If You Hear Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense by Shiloh Walker Read Free Book Online

his shoulders and fist herhands in his hair as he lowered his mouth to her aching core and licked her.
    She could feel … feel the fiery hot pleasure blistering through her as he levered up over her and pushed inside, one deep, smooth thrust that stretched her in the sweetest damn way.
    She could hear—
    “Help me!”
    Lena came awake with a gasp. Her heart knocked against her ribs and she shivered as cool air danced over her sweat-slicked body. A breeze drifted in through the open window.
    It was cool … not cold. But she was freezing.
    Hearing one low, questioning yip, she held out her hand. Puck pressed his nose against her palm and she heaved out a breath. The dog’s body was tense—all over tense and he had his hackles up.
    “Sorry, boy. Just had a bad dream,” she muttered. She’d gone and freaked her dog out.
    As she started to lie back down, she heard it.
    A voice.
    “… help me …”
    Puck growled.
    Jerking back up, she turned her head toward the window, tried to breathe past the knot in her chest. “What in the hell …?” She closed her eyes, listened. Concentrated.
    Puck growled again, louder this time, his voice rough, full of menace, full of warning. Lena shushed him, her voice sharp, her own fear edging its way in.
    Through the window, she could hear … something. Thrashing in the forest that bordered the western edge of her property. The western edge … the woods. That strip of land where lately, her dog didn’t like to go. Not for the past few months.
    “Somebody, please help me!”
    The sound of the woman’s screams, raw and agonized, sent a shudder racing down Lena’s spine.
    “Oh, God,” Lena whispered. Her heart slammed against her rib cage as she reached for the phone by her bed.
    There was another scream and she dropped the phone. Swearing, she crawled out of the bed, patting around on the floor. “Damn it, damn it, damn it.” Icy, cold sweat dripped along her spine as she listened through the window.
    Branches snapping. A ragged moan. Then all was silent.
    Where’s the fricking phone??
    Making a sound halfway between a sob and a growl, she stuck her hand under the bed and heaved out a sigh of relief as her fingers brushed plastic. Scuttling across the floor, she pressed her back to the wall and listened, phone clutched in her hand.
    Call 911, damn it!
She tried to get her fingers to move but terror made them clumsy.
    Outside, she heard nothing. She didn’t hear anything … wait. Yes, yes, she heard something now, but it was quiet … somebody, moving quietly and softly through the trees.
    If her room had been any farther away from the woods, if she had lived any closer to town … hell, if she’d had the radio playing, she never would have heard it. So, so quiet …
    There was another short, sharp scream—one that ended all too abruptly. The sound of it was enough to get her frozen fingers to move and she dialed 911.
    Puck made a rough sound low in his throat and nosed her leg. She patted the space next to her and as he pressed his big, furry body against her leg, she wrapped an arm around him.
    “Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”
    “I … I hear a woman screaming. She’s screaming for help.”
    It only took minutes. Maybe ten. Logically, she knew not much time had passed before she heard the sirens, but it seemed like an eternity. Too long. Too much time.
    She hadn’t heard the woman again … what if it was too late?
    They could have been there for thirty minutes. They could have been there for three hours.
    Lena suspected it was somewhere in between, but she wasn’t sure.
    She was having a damned hard time concentrating.
    Nobody screaming for help.
    No woman.
    No abandoned cars on the side of the road, no wrecks.
    Nothing.
    They hadn’t seen a soul, hadn’t found a damn thing.
    But she’d heard somebody.
    “Ms. Riddle.”
    Lena folded her fingers around the cup of coffee. “Sergeant … Jennings, is that right?” She gave him a