From Part 2
Her heart leaped as she saw the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.
A police car!
It had been stopped on the side of the road several yards ahead, but now it started to pull away.
Oh, God, no
.
She raced to the roadside and began to wave her arms, but the rain was so heavy, and maybe the driver just wasn’t checking his rearview mirror, because he started driving forward.
She dashed onto the narrow road and ran after him, but water was flooding from the paved surface with the onslaught of rain from the heavens, and her foot slipped on the slick surface, sending her tumbling to the ground. At the same time, the car did a U-turn, and headed in her direction.
Oh, God, if the driver didn’t see her
… She tried to scramble to her feet as the headlights approached, then sucked in a breath. But the car stopped.
A tall officer in a slick raincoat stepped toward her.
“Are you all right, ma’am?” he asked, staring down at her with concern in his dark eyes.
“No, officer. I’m not.” Tears welled in her eyes.
“It’s all right, ma’am,” the officer said to Laurie as he held out his hand to her.
She took it and he helped her to her feet, then with a steady arm on her elbow, guided her to the squad car. He opened the back door and she slipped inside. He closed the door and walked toward the back of the car. She could hear the trunk open, then a moment later he got into the driver’s seat. He turned and handed her a blanket.
She took it with trembling hands and wrapped it around herself. Her clothes were soaked right through.
The policeman settled into the driver’s seat. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“My name is Laurie Conners.” She leaned forward and glanced at the reflection of his face in the rearview mirror, but he was looking down at his cell phone, texting something. “And I’ve got to tell you, there are these men … bikers … and they’re looking for me. In fact—”
“Do you believe you’re in danger?” he asked.
“I … uh … well, they kidnapped me.”
He put away his phone and glanced at her in the mirror. “That’s a serious accusation. Do you want to press charges?”
She had told Steele she wouldn’t charge him, but she’d said it to convince him to let her go. But, did she want to press charges?
She shook her head. “No. I just want to go …” She was going to say home, but she realized that Steele and Wild Card were right. Donovan would probably be looking for her there. “I want to go somewhere safe.”
He put the car in gear and started moving. The windshield wipers slapped back and forth, clearing the sheet of water that steadily poured across the glass, but they could barely see past the front of the car.
Laurie huddled into the blanket and sank back in the seat, feeling safe for the first time in a long time. Not just since Steele and his men had kidnapped her, but in the several months she’d been dating Donovan.
She pulled the blanket closer. How had she let things go so far with Donovan?
She’d wanted to trust Donovan. He was rich, successful. Handsome. He was the perfect man. At least on the surface. But when she started having second thoughts, her girlfriends told her she was just afraid of commitment. When she first realized he had some kinky tastes in the bedroom, it had unnerved her a little, but every article she read about sex said that couples should let loose and try new and different things. He was more experienced than her and so was ahead of her in that department. At least, that’s what she’d tried to convince herself. At first, it had been a bit of bondage, then he started giving her orders. She had been shocked at how mindlessly and completely she had responded to his domination. A part of her craved being controlled and that scared her a little. But she’d been willing to push back her other issues to explore this side of herself.
Then things had taken a strange turn.
She had been staying with him for the
Jean-Marie Blas de Robles