The Black Feather by Olivia Claire High Page A

the role of bad guy when her dad was actually more the villain in her personal life.
    Thad caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and dropped to the ground. Suzanne! She hadn’t spotted him. He watched and frowned, as she crawled around on her hands and knees pushing foliage out of her way, face close to the ground, obviously searching for something. That something could very well be the phones with the evidence her father was supposed to have collected on the Montanes.
    He wondered how the hell anyone would be expected to find anything in this tangled mess with so little light to guide them. He made his way silently over to Suzanne, slithering through the foliage making him feel like a snake. He grabbed her and clamped a hand over her mouth before she had a chance to react. She began to struggle and fight him until he pressed her into the ground rendering her completely immobile with the weight of his body.
    “ Stop fighting me. I’m going to take my hand away, and if you so much as let out a squeak, so help me God I’ll shove a mouthful of dirt down your throat. Do I make myself clear?” he hissed in her ear.
    She nodded, and he eased his hand away.
    “Are you trying to squash me to death?” she gasped.
    Thad shifted, but still kept her pinned down.
    “How did you know where to find me?”
    “Didn’t you ever hear that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?” he said, keeping his voice quiet and close to her ear, while doing his best to ignore how good her hair smelled.
    “Huh?”
    “ You didn’t have a car. You used the same cab company I did when we met your friend.”
    “You found the cab driver who brought me here? I can’t believe it.”
    “I’m here, aren’t I? What are you looking for?”
    “What makes you think I’m looking for anything?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because I just watched you crawling around with your nose to the ground like a dog trying to find where a favorite bone is buried.”
    “You think I’m a dog?”
    Thad rolled his eyes.
    “Vanity, thy name is woman. It was just a metaphor. I repeat, what are you hoping to find here?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Have it your way. We can lay here like this all night for all I care because I’m not moving until you tell me the truth.”
    She wiggled restlessly beneath him.
    “You’re not being fair using brute force to get your way.”
    “Do you consider it fair that you abused my trust when I let you go to your neighbors on your own, only to have you run out on me?”
    “No. And I feel awful about that, especially in using them. I took Greg’s cell phone and a twenty out of his wallet,” she wheezed. “Would you please get off of me? I’m having trouble getting my breath.”
    Thad rolled to a sitting position and grabbing Suzanne, tugged her up to sit beside him while keeping his fingers locked around her wrist.
    “No more stalling. What are you doing here?”
    “It’s a long story.”
    “I’ll take the abbreviated version.”
    “Oh, all right. Your instincts were correct about Cissy. Dad contacted her and gave her a phone number where I could reach him. And before you jump down my throat, I swear to you I didn’t have any way to get in touch with him before. He said he put the evidence he collected on the Montane brothers in a bag and tossed it into this backyard.”
    “Is he expecting you to take it to him?”
    “No. He didn’t tell me where he’s hiding. He asked me to turn the evidence over to the police. He’s going to take off and live on some island with his lady love as soon as he knows the Montanes are in custody. According to Dad, she’s pregnant, I might add.”
    “ He’s not exactly Father of the Year material, and now he’s going to have another kid.” Thad shook his head. “Do you believe he really stashed the stuff in this hodgepodge of plants?”
    “Why else would he ask me to come here? I don’t want to be the one to dole out his punishment even though I agree he