors will be able to help you. It’s the only way I can stop you from hurting and killing more innocent people.”
Shannon’s eyes widened in a mixture of terror and shock. He couldn’t! He wouldn’t! Could he? She shook her head and tried to speak. She jerked on her hands and ankles, causing more rope burns and bleeding. It was useless. Tears were blinding her eyes. She blinked over and over to clear them, to see him and to read his intentions.
His hand wandered into her hair and he relished its silkiness and vitality for the last time. “How can you be so cold and cruel? I know you disliked Cathy, but did you have to order her torture and death? And the Thomases? Lord, Shannon, they were old and weak. We spent our first night together in their home. I can understand why you had Thornton and Clifford slain, but the others? Why not have them arrested? And Pike. I can’t imagine why you had Pike eliminated, unless he had guessed your evil and it didn’t matter to him that you were on his side. You really had me fooled, Blue Eyes. I have to admit, you are matchless in getting your job done. Everywhere we went, you betrayed my friends and helpers. You’ve single-handedly done more in three months than half the Rebel spies have accomplished in three years. You’ve managed to destroy the Union spy line and you’ve unmasked the Blade. That alone should win you a medal and a fat reward. All along you were using me and aiding the Rebels,” he accused bitterly. He placed a hand on either side of her body and leaned forward to glare into her wide and tormented gaze.
He sneered coldly, “You think I don’t know about those messages you left for Moore in your belongings! You think I don’t know they let us escape from his camp! You think I didn’t notice you found a way to speak privately with an officer everywhere we stopped! Just like I noticed how you kept trying to get away from me—until you realized who I was. Then you were willing to do anything to defeat me.”
“You didn’t really expect that trap you set for me in Wilmington to work, did you? I had to kill four men to get away. They were real impressed by the Flame and her work. They were real grateful for that letter you left behind that told all about me and my helpers. I’m afraid I had to deny them my capture and execution. I know agents do some terrible things in the line of duty, but to seduce me and then have me killed beats them all. I wonder if you’re blindly patriotic to the Confederacy and you don’t care what you have to do, or if I mean absolutely nothing to you. Damn you for being so cold-blooded and heartless, you traitorous and tempting witch!”
Shannon couldn’t believe what she was hearing, nor what this man whom she loved had planned for her. Yes, the Blade would do anything necessary to perform his duties, even savagely brutalize her for crimes he should know she could never commit. Her tears blurred his face and body. She couldn’t look at him with such hatred and contempt in his eyes. She turned her cheek to the pillow. How could he judge her guilty of such evil? How could he not allow her to defend herself? How could he bring himself to mutilate the same body he had made love to so many times? How could he ignore and destroy what they had shared and what they could share? Someone was digging a grave for her, and she could not imagine who or why. It had to be someone close, to know such details. Was it Blane? Was it time for the Blade to cover his tracks, all of them, in any way necessary?
Blane observed Shannon for a time. There was something in her eyes and behavior that baffled him. He watched the tears flow and her body tremble curiously. Of course she was frightened. But it wasn’t the kind of fear and panic that would be natural under these conditions. He had outwitted or battled many opponents, Indian and white, male and female. She was not reacting like a guilty foe caught in a trap. She had looked genuinely shocked and distressed by his charges. She had looked puzzled and challenged. She had looked emotionally—not physically—defeated and injured. He couldn’t be wrong…
Why not, his mind quickly debated. If he was right now, he had been mistaken for months! How could she have done such things? She looked so delicate, so gentle, so innocent, so fragile, so hurt.
He tried an approach to the truth, before he made a grave error. “At least I should be grateful you waited until my assignment before giving it your all. You were a virgin that night, weren’t you?”
Shannon grimaced and stiffened, but she didn’t look at him or open her eyes. She made no attempt to communicate with him verbally. He wondered what she would do it he removed the gag. He cleverly scoffed, “I wonder what Carter had to say about getting used goods. Molly and Sarah Jane told me about him sleeping in your room while I was gone. Did I get you so worked up that you needed two men to sate you? Or did you decide your helpless surrender would disarm and enchant him like it did me?” He watched Shannon’s head jerk aro
und and her eyes fly open. She sent him a pained and falsely accused look again. Damn her and those bewitching eyes! he raged inwardly.
“After I discovered what you really are, I could see why Carter didn’t blame you for that attack on his ship. Too bad he survived to be used again. I hope you two had a pleasant voyage; it’ll be the last time he sates his passion with you, unless it’s in the dark. He won’t be able to even glance at you, Blue Eyes, no matter how beautiful his memories of you. How much does the Confederacy pay for rendering such sacrificial service? Whoring and spying should earn double pay.”
His last remarks elicited a different emotion: fury. She squinted her eyes as she glowered at him. So much turbulence filled them. He witnessed a change in her expression and mood. The anguish, shock, and confusion were giving way to hostility, and rage, and rebellion, and contempt…and hatred. “The truth bother you, Blue Eyes?”
Those emotions increased in intensity. She clenched her teeth and glared at him as she twisted her balled fists and pulled determinedly on her bonds. Bright red blood saturated the ropes and rolled down her arms. Still she denied the pain and continued to struggle for freedom. Tears filled her eyes, but she seemingly refused to allow them to leave their confining banks.
Blane glanced at her wrists and ankles. He knew how much she was hurting herself, all without a whimper or grimace. Accusation was exposed in her gaze, that and a mirror of betrayal. Could he slice and mar this beautiful creature? What if Jeremy had been wrong? Without giving it another thought, he severed the bond on her right arm as he murmured, “Let someone else get rid of you for the Union.”
Shannon removed her gag. She reached for the knife, too distracted by her turmoil to be surprised by his release of it. She sliced through the bloody rope on her other wrist, then sat up to free her legs. She removed the ropes from her limbs and flung them to the floor. She glared at him. “Get out of my sight, you bastard, before I do forget how much you meant to me and I slit your miserable throat.”
Shannon tossed the knife at his feet. “I can’t wait for them to catch the real Flame. I hope you choke when you discover your vicious words are wicked lies. Is this why you sent me that false letter? To lure me here so you could play your malicious and sadistic games?” Shannon rolled off the bed and retrieved the money from a drawer. She turned to find Blane’s gun in his hands, as if he had expected her to withdraw a weapon. She laughed derisively. Then she threw the money at him and declared with a sneer, “Take your filthy money. I couldn’t get a train like you suggested. If you’re such a damn good agent, Blade, why didn’t you know about train schedules and restrictions? Leave Wilmington and come to Charleston as quickly and secretly as possible, Shannon. Simon and the soldiers are about to swoop down on you,” she repeated sarcastically. “I don’t know what this little game was all about, and I don’t care. Just get out of my life and stay out. You don’t have to do things like this to frighten me into silence. I would never betray you, not even after what you did tonight. But come near me again, and I won’t be able to keep that promise. You said you would end it…”
As tears filled her eyes again, she bit her lip to control them. “A less terrifying rejection would have worked just as well. All you had to do was say, ‘It’s over, Shannon,’ and leave. Even for the notorious Blade, it wasn’t necessary to drive me away so skillfully and cruelly.”
She inquired sadly, “Why didn’t you leave me in Wilmington? Why lure me here? Afraid to display such brutality and cruelty before Molly and your friends? I wish your letter had arrived a day later. Then Eli would have been gone and he couldn’t have brought me here to endure such despicable treachery. As for your insult, Major Stevens, you can take it and go to Hell. I’ve never slept with any man except you, and I’ll probably regret that for the rest of my life. All I did was bandage Eli when he appeared in the middle of the night, injured and determined to kill me for betraying him. He thought I was the only one who knew about his trip. Somehow you found out and exposed him. I had to tell him almost everything about me to save my life. But I never exposed you, not even to convince him not to strangle me.”
She snatched up a blanket and covered herself. Being naked before him like this made her feel so vulnerable, and misused. “I can’t help it if he’s in love with me. I’ve told him over and over I don’t love him and I won’t marry him. But I do like him. He’s been kind and gentle and generous. I only wanted you, and you’re not even real. How gullible and stupid can a woman be? I trusted you. I would have given my life for you. I even convinced Matti to sail with me so I wouldn’t be alone with Eli. When I got your letter, all I could think about was getting to you and being with you.”
Shannon angrily brushed away the tears that raced down her cheeks. “You didn’t have to do this, Blane. I would have let you go without any trouble. I wouldn’t have tried to hold on to someone who didn’t…want me or need me. If someone set you up in Wilmington, then you’d better be careful, because it wasn’t me. Do you honestly believe I did those horrible things? Or is this your clever way of spurning me? I never knew you at all, did I? I was just a cover, a pleasing disguise. Why did you have to bring me along? Why did you have to say all those lies while we were trapped under that porch? Was any of it real, Blane? Any of the words? Any of the lovemaking? Any of the feelings?”
Blane was looking at her oddly, worriedly. “What’s this about a letter from me telling you to come here?” he asked reluctantly.
Shannon ignored him. She went to the basin, poured fresh water into it, and submerged her bleeding wrists. She winced as the raw flesh protested her action. After gently cleaning the wounds, she patted them dry, and tore strips from a sheet to bandage them. When Blane tried to assist her, she pulled away from him and warned, “Don’t you ever touch me again, you vile beast. I don’t need your help, and I don’t need you.” She wanted to scream, I hate you. She didn’t because it was a lie and she was afraid he might guess the truth.
He seized her shoulders and whirled her around to face him. “I asked you about that letter. Now answer me, woman,” he demanded.
“I suppose you’re going to say you didn’t send me a letter?”
“No, Shannon, I didn’t. You promised to wait for me at the hotel. I returned a day late to find you gone. And with that lovestruck seaman! Then I was told you had been sleeping with him and was planning to marry him. I try to get out of town, and there are soldiers all over me and thanking Flame for exposing me. What am I supposed to think? You could have left me a message with Sarah Jane.”
“Are you insane? Why should I leave you a message when you sent for me? And don’t keep denying you sent it! Who else would know to sign it ‘Major Steven Bs James’? Who else knows about Simon? Who else knew we were to head for Charleston next? Who else could list our previous travel route? Only you, Blane Stevens—you liar and user!”
“Where is this letter I supposedly sent you?”
“I burned it as you asked. If I hadn’t, I would cram it down your throat.” Shannon scornfully recited the letter almost verbatim, then finished with, “I see just how eager you were to see me! You are the lowest creature I know.”
“Is that why you turned me in to General Holmes?” he accused, then charged her with being responsible for the episode in the stable, which he angrily revealed.
“That’s a bloody lie! I wasn’t expecting you back in Wilmington. You wrote me to come here. I was terrified when I couldn’t find a way to meet you. And this is what I get?” She held up her injured arms.
“Lord, woman, you’re telling the truth, aren’t you! What in perdition is going on?” he stated irritably.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care anymore. Even if this is some crazy misunderstanding, it’s over between us. You wanted to kill me. You were going to disfigure me. You shamed me, and hurt me. You accused me of many murders, or of being responsible for them. I am innocent, you bastard. I never did any of those things—to them or to you.”
“Carter did tho
se same things, and you forgave him.”
“Eli doesn’t know me. Eli hasn’t spent countless days and nights with me. Eli has never made love to me. Eli has never heard my hopes and dreams. Eli has never touched my heart and soul. Eli has never deceived me or used me. Eli was no more to me than a friend, a good friend who almost got killed because of me and you.”
“Shannon, listen to me; we’ve got to figure out this mess. If there is another Flame or someone who knows this much about us, we’re both in danger. We have to decide what to do.”
“If there is another Flame?” she sneered coldly. “There is only one Flame, Major Stevens, and it isn’t me and never was me. When Eli returns, I’ll persuade him to take me to Savannah. From now on, you’re out of my life, and I’m out of yours. Forever, Blane.”
Blane looked at her and shook his head. “No, Shannon, it won’t be forever. I won’t let you go—not now or ever. I have some investigating to do; then I’ll return.” He whirled and left the suite.
Chapter Eighteen
Blane stalked aggressively to Mattilu’s room and persistently knocked on the door. There was no answer. He deliberated his next move. He decided to seek the woman, as he wanted this distressing matter clarified hastily. He confronted her as he was rounding a corner to the stairs. He saw her face brighten and warm.
“Major…James,” she shrieked excitedly, alertly preventing a careless slip. “Miss Shannon will sure be glad to see you. She’s been worried half sick about you. Don’t tell her I told you how scared she was. I was just ordering her morning meal. I’m to go after it at nine. Miss Shannon wanted to sleep late this—” Mattilu halted her rush of words as she noticed how troubled he appeared. Comprehending his departing direction and distraught mood, she became confused.
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