Read Online Deadly Pursuit by Ann Christopher - Free Book Online Page B

scar on his forehead now, just wait till she got done with him—when he vaulted across the room to stop her. One second he was safely over there and the next he was in her face, snarling.
    His huge hand clamped down around her wrist and squeezed. “Drop it.”
    “Screw you.”
    She knew she’d regret those two words and she did. Immediately. That hand tightened until streaks of pain shot up her arm and cleared her head. Yelping, she let go and the knife clattered to the floor. He kicked it away with one booted foot.
    Fine. There was a complete set up there on the wall, starting with a lovely meat cleaver. Glaring at him, she calculated the best way to twist her body and reach the cleaver with her free hand. But before she could execute what she thought was shaping up to be a brilliant plan, he read her mind.
    “Don’t even think about it,” he warned, pulling her by the arm until she was in the center of the kitchen, well away from any weapons.
    Furious, she jerked free and they faced off. Coming to the slow realization that he could have killed and/or raped her three or four times by now if that was what he’d had in mind, she focused on her anger rather than her fear.
    “What the hell do you want?” she snapped.
    “I need to talk to you.”
    “Talk? Really? You ever hear of a telephone, Jack? Or what about this: doorbell. Say it with me:
doorbell.
How did you get in here anyway? How did you even know where I live?”
    “It was real tricky. I looked you up in the phone book. And I came in through the kitchen door.”
    This was outrageous. That door had a damn fine dead bolt lock that she’d installed with her own two hands and trusty cordless drill. “You picked my lock?”
    He didn’t answer.
    “Why not try knocking on the front door? At a decent hour?”
    “This is an emergency.” He hesitated. “And I didn’t want to be seen.”
    “By who? The boogeyman?”
    The sarcasm bounced right off his flat demeanor. “The people who are after me.”
    “Okay, I’ll bite. Who’s after you, Jack?”
    “I can’t get into that. But they’re going to come after you, too, and I need to get you out of here. Now.”
    Well, she’d known there had to be something seriously wrong with a person who looked like Jack and could cook, but she’d chosen to nurse the ridiculous girlish hope that she’d actually met an interesting man. A jerk, clearly, but still interesting. Not that she wanted to marry him or anything, but it was nice to know that such a man existed.
    Now she had to face the ugly reality that he was bat-shit crazy and probably off his meds. Hell, it was worse than that. No doubt there was a padded wagon roaming up and down the streets of Mount Adams right now, driven by uniformed men with giant nets, looking for him.
    It figured.
    Tragic, but he was in her house and she needed to get him out without him killing her, which he could still decide to do.
    “Jack,” she said, trying to keep the condescension out of her voice, “if someone’s after you, you need to call the police.”
    “The police can’t help me. And they can’t protect you.”
    There was no reasoning with the unreasonable, but she tried anyway. “Okay, Jack. I’m going to take it on faith that someone’s after you. What does that have to do with
me?”
    “If they can’t find me, they’re going to use you to get to me.” He paused long enough to analyze her uncomprehending look and answer her unspoken questions with rising impatience. “Because of the video, which makes it look like we’re lovers. Look—we don’t have time for this. I want you to get dressed, throw a few things in an overnight bag and—”
    “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    “—let me take you to a hotel or someplace safe—”
    “You’re insane.” Damn. She hadn’t meant to say that. There went her whole
don’t piss him off
plan. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    “—and then I can touch base with my contacts and we can figure out