Read Online Solid as Steele by REBECCA YORK - Free Book Online Page A

something swinging in the air. Whirling, she found it was a hangman’s noose.
    â€œNo,” she cried out, backing away, hitting another place on the floor where a live electric wire lurked. Again pain surged through her body. She screamed and wanted to keep screaming and screaming. But what good would that do? Teeth clenched, she ordered herself to calm down and think.
    He had said she could get out of here. All she had to do was find the exit.
    Her heart pounding, she looked around, then chose the middle exit from the room. As she stepped through the door, the wooden floor gave way beneath her, and she tumbled through space, landing on a cold cement surface that rattled her bones. When she could finally breathe again, she pushed herself up, sending terrible pain shooting through her arm.
    Reaching out in her mind, Jamie tried to say something reassuring. But the other woman couldn’t hear her. Apparently, the communication only went one way.
    Still, the woman’s thoughts and her terror pounded her.
    She held her injured arm against her chest, trying to ease the pain.
    â€œDon’t let it slow you down,” she warned herself as she took a moment to rest. She was in a cellar, with cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. When she stretched out her foot, her shoe dipped into something slimy, and she stifled a scream.
    After wiping her shoe against the floor, she looked up and saw something that made the blood freeze in her veins.A man was peering at her through the hole in the ceiling where she’d come tumbling down.
    It was him. Dressed in black with a death mask instead of a face.
    â€œWhy are you doing this to me?” she gasped out, still cradling her arm.
    A moment ago, the man had been above her. Suddenly, his grating voice came from behind her. Had he taken another way to the basement? Or was the voice coming from a speaker?
    â€œYou know.”
    â€œI don’t! Please. Just let me go.”
    â€œYou ruined my life. You and the others. You took away everything from me.”
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about. Please. Let me go.”
    â€œIf you can get out of here.”
    Ignoring the pain in her arm, she started running again, desperate for an escape route. When she spotted a flight of stairs leading upward, she almost sobbed in relief. If she could get out of the basement, maybe she could find her way out of the house.
    As she dashed toward the steps, she stumbled over something lying in her path and almost lost her footing.
    It looked like the dead body of a woman, her hair spread out across the cold basement floor and a knife sticking out of her chest.
    His last victim? Jamie knew that couldn’t be true because the police had discovered Lynn Vaughn along the road. The other woman must not have connected that case to this killer, this house. Or maybe she didn’t even know about it.
    Righting herself, she made it to the stairs and began scrambling up. She could hear his breathing, feel it onher neck. His hand came down on her shoulder, and he shook her.
    â€œWake up.”
    â€œNo!” she screamed, struggling to get away.

Chapter Five
    â€œJamie. Wake up, Jamie.”
    She tried to dodge away, but it was no good. He held her fast.
    She struck out with her fist, connecting with a hard body.
    â€œJamie, don’t. It’s Mack.”
    Her eyes blinked open. In the light coming from the sitting room, she found herself staring into Mack Steele’s tense features.
    â€œWhat happened?” he asked.
    â€œAnother dream,” she managed to say through chattering teeth. She was cold all the way to the bone, although she was under the covers and the room was warm.
    She couldn’t stop shaking, and when he gathered her in his arms, she clung to him. Part of her mind was aware that his shoulders and chest were bare. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but she saw his denim-clad legs. Either he’d been sleeping in his jeans or he’d