Mariana smiled at her new friend. “You’re just rebuilding your factory, and Evan is in the middle of a campaign for sheriff. You don’t have time to hide out with me.” Tabi’s factory, which built some kind of ski masks, had mysteriously blown up earlier that year.
“Friends are more important than any of that,” Tabi said, looking so petite next to Evan’s large form.
Mariana shook her head. She could take care of herself, but she wasn’t sure she could protect Tabi at the same time. “I’m not going away for good.” She’d wait to hear from Laura about Raine’s background and then come up with a plan. The local sheriff would help her, and if Evan was elected, he would as well—just in case Raine was a crazy stalker.
How could the man who’d given her the best night of her life be her stalker? It just didn’t make sense.
Worse yet, maybe it made perfect sense. If he had been stalking her, she’d given him exactly what he’d wanted. Her. “I’m so confused,” she admitted.
“Then wait and talk to him,” Evan advised, the gun at his hip looking like it lived there.
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. When I’m around him, I believe him. He’s charming and smart, and we slept together.” She might as well tell them the full truth. “I need time and distance from him to be able to think this through.”
“I get that,” Tabi said. “But you shouldn’t go alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have my gun, and you two are just a phone call away.” She grabbed her keys off the table and headed toward the garage. “I’ll let you know where I land when I get there.” She had a spa in mind—she’d been looking at the place for a while. A couple of massages, a lot of champagne, and some quiet time was just what she needed. “Don’t worry.”
“Where are you going?” Evan asked.
Temptation to tell him warred with the lessons in survival she’d learned the last year. “I’ll decide on the road, and I promise I’ll call when I get there.” She’d let Laura in Dallas know where she ended up. “I’ll miss you two.” Then she jogged out to her car, opened the garage door, and drove off like she knew what she was doing.
She had no clue what she was doing. Except escaping for now. Sometimes that had to be enough. She called Laura. “I’m on the road. Any news?”
“Not yet, but we’re doing a deep dive on the guy. Are you going to that spa?” Laura asked.
“Yeah. I’ll call you when I check in and am safe. Thanks, Laura.” She clicked off the call, keeping it short. Oh, she seriously doubted Raine had the ability to trace her calls, but just in case, she was going to be careful. If Raine was the stalker. What if he wasn’t and somehow he had an explanation for all of this? Just in case, she kept an eye on her rearview mirror and surroundings, making sure she wasn’t followed.
The luxury spa hotel was about three hours away, and she finally started to relax after the second hour. Rain pelted down in an impressive autumn storm, but she kept a slow and steady pace. She pulled off the interstate at a rest stop, parked right up front, locked her car, and took her purse with gun inside. After taking care of business, she walked outside, feeling better than she had all day.
Her car was gone.
She paused. Wait a minute. She’d parked right up front. Shit. The place was fairly empty save for a luxury SUV parked down the way. Turning to run, she tried to grab for her gun. Strong arms yanked her back, and something covered her face.
Her scream came out muffled, and then confusion slid through her veins. She tried to push the cloth away, but her arms were too heavy to move.
Then, nothing. She fell into unconsciousness with one more gasp of tainted breath.
Chapter 11
The growl of thunder jerked Mariana awake. Her head ached, and her mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. She swallowed several times and tried to stretch her heavy limbs. Was she in bed? What was happening?
The chilly ground permeated her jeans and light jacket. Reality threw her into awakening fully. She sat up and then gasped as her head swam. Ouch. Okay. She blinked her eyes open to find herself in a small closet with shelves containing cleaning supplies. The floor was concrete, and the shelves plastic wire. The lone door was across from her, and somebody had left the light on.
Memories from the rest stop floundered through her head. A man had grabbed her. Who was it. Was it Raine? A part of her hoped Raine was her kidnapper. At least she knew him.
She gingerly stood and tiptoed to the door to press her ear against it and listen. Nothing. She twisted the knob. Nope. Locked. Bending, she took a good look at it. The thing seemed like a normal lock. Then she looked around at the cleaning supplies. Surely something there could blow the lock or melt it or something. She reached for a bottle of bleach just as the door opened.
Yelping, she jumped back. Then she blinked several times. The man in front of her was taller than Raine, closer to seven feet tall. He was thinner and was wearing some sort of Halloween mask. “Is that mask necessary?”
He motioned her out, and she complied, ready to make a run for it.
“Sit there.” He pointed to a metal folding chair next to the closet.
She did so and looked around an empty airplane hangar. Her stomach sank. “Who are you?” Even without the mask, she’d recognize somebody that tall if she already knew him. So this was her stalker, and she had no clue about his real identity.
“You can call me John with no h.” He smiled, and the sight was ghoulish. The guy even wore fake teeth? He had long black hair with red tips, and his mask was a pasty and unnatural white color with blue veins. His contacts turned his eyes a freaky purple, and his teeth were yellowed and too sharp looking. “You’re Mariana.”
“I am,” she said, eyeing the door to the far right. The hangar door was shut, but she could make it to the human-sized door in a few seconds.
