Microsoft Word - Jenny dreamed by kps

memory's fine, Cantrell," she said finally, bringing the shot glass of whisky she'd poured over to the front of the desk. Dev leaned casually against the hall door, but she was quite aware that he could move with lightning speed if he was alarmed in some way. "The girl isn't here any more. I won't tell you where I sent her, but here," she reached down to the desk and picked up a picture frame and tossed it to Dev, "this is the reason I got her."
    Dev kept a wary eye on Lil but glanced at the frame. His brows pulled together as he wondered over the reason she'd have an old newspaper clipping of one of Mariah and Jared's visits. The picture was a bit blurry but there was no doubt it was Mariah smiling back at him, with Jared's arm around her shoulders.

    "That's my kid you're lookin' at, the fancy-ass Countess from London." When Dev's gaze told her he doubted the claim, she sniffed somewhat indignantly and further explained, "Yeah, it's true enough. She's a half-breed, an' I was only sixteen when I had her. My Ma took her off my hands and I thought that was the last I'd see of the brat. Unfortunately she showed up about nineteen years later and broke up a nice, cozy romance between me and ... and Jared Bryant."
    The bitterness in her voice was as fresh as if Mariah had just taken Jared away from her.
    "And you think you're getting revenge against your own daughter by hitting out at her daughter."
    "I don't think so ... I had my revenge already. 'Fore she left here in the company of a couple of my men, Beau Stanner had her, paid pretty high for her, too. And where that prissy little English bitch is gain', she'll find a lot more -men willin' to put out cash for what he got!"
    Then everything happened so fast that Dev had time only later to wonder where the pearl-handled derringer she'd pulled on him had come from. When he'd cursed and called her a bitch the small handgun had come up, and she was laughing as she pulled the trigger. Maybe she wasn't a good shot, maybe the cackling laughter threw off her aim, but as the bullet creased his ribs with a streak of hot, searing pain, he fired and the blast from the forty-five's barrel smacked into her belly, knocking her body back-across the desk.
    The lamp crashed onto the floor, the flames spreading quickly wherever the kerosene had splashed, catching the rug and the red velvet upholstery of several nearby chairs. Smoke was filling the room, even as Dev gathered the silk bodice of Lil's robe and jerked her up. She was near death from the gut shot, beyond pain as she dangled like a broken doll. "Where is she?"
    Dev shouted, choking from the acrid white smoke.
    "... ne ... ver find ... her!" Lil gasped with her last breath, and then the gurgling sound in her throat told him it was useless to ask her again. He dropped her and waved the smoke out of his eyes, trying to see if both exits were already blocked by the flames. The door to the bedroom opened and a groggy, hung-over Pauly stumbled into the room, shielding his face as a wall of scorching flame flared up.
    There was just enough room for Dev to get to Pauly. He kicked one of the burning chairs away from the wall and in another second had the choking, squealing man by the scruff of his nightshirt and dragged him past the licking flames to the outside door. Pauly was shoved out into the bright morning sunlight, and when he hesitated on the landing, a brutal kick sent his short, thin body tumbling head over heels down the flight of wooden steps.
    There was a reception committee waiting for him as he bounced off the last step and landed in a heap of tangled, smoke-smudged limbs. Behind him, with a cold and grim expression, came Dev Cantrell. Pauly looked up at him and saw his own death reflected in the man's steady glare, then scrambled toward the safety of a growing crowd that included the sheriff, his deputy, and Chicago Joe and her bouncer. The little Spanish girl who'd been abducted with Jennifer Bryant stood off to one side,