Read Online Frostfire by Lynn Viehl - Free Book Online

“you give her my card and tell her to call me.”
    Ethan didn’t examine the charm bracelet until he was back in the Escalade. It was an expensive, custom-designed piece made of pure silver and stamped in three places with maker marks, which would help him when he tracked down who had made it. From the fine, twisted links hung seven exquisite charms: a rosebud, a star, a crescent moon, a quill, a book, a crystal ball, and a cameo. Diamond chips accented five of the charms; the crystal ball had been fashioned from a dark blue moonstone.
    The cameo, an oval of onyx set with a circle of rubies, had an ivory carving of a man’s face in profile. He turned over the minuscule portrait and saw three words engraved in fancy script.
    Essere Libero Valori.
    “Italian.” Ethan didn’t speak the language, so he couldn’t translate the phrase, but he could Google it later. It was the last word that fascinated him: Valori . “Valori. Lori.” He repeated the name, drawing out the syllables until he realized what the English version might be. “Valerie.”
    He tucked the bracelet into his breast pocket, feeling a little smug now. He knew women and their trinkets, and something this personal and expensive had to be dear to her. Aside from her cheap watch, it had been the only jewelry she had worn. Whoever Lori/Valori/Valerie was, whatever she was running from, she’d be back for her bracelet. When she called him, he’d make the trip down the mountain one more time.
    And then, Ethan decided, he’d slap the cuffs on her and take her back with him.

Chapter 5

    A jolt brought Lilah out of the darkness and somewhat awake; she felt so sleepy she almost slipped back at once. Something held down her chest and legs, the weight of a heavy arm, a leg. Someone was beside her, in her bed. Then she felt the hard, cold surface under her and wondered how she’d ended up on the floor.
    Opening her eyes took a very long time, and when she did pry her lids apart, they felt gummy, as if they’d been sealed with defective glue. Blinking to clear her blurred vision, she began to register other things. A blue tarp over her, covering her from head to toe. Something metal around her right wrist. The sense of being exposed came from her body; she was naked. Her right arm had gone numb, but not enough to miss the sensation of a long stretch of warm skin over hard muscle.
    A body.
    She squinted in the dimness, trying to see who it was, where she was. Short, black bristles of hair no more than a quarter inch long covered a scalp, curved over an ear. She shifted her gaze down, and saw part of a cheekbone, the tapered end of a wide black brow, the jut of a hard jaw.
    A man was right next to her. A strange, unconscious man.
    A naked man.
    Lilah swallowed against her dry throat, her head swimming with sensory overload. “Help.” It came out like a cough, short and wheezing. She tried again. “Help. Me.”
    The head next to her face turned slowly, exposing more of his face. He opened his eye slowly, only partway, and stared at her. From the one she could see, he had dark eyes, framed by lashes beaded with drops of water. Sweat streaked his skin and collected in little pools by the bridge of his nose and the corner of his mouth. He tried to pull back, only to go still. A muscle throbbed in his cheek as his jaw shifted.
    “Drugged,” he breathed out, his voice more air than sound. “Taken.”
    “Me?” She watched his head move in a small nod. “You?” Another nod. “No. Please, no.”
    The man didn’t say anything, but she felt something move against her neck. His fingers, stiff and clumsy. His was the arm draped across her, and he was using it to try to reassure her.
    Lilah didn’t dare close her eyes again. “Where? Who?”
    “Truck.” The lines beside his mouth deepened as he tried again to move, and managed to slide a little of his weight over her right arm. “Men. Two.”
    Lilah went still, listening. Now she felt the motion of the truck