“No, I don’t have to tell anyone.” She shook her head as much as the brute holding her would allow.

“I don’t believe you.” There was a hint of amusement in his voice.

The gunman leaned against the fireplace mantel, his head resting against his free hand. He was so relaxed, so composed. Laurie had the distinct impression he was a cat toying with a ball of string.

“I swear. I swear I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just tell them I stopped to help a guest and I never even got up here before they radioed. I swear.” Laurie held her breath.

“Laurie? Laurie, are you okay?” came an urgent plea from her radio.

“It’s my boss. If I don’t answer, she’ll know something’s wrong.” Laurie locked eyes with the man. “She’ll send up security.”

There was a pause as the man weighed his options.

“Laurie? Are you okay? Do you need any help?” the radio asked.

“Ms. Shelton, I’m going to let you return to your work.” The gunman pushed away from the mantel. Laurie’s eyes welled with tears of relief. “But if you tell anyone you saw me, anyone at all, I will have you killed.”

“I won’t tell anyone, I swear.” Laurie looked at the floor in front of him.

“I won’t just have you killed.” The man swung the gun around to rest in front of the other blonde woman. “If you tell anyone who and what you saw, the son will watch his mother die before I turn the gun on him.”

The woman beside her didn’t scream, or flinch. Laurie saw her mouth tremble as she stared down the barrel of the gun, but that was the only outward show of fear she gave.

“You don’t have to do that. I won’t say anything, I promise.” A tear streaked down Laurie’s cheek.

“Good. Now get out. Remember, don’t say a single thing to anyone, or the woman dies.” The man turned his back on her, and walked over to the window.

The beefy man holding Laurie released her.

“Get out.” The gunman threw a scowl over his shoulder at her.

Laurie ran to the door. She flung it open and fled the room. To her horror, her legs failed to carry her further. Trembling, she sagged against the wall as she tried to calm her racing heart. She tried to crawl toward the nearest staircase, but her legs refused to move as they wobbled under another spasm. She nearly died; he almost killed her. A wave of dizziness hit her and she curled into a ball on the floor.

In her flight from the room, Laurie failed to notice the door hadn’t quite closed all the way. She jumped when she heard the voices emanating from the penthouse suite.

“Should I follow her boss? Kill her outside?” one of the henchmen asked.

“Don’t be stupid, you dog. Do you want their security guard to shoot you where you stand? Neither of you God forsaken morons brought a silencer. We shoot her in the building or outside of it, and resort security will lock the whole hotel down before we can leave. We wouldn’t want that now would we?” the gunman said. “No, we’ll let Ms. Shelton distract the cops while we leave. I’ll have her killed later tonight.”

Laurie’s eyes grew wide and round. With fresh urgency, she ran down all ten flights, tears streaming down her face. She pushed open the ground floor door and ran out into the bright sunshine.

CHAPTER TWO

Laurie sighed as she put away her uniform. She rubbed at a stain on the collar and sighed again. Hopefully, her manager wouldn’t notice. On second thought, perhaps it didn’t matter anymore.

She turned from the closet to stare at her bed. Her duffle bag lay open on top of the covers. Most of her clothes and toiletries were in the bag already. She couldn’t decide which books to bring. How was she supposed to fit her entire life into one tiny little suitcase?

Not that she had many possessions to begin with. She looked around the tiny closet of a room she’d called home for the past ten years. When she was hired, the resort manager pitied her. They offered her a small room on the lowest level of the resort. Its windows were level with the parking lot. She could hear the HVAC thrumming in the next room. It wasn’t fit for guests, but with nowhere else to go, Laurie thought it was the perfect place for her.

This wasn’t how she wanted to leave it—forced to flee because of some heinous criminal. She swallowed the bile in her throat, pushing the thoughts away. She reminded herself that in a few months she would have moved out of the resort anyway, and onto something better. She was just doing it a bit earlier than she planned.

She’d done the right thing. She’d called the police the second she ran back in the hotel after that animal threatened her. The police swarmed the building, but the gunman, his goons, the woman, and the child were gone. The police took her to the station to get her statement, though they seemed to doubt her credibility.

The cop she talked to finally pulled over a sketch artist. Once completed, the sketch changed everything. The cop dropped the hot coffee in his hand, spun on his heel, and ran to his boss’ office. Soon, the district attorney arrived, which shocked the hell out of Laurie.

The DA pulled her into a dimly lit conference room. He told her he needed to place her in protective custody as soon as possible—tonight in fact. She hadn’t been given a choice. The DA didn’t tell her who the gunman was in the penthouse suite, except to say that his name was Kaimi. The police department had not yet tied him to the kidnapping she apparently witnessed, and they were now very interested in what she had to say.

Then the DA ran from the room, his cell phone buzzing. She didn’t know who this Kaimi was or what he had done, but if her testimony ensured the man paid for his abuse of the woman and child, then she was willing to go with the U.S. Marshal who showed up at her door. It drove her crazy that the woman and child were out there somewhere being threatened, beaten. Or worse. Laurie winced and sighed.

Laurie glanced at her alarm clock. It was almost midnight. It looked like the U.S. Marshal wasn’t going to show-up tonight. So much for white knights in shining armor.

She dropped her open duffle bag on the floor, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Then she laid back, her legs still hanging half off, almost touching the floor. She laid her arm over her eyes. She maneuvered her body around her bed. Little by little, she moved her upper body, her torso, her left leg, and her right leg until her head lay on her pillow. She tossed her wavy blonde hair over the pillow, so it splayed out. Then she closed her eyes, drifting into an exhausted sleep.

***

Laurie was tied. Bound. Gagged. A gun pressed into her temple. She flinched and tried to move away, but it followed her.

“You are nothing to me. Nothing,” the male voice said. “If you try to run, I’ll just put a bullet in your brain. That’s it. So don’t ever try.”

The pistol withdrew for a moment and then came crashing down onto the backside of her shoulder. She cried out, but it sounded garbled. The pistol came after her again across her back. She let out a muffled whimper. The sound of the pistol hitting her bones pounded in her head. There was another whack and another, until Laurie doubled over, writhing in pain. Then she felt herself falling, the sounds of the pistol rapping against her body kept tempo as she fell down, down to the earth.

Laurie shot up in bed. She gasped for air, shuddering. Then the pounding in her dream started again. This time, it emanated from her door. Laurie looked over at the glowing clock. It was 1 am.

“Laurie Shelton! Laurie Shelton, this is the United States Marshals Service. Open up,” insisted the door.

Laurie’s brows arched. The pounding at the door resumed. She got up, pulling on her tattered bathrobe, cursing the bastard that waved his gun in her face. She hadn’t had nightmares in years.


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