Desperate, she bucked against her captor. The back of her head contacted with a hard jaw and she heard teeth snap together. A grunt of pain.
The pain in her shoulder seared through her and she didn’t care. She needed to get away. Now.
A door crashed open and the weight of her captor slammed into her as they both fell to the floor.
“Hey!” the other man shouted.
An angry roar was all she could make of the newcomer. There were sounds of punches thrown as she struggled to see, trapped as she was. Then feet running past her.
The weight lifted off her as the man above her scrambled to his feet. She rolled to her back and drove her feet upward, catching him in the gut.
“Oof!”
“Fuck. Let’s go.” Both men ran out the door.
She sobbed.
A hand touched her shoulder and she flinched away.
No!
“Hey, hey! It’s okay. You’re safe now. I won’t hurt you.” The statements were repeated over and over again. Slowly, the voice seeped through her panicked thoughts. She knew the voice.
David Cruz was crouching down in front of her.
She couldn’t catch her breath and the sobbing wouldn’t stop. She swallowed hard and tried to take a deep breath. Then another.
“That’s it. Nice and easy. Take your time.” Cruz crooned to her, his words soft and patient. “I’m not going to leave you. You’re safe.”
Good. Safe was good.
“I’m going to call the police now, Miss Jones.”
“D-don’t. Please.”
Cruz’s brows drew together. “Why shouldn’t I call the police?”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, yes. Call the police. Just…”
He didn’t seem to get angry at all. He only waited, watching her. His gaze trained on her face, not touching her. Not doing…things.
“D-don’t call me ‘Miss Jones,’ please.” The last word came out in a whisper. She’d have nightmares, for a long time. And the way the other man had said her name was going to haunt her forever.
“What should I call you?” So gentle. Was this how he won the trust of his dogs? She wouldn’t blame them for trusting him.
“Lyn.” She shifted, trying to move her left arm, and winced as the sharp pain came back.
“Easy there, Lyn. Call me David. Can I touch your shoulder?”
The sobbing hadn’t stopped yet and tremors took over her body as reaction set in. Logically, she could register what was happening to her. Take a step away from herself and compartmentalize to catalog the damage, hear what David was saying to her. But she wasn’t up for intelligible speech yet. She only nodded in response to David’s question.
His touch was feather-light and still, it took effort not to shrink away from him.
“It’s okay. You’ve been through hell just now. I won’t ask more questions until the police get here.” His check was gentle but thorough, and strangely her shakes steadied when he touched her but started up again as soon as he sat back on his heels. “Nothing broken or dislocated, but he had your arm wrenched behind you in a nasty hold. I’m betting the paramedics will still want you to have it in a sling for a few days.”
She blinked up at him.
“I’m calling in 9-1-1. They’ll dispatch both police and ambulance. You should be looked over.”
For the first time, she took a long look at her hotel room behind him. Everything, all her belongings, had been tossed across the room. She hadn’t brought much with her but she had packed for an extended stay. All of her clothes, her notes, were strewn everywhere.
Fear rose up in any icy wave and clawed at her throat.
“Why were they here?” They had to have been looking for something.
David shook his head. “I was about to ask you the same. This looks too thorough to be a random robbery.”
The one man had said something…
“One of the men, the one holding me, said I wasn’t supposed to see them.” And she wouldn’t think about what the other man had said. Not yet. She’d tell the police when they got there and David could listen then.
“That so? We’re going to have to see what the police think.” Somehow she suspected David was leaving things unsaid.
Biting her lip, she wondered whether they were going to come back for her.
“They won’t get to you again, Lyn.” David responded as if he’d heard her thoughts. “And you did great in here. I only heard a minute or two, but you let them know you weren’t going to give in without a fight. You were very brave.”
Then why did the word “stupid” come more immediately to mind?
An awkward silence settled between the two of them. It stretched out until she fished for something, anything, to say. “I might be late tomorrow morning.”
A surprised bark of laughter yanked her gaze back to him. He smiled at her, warm and comforting. And she wanted to slip into the curve of his arms to ward off the chill.
She’d only met him this morning and already she was going to ask him for more than she should. But what else was she going to do?