Dead By Nightfall by Beverly Barton Read Free Book Online Page A

Nic said and then added, “No, thank you.”
    “You want I make bath now?”
    “No.” She walked straight toward the woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. “Lina, I want you to tell me where I am.”
    Lina looked at her as if she didn’t understand the question. “You are here at Sea View.” She pronounced the two words as if one, sounding like zee-few.
    “Sea View? Is that the name of the town or this house?”
    “You are hungry,” Lina said, obviously ignoring Nic’s question. “I bring you fresh fruit, tea, and bread. You sit. Eat. You feel much better.”
    “I feel fine.” Nic skimmed her hands over her body from neck to waist. “Did you undress me?”
    Her large brown eyes wide, Lina stared at Nic and shook her head.
    “You didn’t undress me? Then who did? Who took off my clothes?”
    “Your clothes?”
    “My shirt.” She patted her upper torso. “My pants.” She slid her hands over her lower torso. “Who took them off?”
    Lina smiled. “I take. You rest good.”
    Nic sighed with a combination of relief and frustration. The girl’s accent sounded neither Spanish nor French. She had no idea what Lina’s native language was.
    “Where is Mr. Linden?”
    Lina’s expression changed immediately, going from warm and friendly to somber and quiet.
    “Mr. Linden, the man who brought me here. Where is he?” Nic repeated her question.
    Without saying another word, Lina hurried away from Nic. She beat her fist against the door and called loudly, “I go now.” The door opened instantly. Nic rushed across the room as Lina walked out into the hall, but before she could follow the woman, a muscle-bound man with dark hair, beard, and mustache closed the door in her face.
    Nic pressed herself, forehead first, her open palms following, against the wooden door. She curled her hands into fists and beat repeatedly against the locked door. After venting her vexation, she pushed aside her anger and fear and faced the facts. At the present moment, there was absolutely nothing she could do to free herself. There was no point in wasting her energy on useless emotions. In order to survive today and in the days ahead, she would be forced to adapt. She had to stay alive. And she had to protect her unborn child.
    Lifting herself away from the locked and guarded door, Nic marched straight toward the silver serving tray. After taking a seat, she removed the covers from the dishes and poured herself a cup of hot tea. She was hungry. She hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. That wasn’t good for her or her baby. Even though she was slightly nauseated, she forced herself to eat. First a piece of the delicious bread that she smothered with butter and jelly. After finishing off the bread and first cup of tea, she picked up a fork and speared a chunk of fresh pineapple.
    All the while she nourished her body and the child inside her, Nic tried to remember everything from the moment she had left the airplane until she had been drugged and later locked in this room. She thought about the sounds she had heard, the scents she had smelled, the feel of the road beneath the jeep. The road had been bumpy, as if it were gravel or even dirt, and filled with potholes. Apparently the plane had landed somewhere on a private airstrip out in the middle of nowhere. There had been no distinct sounds or scents coming from a town or even a village they might have passed through on their journey from the jeep to the boat. She recalled only ambiguous nocturnal sounds, the feel of hot, muggy air and the smell of ripe vegetation. Nic suspected they were somewhere tropical, somewhere more than four hours from Knoxville, Tennessee. The warm, balmy breeze and the scent of saltwater suggested that they were near the ocean. A heavy floral perfume blended with the feel of humidity against her skin added weight to her supposition that they were in Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean.
    Lina’s accent had not been Spanish. Did that mean