She turned on her heel and started toward where the photographer’s headlights shone through the trees.
“Hang on. Let me at least escort you to your colleague’s car.”
“No, I’m fine on my own, thanks.” She didn’t even turn. “Good night, Mr. Ash.”
Olivia walked out of the parking lot without looking back. He climbed into his truck and tried not to watch her go. Part of him wanted to pray, but couldn’t begin to find words for the jumble of thoughts racing through his mind. Another part of him wanted to run after her and apologize, not even knowing what he should be apologizing for. Instead, he waited a few minutes to give her the chance to reach her coworker’s car. He heard a car door slam. A dark car sped past the lot. Seemed Olivia and her photographer friend were in a hurry to leave.
Daniel sighed, then eased his truck out onto the road and started driving. Despite the threat of rain, he rolled his window down and leaned out into the warm, damp night, hoping the fresh air would clear his head. What was it about this woman that unsettled him so much? He barely knew her, and yet sitting in the diner it had felt as if she’d been determined to reach around his defenses and rattle every single one of the locked doors inside him.
The headlights ahead of him lurched suddenly, weaving across the road and back as though the driver had suddenly lost control of the wheel. The dark car swerved toward the fenced-in remains of what was once a strip mall, then back onto the road again.
Olivia flew backward out of the passenger door.
Daniel jammed on his brakes. The sound of his own thudding heartbeat filled his ears.
The world slowed.
Olivia’s body tumbled along the road like a rag doll.
The dark car spun around so quickly it nearly swerved off the road.
She forced herself to her feet and started running away.
Her hands were bound behind her.
She’d been kidnapped.
A figure in fatigues leaped out of the car and ran after her. A mask covered his face. There was a gun in his hand.
Daniel pressed his foot to the gas.
Lord, help me save her. I can’t fail her now.
He aimed the truck for the gap between Olivia and her kidnapper, planning to swerve between them and yank her in via the driver’s-side door, using the truck to shield her from the gunfire. But Olivia turned, darted through a gap in the barrier fence surrounding the strip mall and ran toward the abandoned buildings. No! Daniel gritted his teeth. Didn’t she realize those were his headlights shining on the road in front of her? Didn’t she see that he was there for her?
If only he hadn’t asked Olivia to meet him somewhere this isolated.
The masked thug leaped through the opening in the fence after her. Okay, new plan. Daniel swerved hard and came to a stop inches before the metal barrier. The masked man turned back and looked at him. Daniel’s eyes searched his form. Black fatigues. No insignia. Same as what he’d seen in the parking garage. Could’ve come from any military surplus store.
Semiautomatic handgun. Popular and illegal.
So probably a low-level street thug.
His voice was gravelly and definitely fake. “Keep driving, old man. This doesn’t concern you.”
The masked thug leveled the barrel of the gun right between Daniel’s eyes. Right, as though he was that easy to intimidate. He had faced down bigger guns and nastier threats back when this kid was probably still in grade school. Not that Daniel was about to be reckless and get himself shot while Olivia was still in danger. Daniel held the man’s gaze just long enough to watch Olivia disappear between two buildings behind him. Showdown over. He shifted the truck into four-wheel drive and pulled away. The gunman laughed, turned and ran after Olivia.
Thunder rumbled in the darkened air. The skies opened. Rain fell with a vengeance.
Daniel gunned the engine. He raced past the fenced-in lot, then turned hard into the empty field. The truck bounced and jolted over the grass and scrub, kicking up mud in his wake.
A gunshot sounded from the lot to his left. Thankfully, whoever had condemned this strip mall had only thought to put barricades at the front of it. He turned hard and raced back toward the lot, hit a drainage ditch and launched the truck up onto a patch of pavement behind the buildings. Then he cut the engine and waited. Hopefully the gunman was too focused on his hunt to notice Daniel’s little stunt drive.
Okay, Lord, now how do I—
But before the prayer could leave his lips, he saw Olivia shoot down an alleyway straight toward him.
* * *
She ran, barely able to see where she was going. Rain fell fast and wild, obscuring her view. The wind tossed her soaked hair into her face. Bonds dug into her wrists. Pain shot up her arms.
Her body smacked hard against the hood of a truck.
She gasped. The vehicle was nothing more than a gray shape in the darkness and had seemed to come out of nowhere. The driver’s face was hidden in the darkness and distorted by water pounding off the windshield. She spun on her heel.
“Olivia!” a deep voice yelled. “This way.”
She stumbled. A strong arm grabbed her around the waist and nearly hoisted her feet off the ground. She opened her mouth to scream. A hand clasped over her mouth. A breath brushed against her ear. “It’s me, Daniel. It’s okay. Just get in the truck.” He half steered, half pulled her toward the passenger door.
Daniel? The complicated and moody man who’d told her never to contact him again? Could she trust him? Then again, she’d foolishly thought the blinding headlights she’d been heading toward had belonged to Ricky’s car, until a masked man had stepped out of the shadows and pressed a gun into her face. If he was still after her, entrusting her safety to Daniel was the only choice she had left.
She tossed her head and his hand slipped from her lips. “Untie me. Now. And take me back to the diner.”
“I can’t. Sorry.” Authority rang through each syllable as though she was just supposed to take his word for it. “Just get in.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
With one hand, he reached around her and opened the passenger door.
“Just get in. I’ll explain when we’re out of here.” Then before she could answer, he grabbed her waist with both hands and hoisted her into the truck. She landed on the seat. He reached past and buckled her in before she could even process what was happening. Then he slammed the door, leaving her sitting almost sideways, belted into his truck, her hands still tied behind her back. Daniel ran around and hopped into the driver’s side. His wet shirt was plastered to his skin. Water streamed down his face.
Her voice caught in her throat. “I said, untie
