Full Throttle (27 page)

He climbed out of his car, gathered up his rope and
hefted it onto his shoulder. Taking a moment to look around, he walked quietly
to her front door making sure to keep in the shadows.

****

“Sammy!” Josh pushed open the door to the female
toilets and ignored the disgruntled squeaks from the three women chatting at
the sink. He scowled at them and barked. “Is there a woman with a leg cast in
here?”

One of the women shook her head and replied.
“Just us.”

Josh let go of the swinging door and stepped back.
He turned into the huge pub and glared at everything. The place was full to the
brim with bikers and biker chicks. Rock music throbbed from the speakers and
the sound made Josh’s head ache. He looked at the bar and saw Paige. He stalked
over to her and leaned over the bar top so she could hear him. “Have you seen
Sammy?”

Paige raised a brow and shook her head. “The blonde
chick you were with?” she asked, and Josh nodded, though she is way more than
just a
blonde chick,
as Paige put it.
But Josh bit his tongue. No time for that.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen her for a while.” He said
calmly, though his heart was thundering heavily.

Paige shook her head and shrugged. She turned her gaze
and moved to serve a waiting biker. Josh turned around, irritated, and scanned
the bar again. Mark walked out of the throng of people and showed his empty
pint to Paige. He turned his head and grinned. “You look fucked off.”

Josh continued to scan the crowd, his senses going a
little wild. What if she got lost? What if she fell over on her cast and has
hurt her leg. No, Sammy was far too capable to get herself into some pathetic
female drama. If she fell and hurt herself, the bloody woman would just get up
and walk it off.
If she got lost.
No, she just
wouldn’t. This place might be big, but she was fucking clever. Getting lost was
too feeble for Sammy.

As Josh scanned the room, he had a bad feeling Sammy
had left—without him. He remembered the way she looked before she’d gone to the
ladies. Josh had said something to hurt her and clearly it was enough to make
her run.

It made sense. Sammy would not be the sort to make a
scene. She definitely would not want to be upset on public.

He turned to Mark. “You happen to see Sammy lately?”
He tried for casual, but the slow smile that crept across his friends face made
Josh grind his teeth.

“You lost her?
Fucking hell, Josh.
Did you see how many of these horny bikers had their eyes on her?” Mark grinned
and Josh scowled.

He had seen, and that was why he wanted her back at
his side—under his arm
—his
. “Fuck
off, Mark. You see her, or not?”

Mark sipped his new pint slowly and shook his head.

“She left in a taxi about half an hour ago.” Josh glanced
to his other side, and he saw Penny with her hands on her hips. Her red lips
glared at him and Josh scowled.

“How would you fucking know?”

Penny sighed dramatically and leaned one of her
elbows on the bar top. She called out for
a neat
vodka
on ice and turned her make-up ridden face back to him. “I watched you arrive
with her. What is she? A fucking fantasy you are trying out? Fuck a geek? Well,
anyway, clearly she wasn’t happy because she hobbled out on that stupid cast
and sat her fat backside in a cab.
Seems you can’t even keep
a dull woman in your bed.”

Josh
scowled,
completely
insulted by the idea he had ever thought Penny was worth marrying. He cringed
at her lack of class. “Fuck off, Penny.” He turned his back on the nasty woman
he could have married and felt a rush of relief for not doing so.

Jesus.
What had he been thinking?

Josh stalked out the bar and straight to his car. He
yanked the door open, got inside, and realized belatedly he’d drunk too much to
drive. He smashed his hands down on the steering wheel and swore soundly.
Angered by his lack of tact.
Annoyed that
Sammy hadn’t come to talk to him, fucking irritated that he had allowed Penny
to rile him up.
Josh sucked in air and tried to corral his temper.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten. Just go to
her and apologize. Tell her you were a dick and drop to your knees if need be.
Don’t let Sammy go. Seeing Penny had brought home the difference. Penny was
cheap, tacky, and dirty. Whereas Sammy was warm, kind, giving, intelligent, and
she had more class in her little finger than Penny had in her entire, fake,
nasty body.

He climbed out of his car and walked back into the bar.
He stalked to the table where Jason and Tony chatted. The pair looked up and
Tony asked, “What’s up?”

“Either of you driving?”

Tony frowned, but Jason nodded, he held up his
lemonade and said, “Yeah, I’m back on duty tomorrow, so I’m dry. You need a
lift?”

Josh nodded and snatched up Tony’s helmet. His
brother protested a little, but shut up when Josh said, “You don’t need it,
you’re
catching a taxi tonight. I’ll drop it by tomorrow.”

He stalked out of the bar with a confused-looking
Jason on his heels. “Where are we going?” Jason asked as they stepped outside.
Josh yanked on his helmet, did up his neck straps and said, “To find Sammy.”

Jason paused as he zipped up his leather coat. He
frowned at Josh “What? She’s not here?”

A lump formed in Josh’s throat and he shook his
head. He climbed onto the back of the bike after Jason got on. “She left me.”

Jason turned his head and stared at Josh, his blue gaze
held questions, but Josh was done chatting. He patted the bike under his butt
and banged his helmet against Jason’s. “
Don’t
just
fucking sit there.
Move.”

****

Sammy sat up in bed. She held a book in her hands,
but she saw no words as her mind played over and over the painful words Josh’s
had said so callously.

“
Why do you
think I was at the hospital for so long? Why do you think I offered to look
after you?”

She dropped her book onto her lap and rested her
head back against the headboard, sighing heavily and shaking her head. She
couldn’t blame Josh really for pitying her. She was a pathetic woman with no
family and barely any friends. It made her cringe whenever she thought of his
words, admitting his guilt, and the way she had allowed her heart to get
involved. Josh probably felt he had no choice in offering himself up as
babysitter. It was probably obvious that Rachel was irritating to her, and it
wasn’t like anyone else had turned up at the hospital to see if she was ok. He must
have felt obliged.

But she had gone and fallen for him anyway.

Pathetic,
Sammy
.

Sammy groaned and slid under her covers. She wasn’t
about to fall asleep with the way her mind was whirring, but a nice long night
in the fetal position would probably do her some good.

A sound, like breaking glass, broke through the
silent air and Sammy stilled and listened. Fear licked at her spine as thoughts
of her stalker, the fire, and the threats filled her mind, but she forced
herself to stay still, waiting for the sound again. Silence echoed and for a
long moment all Sammy could hear was her frantic heart and her stuttered, heavy
breathing. Had she imagined the sound? The silence was so total now that Sammy
began to doubt
herself
.

You’re
just feeling paranoid. You’re just feeling anxious because of what happened
tonight.

She started to relax her shoulders, was just about
to sit up, when she heard soft footfalls, as if someone was walking up the
stairs, and her heart thrashed violently inside her chest. Sammy pushed the cover
off her face slowly and turned her head.

She knew, without looking that someone stood in her
doorway. She knew, without looking that it wasn’t Josh. Sammy knew in her gut,
the feeling a sharp jab of pain, that her stalker had finally made his move.

Shaking violently, Sammy turned her head. She
swallowed hard and focused on the dark shadow that now loomed over her bed. Her
stomach rolled and her head swam, and when the shadow lunged, Sammy screamed
and scrambled back. A heavy hand fell on her cast and yanked her backwards. Sammy
cried out as her leg pulsed in deep pain
She
reached
for the wooden headboard but the shadow pulled her harder. Her hands blindly
reached out for something to hold, her fingers grasping at the fine muslin
drapes she had surrounding her bedposts. The sound of tearing material filled
her ears and Sammy lost her purchase on the drapes.

Sammy cried out and thrashed, but her mind revolted
against movement as her leg throbbed under his torturous yanking. She drew back
her other leg and tried to kick out, but the shadow swung his arm down and pummeled
his fist into her cheek. Sammy fell back and gasped. Pain bloomed across her
face and her vision swam. She thrashed again determined not to go down easily,
but the shadow had somehow managed to get rope around her ankles.

“No, no!” Sammy called out as she fought against his
restraints. Her stomach lurched and panic swarmed her mind when he drew the
ties tight, the rope burning the skin on her good leg. “No,” she demanded
again, reaching for the shadow with her nails. She raked a hand down his cheek
and the shadow bellowed.

He backhanded her, thumped his fist into her stomach
and this time Sammy saw stars.

“Oh, no, you fucking don’t, bitch!” The shadow
grunted.

Sammy stilled, her chest constricted.

She knew that voice.

Chapter
Twenty Three

Josh stood on the grass outside Sammy’s little
cottage and stared at the broken glass on the front door with horror in his
mind. His stomach rolled violently and his head spun as he heard the crunch of
glass under foot. He could hear Jason off in the distance talking to the police
on the phone, his friend’s voice urgent as he relayed the scene they had found not
two minutes before.

But Josh couldn’t focus on what Jason was saying
because his mind was a scrambled mess. Fuck, why had he checked his apartment
first? Why had he assumed, stupidly, that she would be waiting for him at his
house, all tucked up and ready to talk? He had thought Sammy left the pub
because she wanted to talk in a quiet place. He had not thought for one fucking
second she would take herself back home—back to where she knew she was in
danger.

They had wasted precious minutes going all the way
into town, only to turn around and drive to her place in the country.

Josh swore, kicked a clod of dirt, and swore again.

Of course she would have come home. She was an
independent woman that would not consider the notion of relying on him. She was
not some simpering woman after attention. She was not the classless woman like
Penny, who would have played games, making him chase her.

Sammy was straightforward. He said something that
hurt her. She had left. Because, from what Sammy had said about her family, no
one would listen to her opinion anyway.

Well, he fucking would. He wanted to.
Jesus, why was he such a clueless dick?

Josh ran shaking hands through his hair and turned
back to the front door. The wooden door was open a little, and Josh stepped
over the glass and moved inside.

“Josh! No, the police said not to go inside.” Jason
called out but Josh was already inside and scanning the room looking for Sammy.

Fuck
the fucking police.

He checked the kitchen, swung around the living room,
saw her mobile phone and house keys on the coffee table and his heart turned
over.

“Sammy!” He called out, hoping like a fucking idiot
she would appear at the bottom of the stairs and glare at him, even though he’d
shouted and called for her when he’d first arrived,
he
hoped she would answer him. But she didn’t. The silent sound of nothing echoed
back.

A strange ripple of dread smoothed along his spine. Something
cold, nasty and violent tickled at his senses and Josh lunged up the stairs. He
staggered to a halt outside her bedroom, his eyes immediately finding her duvet
strewn across the floor all the way to the top of the stairs, one corner tugged
into a point as if someone had held onto it until their hand was dragged off
it.

Josh glanced up into the bedroom, but couldn’t see
anything past the darkness. Uncaring of what the police would say, he flipped
the switch and swore soundly when light illuminated her bedroom and the carnage
that gave evidence to a struggle.

He stood still, stunned, paralyzed as his gaze
flowed from one mess to another. The contents of Sammy’s meticulously tidy
bedside table were strewn across the floor. A glass that would have held water
lay empty and on its side at the foot of her bed. The thin, dainty, gauze
material that hung down the four posts was torn on Sammy’s side, and her pillow
was in the middle of the mattress.