LITMIR.BIZ

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was going to have to talk to him personally. That bothered her. It was going to be a strain to pretend not to notice his face.

      Feeling distinctly uneasy, Hope punched in the alarm code, stepped outside, and locked the front door. The warm night air felt good after being shut up in the store all day long with unsavory smells, most notably of fertilizer.

      As she started to walk toward the man, she forced a smile and and called out …

      “Sorry, we’re closed.”

      He shrugged and kept smiling and murmured something inaudible.

      Hope stifled a sigh. She wanted to ask him to speak louder. But she found it to say anything to him that resembled a command or even a polite request. She was irrationally afraid of hurting his feelings.

      His smile broadened as she walked toward him. Again, he said something she couldn’t hear. She stopped just a couple of feet in front of him.

      “Excuse me, but we’re closed for the night,” she said.

      He mumbled something inaudible. She shook her head to indicate that she couldn’t hear him.

      He spoke just a little louder, and this time she could make out the words …

      “I’ve got a little problem with something.”

      Hope asked, “What is it?”

      He murmured something else that was inaudible.

      Maybe he wants to return something he bought today, she thought.

      The last thing she wanted right now was to unlock the door and deactivate the alarm system just so she could take back the merchandise and return his money.

      Hope said, “If you want to return anything, I’m afraid you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

      The disfigured man mumbled …

      “No, but …”

      Then he shrugged at her silently, still smiling. Hope found it hard to maintain eye contact with him. Looking directly at his face was difficult. And somehow, she sensed that he knew that.

      Judging from his smile, maybe he even enjoyed it.

      She suppressed a shudder at the thought that he might take pleasure in the discomfort he provoked in people.

      Then he said a bit more loudly and clearly …

      “Come look.”

      He pointed toward his old pickup truck, which was parked next to the curb just a short distance away. Then he turned and started to walk toward the truck. Hope just stood there for a moment. She didn’t want to follow him, and she wasn’t sure why she should bother …

      Whatever it is, surely it can wait to tomorrow.

      But she couldn’t bring herself to turn around and walk away.

      Again, she was afraid of seeming rude to him.

      She walked behind him to the back of the truck. He pulled open the cover on the truck bed and she saw a mass of barbed wire, unbundled and loose and in tangles all over the bed of the pickup truck.

      Suddenly he seized her from behind and slapped a wet rag over her mouth and nose.

      Hope kicked and tried to pull herself away, but he was taller and stronger than she was.

      She couldn’t even get free of the rag to scream. It was soaked through with a thick liquid that smelled and tasted sickeningly sweet.

      Then a strange sensation began to come over her.

      It was giddiness and elation, as if she had taken some kind of drug.

      For a few seconds, that euphoria made it hard for Hope to grasp that she was in terrible danger. Then she tried to struggle again, but found that her limbs were weaker and seemed almost rubbery.

      Whatever it was the man was trying to do to her, she couldn’t fight against it.

      Feeling almost outside of her own body, she was aware of him picking her up and dumping her in the back of his truck amid the tangle of barbed wire. All the while he held the rag tight to her face, and she couldn’t help but breathe the thick fumes.

      Hope Nelson was just vaguely aware of little stabbing pains all over her body as she fell limp and slowly lost consciousness.

      CHAPTER ONE

      As she prepared two ribeye steaks for broiling, Riley Sweeney thought again …

      I want tonight to be special.

      She and her fiancé, Ryan Paige, had been too busy to enjoy much of anything lately. Riley’s grueling schedule in the FBI Honors Internship Program and Ryan’s new job as an entry-level attorney had absorbed all their time and energy. Ryan even had to work long hours today—a Saturday.

      Riley’s 22nd birthday had passed almost two weeks ago, and there simply hadn’t been time to celebrate. Ryan had bought her a pretty necklace, and that was about all there had been to it—no party, no dinner, no cake. She hoped that tonight’s special dinner might help make up for that.

      Besides, it was pretty much now or never as far as a nice dinner together was concerned. Just yesterday Riley had successfully completed her internship, and tomorrow she’d be heading off to the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va. Ryan would be staying here in Washington D.C. Although the distance between them was only about an hour by car or train, they were both going to be working very hard. She wasn’t sure when she and Ryan would have any time together again.

      Following a detailed recipe, Riley finished flavoring the steaks with salt, pepper, onion powder, ground mustard, and dried oregano and thyme. Then she stood looking around the kitchen at her handiwork. She’d made a lovely tossed salad, she had sliced mushrooms ready to broil with the steak, and two potatoes were already baking in the oven. In the refrigerator, a store-bought cheesecake was ready for dessert.

      The small kitchen table was neatly set, including a vase full of flowers she’d picked up when she’d bought groceries. A bottle of inexpensive but very pleasant red wine was waiting there to be opened.

      Riley looked at her watch. Ryan had said he should be home about now, and she hoped he wouldn’t be much later. She didn’t want to sear and broil the steaks before he arrived.

      Meanwhile, she could think of nothing else that needed to be done right now. She’d spent whole day washing laundry, cleaning their tiny apartment, shopping, and preparing the food—domestic tasks that she’d seldom had time for since she and Ryan had moved in together at the beginning of the summer. She’d found it to be a nice change from her studies.

      Even so, she couldn’t help but wonder …

      Is this what married life is going to be like?

      If she achieved her goal of becoming an FBI agent, would she really spend long days making everything perfect for when Ryan came from work? It didn’t seem likely.

      But right now Riley had a hard time visualizing that future—or any specific future.

      She plopped herself down on the couch.

      She closed her eyes and realized she was very tired.

      What we both need is a vacation, she thought.

      But a vacation wasn’t in the cards for the near future.

      She felt a little drowsy and had almost dozed off when a memory forced its way into her mind …

      She was bound hand and foot by a madman wearing a clown costume and makeup.

      He held a mirror to her face and said …

      “All done now. Have a look!”

      She saw that he had smeared makeup all over her face so that she, too, looked like a clown.

      Then he held a syringe in front of her. She knew that if he injected her with its deadly contents, she’d die from sheer terror …

      Riley’s eyes snapped open and she shivered all over.

      It

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