ChasingShadows (24 page)

She peeped around the unconscious man blocking her vision. To
her abject terror, she came face-to-face with her dream man.

“You!” she gasped, tensing underneath Shelby’s weight. The
new intruder’s mind flooded hers, and his thoughts nearly knocked her senseless
from the brutal torrent.

As sudden as the dream man’s thoughts came, they vanished. The
stench of cigarettes and sweat impaled her to the satin and velvet comforter. She
struggled to push the loathsome body off her, but he was heavy and her arms
weren’t cooperating with her head. She felt helpless, at the mercy of the man
towering above her. A man she’d pegged completely wrong from day one. A man who
fooled every instinct within her.

“Hello Juliana. It’s nice to see you again.” His mouth
widened in an arrogant smile. “You’re in somewhat of a quandary, I see.” He
waved the nine-millimeter at the inert form nailing her to the bed, then swiped
the barrel on the intruder’s pant leg. A trace of crimson stained the khaki
trousers. “Do you like rough sex, or does he?”

Nicholas Hastings? With gray eyes?

“You abducted Lisette Chamber?” Her words were distant as
her mind and body retreated into a frozen shock.

Nicholas prodded Shelby with his gun and peered over
Shelby’s inert body into Juliana’s face. “Correct you are.” An indescribable
challenge glittered in his eyes. “You guard your thoughts well, Juliana. Much
better than I, it seems. I never imagined I’d meet someone who could penetrate
my mind from miles away.”

He shook his head in mock sorrow, then shoved the blond man
off Juliana to the opposite side of the bed. With the oppressive weight gone,
her breathing steadied, although her heart continued to thump in her ears.

Alarm replaced the momentary lapse of relief. How had these
two men moved so rapidly to subdue her? Co-conspirators? No. Shelby had his own
agenda. Nicholas was quicker and smarter than she credited him.

Nicholas checked Shelby’s pulse. “Don’t worry, your
boyfriend’s still alive.”

Juliana laughed hysterically. “He’s a cop.” The words
bypassed the horror building inside her. “Here to protect and serve.”

Why hadn’t she realized the kidnapper was Nicholas Hastings?
She’d socialized with him in New York. He’d sat in her office across her desk.

But that was a man with blue eyes.

Nicholas gave her an appraising look. “I’d love to have a piece
of you myself.” He pointed the gun at her crotch. “You certainly are prime real
estate.”

Revulsion and terror crashed into the lunacy that endangered
her mind. “I’m not chattel,” she said with barely restrained disgust.

“No, but you’re a means to an end.” His lips curled into
that smile she’d once found so disarming. “However, I like my partners
willing.”

A thimble of relief poured into her. Juliana had a fighting
chance. She just needed to keep her wits intact.

“What are you going to do?” she asked tentatively, her mind
as guarded as his.

“First we’re getting out of here.” He swung the gun at the
overnight bag. “Looks like you had the same idea. I guess I should thank your
cop friend for detaining you.”

Stall him. Alex can’t be too far behind.

She realized with a start that she was counting on Alex’s
rescue. A short time ago, she believed he had placed her in this precarious
position.

Alex would never have betrayed her. Not even if he hated her.
He still had to locate his niece, if nothing else.

“How did you find me so quickly?” Goosebumps broke out over
her legs as his gaze raked her body brazenly.

“Did you think I wouldn’t figure out who you were?” His eyes
widened along with his smile.

“What?” Her voice wavered, her stomach pitched.

“Your jeweled eyes are one in a million.”

“You didn’t see the news?” she ventured, biting her lip.

“After I already suspected.” The superior look on his face
distorted his handsome features. “By the way, the janitors at your office are quite
slipshod.” His eyes twinkled as he shoved his free hand in his pants pocket.

Juliana couldn’t stabilize her breathing, couldn’t seem to
take in enough air.

“Get dressed.” His gaze slid to her jeans puddled on the
floor. “As delightful as your legs are, they might attract more attention than
we need.” He backed several steps away from the bed.

Juliana didn’t hesitate, but her movements were slow. As
much as she hated the intense shimmer in his eyes and her own exposure, she
needed to stall him.

“Hurry up, Juliana,” he snarled as he leaned against the
dresser. He elbowed a tray of perfume bottles. They clinked together, an
infinitesimal sound in the heart thuds reverberating in Juliana’s ears.

Her breath steadier, she rolled off the bed, still too far
from the night table to make a play for the letter opener.

With unsteady legs, she tugged on her jeans and shoes.

A dim thought occurred to her. She could use Nicholas to
find Lisette and plan the girl’s escape. Her mind began to revolve around that
idea.

Nicholas pointed the gun from the bare corner of the bedroom
to her. “Stand in the corner facing me and don’t move.”

Juliana rushed to do his bidding and stood motionless in the
corner eyeing him, leaning against the walls. Without the walls to hold her up,
she feared her knees would crumple her to the floor.

Nicholas dug into Shelby’s pockets and pulled out a pair of
handcuffs. He rolled Shelby onto the floor and cuffed him to the bed frame. Then
he stuffed Shelby’s revolver into the back waistband of his pants as he moved
to Juliana.

“Let’s go. You ahead of me.” Nicholas yanked her in front of
him.

She led him down the stairs—all too aware of the gun pointed
at her back. Her legs cooperated with a fragment of her brain, while the rest
of her mind scrambled to figure a way out of this mess.

How long could she stand having a gun leveled at her before
she went mad? Once was horrible enough. A shudder ripped through her at the
memory leaving her shaking.

“Don’t open your mouth until I tell you to or I’ll gag you. Understand?”

Juliana nodded.

Nicholas pushed her out the front door, but hauled on her
arm from behind to stop her from stepping off the dark porch.

Juliana searched the neighborhood frantically for help. Nothing,
no one. She peered down the side street of her corner lot. The dark, ethereal
shapes of houses in various stages of construction were empty, the construction
workers long gone. The only thing out of the ordinary was the older model muscle
car parked alongside her house.

Barely cognizant of her movements as he prompted her toward
the two-door car, she focused all her energy inward. All she cared about now
was reaching Lisette, keeping her safe from the lunatic behind her.

Nicholas duct-taped Juliana’s wrists behind her back and
made her scuttle crab-like into the small backseat. Then he taped her bare
ankles together.

The tape for every use
. Juliana managed a bleak,
tight-lipped smile. He blindfolded her, but left her mouth free. He shoved the
front seat back and hopped in behind the wheel, pulling the door shut with an
indiscernible snick.

The engine rumbled to life, shaking the car in a steady
cadence. It swayed as Nicholas turned a tight corner, jamming her between the
backseat and the front buckets. She wedged an elbow into the front seat to
shove herself back.

If she lived, she’d do everything in her power to win Alex
back. He’d shown her in less than a week that life alone would be a mere
existence. She didn’t want to be alone any longer. She didn’t want to fear the
dark anymore. They’d find a way to work around her psychic burdens. If he was
willing—after tonight.
Why did I drive him away? Why couldn’t I just leave
well enough alone for a change? Why didn’t I have more faith in him and not
have to rely solely on myself, as usual?

The car hit a large pothole, jostling Juliana out of her
reverie.

“You okay back there?”

Juliana wondered at the edge of concern in Nicholas’ voice.
“Does it matter?” she asked, trying to keep her unsteady voice from betraying
her panic. The stale smell of old leather seats and dirty carpet tickled her nostrils.
She fought to stifle a sneeze.

“I have no plans to hurt you. In fact, you may even decide
to come along with me. I can make you a wealthy woman.”

Juliana snickered. “You have it backward.”

Nicholas laughed. “Right you are, darling. My friends and I
always wondered how you were always right with your financial advice, when your
associates were wrong.”

Her throat felt like a fur ball had lodged in it. “You think
so?” Psychic bandwidth hadn’t contributed to her investment choices throughout
her career. She simply possessed a knack for knowing when to get in and when to
get out.

Nicholas chuckled, a sound that grated on her nerves. “I was
wise to choose you as my financial advisor. It was a stroke of genius that you
also tapped into my mind.

“By the way, I’ll assume my investment in Altz will go off
without a hitch, even with you away from the office?”

Yeah, right. The funds would sit in her escrow account until
she could hand them off to the proper authorities. “Yes,” she lied. “I’ve
entered the trade.” Her eyelids itched from the tightly wound scarf. Blinking
didn’t help. “The buy will execute first thing in the morning.”

“Excellent!”

She doubted her curiosity could hurt her any further, so she
asked, “What insider information do you have on Altz?”

He hesitated as he turned the car onto an uneven road. She
gritted her teeth against the roughness assaulting her backside.

“A takeover bid will be announced on Friday at three times
the current price. Concurrently, an announcement will be made that Altz’s flagship
product will be integrated in every graphic chip from Silicon Valley to
Siberia.”

“You know this because…?” The lumpy seat bottom dug into her
hips at every bump in the road.

“I know the venture capitalist quite well.” He chuckled.
“Rather intimately, we’ll say.”

I’d rather not.
Her stomach contracted, and she
fought the vertigo easing into her self-control.

“What will you do with the money?”
Keep him talking. He’ll
slip in either words or thoughts sooner or later.

“You’ll transfer it to my Swiss bank account. As for the
rest—” He stopped suddenly, as if he realized he’d erred. “Well, you already
know about the ransom note, so I won’t pretend you don’t. I assume the police
know?”

“Did you think otherwise?”

The question seemed to irritate him, for his voice became
curt. “If you hadn’t read my mind, Chamber would have done exactly what I
asked. That bastard’s a fool.”

Did she hear regret in his voice? “What’s your relationship
to them?”

“You don’t need to concern yourself with that.”

The duct tape around her wrists tightened, stretching her
skin with every jiggle. “Does it concern Lisette or her mother?”

“Of course it does.” He laughed.

Juliana tried to read him telepathically, but the force of
his mental and physical block sent her reeling. His emotions, everything about
him, was shielded from her intuition. This padlock on his thoughts had
prevented her from previously guessing his identity.

Breathing deeply and exhaling slowly, she attempted to
steady her thudding heart. “I can help you if you let us go.”

“Not before I get my money.”

Another jolt forced a seat belt buckle to ram into her butt.
Shifting away from it, she asked, “How do you plan to get away?”
There must
be a hole in his scheme somewhere.

“Leave the planning to me.” He chuckled. “You certainly are
inquisitive.”

“Bondage has it rewards.”

Another chuckle. “Spoken like a trooper. I like that in a
woman. Adaptable. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to conquer the world on my
arm? In my bed?”

“A hurricane would be more bearable.”

Gravel pinging the car’s underside hinted at off-road
travel.

“That’s not a nice thing to say to the man who’s been
intimately connected to you for a week.”

Yeah, nothing like having your mind linked with a
sex-crazed lunatic. Slip, you bastard, slip.
“So what sort of ESP do you
have?”

“Who says I have ESP?”

“Now who’s being witty?” If she could leverage off whatever
extrasensory skills he possessed, she might stand a fireball’s chance in
Antarctica to get herself and Lisette out alive.

“Ms. Westwood, we’ve reached our destination. You’ll have to
put your curiosity to bed.”

The car came to a halt and the transmission groaned as
Hastings thrust the gear into park, then turned the ignition off. As the door
squealed open, Juliana’s heart began to palpitate with renewed fear. She nearly
fell onto the floorboards as the bucket seat was jerked forward and Hastings
fingers gripped her blindfold. He yanked the scarf and a few strands of hair
off her head. Her watery eyes met an inky blackness. His long, tapered fingers
lingered on her temple, and he chuckled as she shrank back against the seat.

The dark scraped along her skin, wrapping around her,
suffocating her.

Desire filled Nicholas’ gaze. “You’re a beautiful woman. A
man would be a fool to kill you.”

His smile iced the marrow in her bones.

She believed him fool enough.

* * * * *

Alex wanted to believe the kidnapper didn’t have the balls
to go after Juliana. His heart told him otherwise as it beat hollowly. He
sensed something was wrong.

Seriously wrong.

He flicked off the headlights and cruised his SUV to a stop
in front of Juliana’s house. Neighboring lights lent faint illumination to the
dark façade. The jarring stillness chilled Alex to the bone.

“There’s Marie’s car,” James said unnecessarily as they both
jumped out of the SUV.