Chapter Eleven
“I’d love to be your partner, gorgeous. It would be my pleasure to help you get into a harness.” Ava cringed as the man sitting next to her in her hang gliding class continued to spray her with verbal diarrhea. From the moment she had taken her seat an hour ago, he had attached himself firmly to her side, and no matter how much she tried to deter him, nothing seemed to work. He was starting to make her uncomfortable as some of his comments veered toward being sexual and inappropriate.
Aggressive men, especially strangers, tended to throw her back to a dark place in her life, and she felt her pulse quicken as the man trailed a fingertip down her arm. She jerked away, giving him a frown and turning her body sideways to escape the unwanted attention. Just when she thought she would be forced to flee before the class ended, the instructor called an end to the evening and Ava bolted out of her seat. When the man followed her out of the room and into the parking lot, she said over her shoulder, “I’ve got to run, my husband is waiting on me at home.” She hoped that if he thought she was married, he’d back off.
His eyes dropped to her hand. “I don’t see a ring on those pretty fingers. It looks like someone likes the chase.” Moving so that he was blocking her car door, he stared at her breasts, making her feel sick.
“Plea-please,” she stuttered. “I’ve got to go.” She felt herself going into full-blown panic mode. All she could remember was what had happened to her last time, so many years ago, when another man hadn’t taken no for an answer. In the moment, she was reduced to a teenage girl again at the mercy of someone bigger than her. As she was backing away, a cab pulled up to the curb and without thinking, Ava turned and ran toward it. She heard someone yelling behind her, but she didn’t turn.
“You call for a cab, miss?” the driver asked as she huddled in the middle of the backseat.
“Ye-yes.” She gave him her address and sat trembling on the seat. When they pulled up in front of her apartment, she looked around for her purse before realizing that she must have dropped it somewhere. Oh God, she didn’t have money to pay her cab fare. Digging through her pockets, she was relieved that she had stuck her keys in them instead of in her bag. “I . . . eh . . . Could you wait here while I go inside for money? I don’t have my bag.”
The cabdriver looked at her for a moment before giving her a kind smile. “Don’t worry about it. You look like you’ve had a hard night. Just pay it forward sometime.” Ava felt tears well in her eyes at the kindness she saw on his face. She thanked him profusely before turning across the expanse of concrete with her arms hugged tightly around her body. She was lost in her own thoughts when someone grabbed her arm and swung her around. Suddenly, the face that she had run from only moments ago was back and abject terror tore through her. Her head started spinning and it was only a moment later that darkness descended to claim and protect her.
* * *
Mac had just opened his door to find Gwen unexpectedly standing on his doorstep when his phone rang. He motioned Gwen inside uneasily, noticing that she seemed to be dressed a littler sexier than usual. “Just a second,” he said while he hit the call button on his phone. “What’s up, Jeff?”
“Mac, I’ve got a problem here, and I don’t know what to do about it.” Jeff worked part-time surveillance for East Coast and was filling in for one of his regular guys this week. He should be in the middle of making rounds to various locations throughout the city now.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, not expecting anything major.
“It’s Miss Stone. She had just arrived home when I got here to check around her place as usual, but then some guy stopped her in the parking lot, and before I could walk over to find out if she needed assistance, she just collapsed. I had the security guard at the complex detain the man until we find out what is going on.”
Fear gripped Mac as he started hunting for his keys on the entryway table. All he could think about was that Ava was hurt and he needed to get to her. “Where is she now?” he growled.
“I carried her into the clubhouse here. The manager called one of the residents who’s a doctor and he’s checking her over. She’s starting to come back around now, but she took a pretty hard lick when she hit the pavement.”
“I’m on my way,” Mac bit out. “Don’t take your eyes off her until I get there, got it?” Without waiting for the other man’s answer, Mac was racing out the door when Gwen grabbed his arm. He tried to shake her off, desperate to reach Ava, but she was stronger than she looked.