“No,” she said, “But you can help.”
He was silent as she carried the groceries in and helped her put everything away.He was also quiet when she finished folding the paper bags and stacked them in the pantry.He said nothing when she climbed the stairs and flung herself facedown on her bed, dropping her coat on the floor.
Dry-eyed, she hugged a pillow and started to shake.Her arm ached—the kidnapper’s fingers had been like iron claws.But that wasn’t quite why she was shaking now.She was shaking because she couldn’t get the mental image to go away.
He was tall, and had stubborn dark hair cut like her father’s, military-short.His eyes were hazel, and very flat, under charcoal lashes.He had a nice face, even cheekbones and a firm mouth—and her heart hammered even now to think of the electric jolt that had gone through her at his nearness.
His voice sounded familiar, and she didn’t know why.He didn’tlookfamiliar.
She couldn’t even remember what he’d been wearing, beyond a dark coat and a messenger-style bag.He looked like a student, maybe, or one of the young IT professionals who wore casual-classy to work.
She hadn’t even realized what was happening.Not until the van had screeched away and the man—Delgado—had looked down at her, dropping her arm as if it burned him.Are you okay?Her heart had threatened to burst out through her ribs.Electricity had smashed through her veins.Her entire body had started to sing.
And Dad had made her give him their phone number.He might call.He might even come for dinner.Oh, my God.Oh, my God.I never, NEVER act this way.I almost got kidnapped.Why?Why me?
It took a long time, but she was finally able to produce a few tears.The crying brought no relief, only made her feel even more terrified and foolish.What was he going to do to me?I could have gotten raped and killed.I would have never seen Dad again, or Hilary, or any of my patients.Never gone running again, never done anything again.Thank God that man was there.Thank God.
She lay there, staring at the sunlight slanting through her bedroom window.I could have died.Over and over again.I could have died.Could have died.Could have died.
The most disturbing thing wasn’t that someone had tried to kidnap her.It was that Rowan hadn’tsensedhim.He’d been almost invisible to her, no betraying blast of thought, no wash of emotion, just a blank wall, only Rowan’s nausea and headache alerting her that something bad was about to happen.
Now, Delgado, she’d felt him, something electric, but it could have been his adrenaline.The kidnapper had been completely “silent” to her freakish senses.
Rowan lost track of how long she laid there, falling into a kind of trance.Oddly enough, she felt… well, almost safe here in her bedroom, lying on her bed.Nothing could possibly happen to her here.
Yeah, right.
She lay curled on the bed, watching dust dance through the bar of sunlight from her window, her head revolving miserably, her stomach revolving just as quickly.I must be finally going crazy.I didn’t hear a single thing.He might as well have been invisible.Is he like me?Did I almost get kidnapped by some freak like me?Is that what I have to look forward to?
Yet she’d felt her rescuer.All the way down to her bones.
Rowan groaned, buried her face in the pillow and took long, deep breaths until she fell into an uneasy, twilit sleep.
“Ro?”Familiar voice.Someone shaking her shoulder.Smell of fresh-baked bread.“Hey.Wake up.”
Rowan struggled up to consciousness.Hilary sat on the bed, stroking her shoulder, occasionally jiggling her a bit.Hilary’s soft hip pressed into Rowan’s side.“Wake up, sleepyhead.It’s time for dinner.”
“Mmmargh,” Rowan managed.“Jeez.I fell asleep.”
“Obviously.Your dad called me.He said you almost got snatched in the Shop’N’Save parking lot.You okay?”
Trust Hilary to go straight to the point.
Hilary’s short black bob swung as she moved, standing so Rowan could sit up.Hil put her hands on her hips and glared down through the dimness—the short winter twilight had fallen, and Rowan’s room was now dark.Hil’s eyes glittered, gold hoops swung against her pale cheeks.“Well?”she demanded, impatiently.She was six months younger than Rowan, but somehow always managed to look like the older sister.
“I’m fine.”Rowan yawned, rubbing at her eyes.“Just a bit shaken up.Some guy tried to grab me and stuff me in a van.Another guy frightened him off.It was really scary.”
“Why didn’t you call the cops?Or store security?”Hilary’s heels tapped against the floorboards as she stalked up to Rowan’s nightstand and turned on the light with one efficient click.Rowan yawned again, blinking in the sudden light.
Hil’s black eyes snapped with furious fire.“Rowan?Do youhearme?”
“Dad said no cops.We didn’t get the license number of the van.”Rowan stretched.She pushed up the sleeve of her white dress shirt and examined her arm.
Four fat bands of bruising, the mark of his thumb too, ground deep into her upper arm.The bruises were red-purple, just beginning to get some good color.
“Jesus Christ,” Hil breathed.“The guy that grabbed you did that?”
Rowan nodded.“He meant business.It was like something out of a movie, Hil.I could have ended up dead.”
