Read Online PRIMAL INSTINCT by JANIE CROUGH - Free Book Online

her ears, then turned up the volume as loud as possible. The pain immediately blinded her and she stumbled toward the table, blindly grasping for its edge with her free hand. She tumbled into the seat trying to keep hold of her consciousness.
    I will kill her! I will kill them both!
    The general rage clouded everything, but that one thought filtered through her mind over and over.
    She was crushing the foam cup of coffee still clutched in her hand. The scalding liquid spilled out, but she couldn’t force her muscles to relax their locked grip of the cup. She felt the burn almost distantly, secondary to the pain in her head that seemed to shoot daggers into her eyes.
    I will kill them both!
    The scream was getting louder now, and closer. Adrienne forced her eyes to open slightly, although the agony from the effort nearly caused her to black out. She looked around the coffee shop trying to find the two people the screaming voice referred to. She spotted them in the opposite corner—a man and woman, both in their mid-twenties, huddled close together. Their hands were linked, and they smiled and spoke softly to one another.
    There was no doubt this was who the voice was referring to. Adrienne had no idea how far the man with the voice was from the coffee shop. She could see him storming up a hill—his anger growing with every step—but she couldn’t tell how far he was. Given the loudness of his thoughts, Adrienne didn’t think it would be very long before he arrived.
    And when he did, the young couple would die.
    Suddenly the volume of the enraged man lowered, and Adrienne could see him walking in through a double set of doors in a coffeehouse. Adrienne whirled her head around to see if it was this one he was entering and wilted back into her chair in relief when she saw it wasn’t.
    He was in another location of this same chain, somewhere nearby. But there was one on every corner, so she had no idea how far away he was. His screaming thoughts had subsided a bit as he concentrated on looking for the couple, not yet knowing he was in the wrong shop.
    Adrienne knew she had to act now. Whether the enraged man found the correct coffee shop in a few moments or twenty minutes, he would still eventually find it. She had to get help and warn the couple.
    She forced herself to loosen the grip on the ruined coffee cup and reached into her purse for her phone. She stared at it in her hand for a long moment, trying to decide what she would say to 9-1-1 when she called. She wasn’t sure she could get out a coherent sentence. Then she remembered Conner had programmed his number into her phone last night. He may not trust her, but he would at least not ignore her.
    She pressed Send on her phone, praying his was still the last number called, knowing that looking through a contact list now would be impossible. His sleepy voice answered on the second ring.
    “Hello?”
    “Conner.” The one word was all she could manage. Her voice was weak and shaky.
    “Adrienne? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
    “I need help.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper now.
    “Where are you? At the hotel?”
    “No. I’m at the coffee shop. Up the hill.” She took a breath between each sentence. The white dots were floating in front of her eyes now, but she fought to hold on to consciousness.
    “Okay. Hang on for just a second.” She could hear him saying something to someone else. She leaned her head against the cool glass of the wall next to her table.
    “Adrienne? Listen, Seth is already near the office, he should be there in five minutes. I’m on my way, too. Should I call 9-1-1?” The urgency in Conner’s voice made it through to her subconscious. He believed her that something was wrong; she felt profound relief.
    “Conner...” she started weakly.
    “Yes? What is it?”
    “Hurry. He’s going to kill...” Adrienne was unable to finish the sentence. The man’s voice screaming inside her head hit her so hard that the phone flew out