Sudden Attraction

If the man used the gun, would Luke hear? Or was he still sleeping?

One thing she knew for sure—she wasn’t putting on the handcuffs. Not willingly. He’d have to knock her down first, maybe knock her out.

When the cuffs landed near the boxes, she pretended to follow his directions, seeing him relax a little. But instead of clicking them onto her wrists, she threw them at him as hard as she could, already ducking as she scrambled to get out of the line of fire. A shot whizzed over her head, and she knew that he hadn’t been bluffing.

Now what? The bed was between them, and she heard him cursing as his footsteps came toward her.

There was nowhere to go. The window was behind her, but it was locked. And if she made a dash for it, he’d shoot her in the back. But maybe she could get into the bathroom and climb out the window onto the portico roof before he battered down the door.

“Bitch,” the intruder snarled as he came around the bed.

This time she picked up the dusty throw rug and threw it at him.

He started coughing and slapping at the covering, apparently having trouble dislodging it with the gun in his hand—and also having trouble breathing through the dust.

Good.

But how long would the rug stop him?

Her only way out was across the bed, and she leaped onto it, listening intently for sounds behind her.

She knew he had finally gotten the rug off because his cursing was less muffled. She was almost to the edge of the mattress when he clamped his fingers around her ankle, preventing her from fleeing.

“You’re going to be sorry about this,” he growled as he pulled her across the bed.

She started kicking at him with her free leg, desperately trying to inflict damage while she struggled to get away.

When he whacked her shin with the side of the gun, she gritted her teeth and kept kicking.

The sound of pounding feet in the hall made them both look up.

Her back was to the door, but what the man saw made him turn her ankle loose and dodge back, aiming the gun at whoever was in the doorway.