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“Where are you?” His voice had gone from groggy to dangerously clear in an instant.
“I’m in my neighborhood right now, but the car is gone.”
“How long did it follow you?”
“A few miles, maybe.” Jane pulled over to the curb and let her car idle. She exhaled all her pent-up tension. “I’m not sure, though—at least since my exit on the highway.”
“It’s good that you called, whether the car was following you or not. You might have scared him off by picking up your cell phone.”
Jane imagined herself going home alone, still wondering. She hated the constant feeling of vulnerability that hung over her these days, a feeling that someone else was in control, and that she was constantly waiting for something bad to happen.
“Should I go to the police station, just to be safe?”
“Do you know how to get there?”
“Um, no.”
“How about a fire station?”
“No.”
“I’m not sure where the closest one is to you. Drive to my house.”
Jane blinked. Had she been waiting for him to invite her over? It suddenly felt as if she had. She bit her lip and wondered if she could really resist temptation once she was in his lair, in that private space of his she’d never entered before.
“I…could go to my parents’ house, or my sister’s.”
He was silent for a moment. “No, come here. I’d feel better if I knew you were safe.”
“But—”
“No buts. If you need anything from home, I’ll go back with you later to get it.”
She couldn’t say no. What she wanted most right now was to feel safe. “How do I get there?”
As Luke gave her directions, she scribbled them down on a notepad, then repeated them to him.
“Call me if you have the slightest problem, okay?”
Jane assured him she would and hung up the phone. It felt good to have a big, burly guy looking out for her, even if he was getting paid to do it.
She made her way back toward the highway, peering at Luke’s directions in the dim glow of the streetlights. It wasn’t until she was about to exit the highway again that she got the feeling she was still being followed. Jane took the exit and looked around for a busy store to duck into and make another call to Luke. There was a brightly lit diner half a block down, so she headed toward it, and the car followed.
Jane kept her eyes on it and saw that it was painted blue—the same shade as the minivan she’d spotted earlier. It also had the large windshield and short nose of a minivan. She couldn’t make out a driver.
Her palms grew damp on the steering wheel, and at the next stoplight, she picked up the cell phone and dialed Luke again.
“It’s me. Do you know the All-night Diner a few blocks from your house?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“I think I’m being followed by the same person again. I’ll meet you at the diner, okay?”
“Jane, there’s a police station three more stoplights down from there on the right side. Go there right now. That’s where I’ll meet you.”
He sounded dead serious, like this was an even worse situation than she’d feared. Jane listened to the line go dead as she pulled through the green light and glanced back again at the car behind her.
Her mouth went dry, and she decided to focus on counting stoplights instead of staring in her rearview mirror. So it wasn’t until she heard the sickening scrape of metal and felt her car being pushed from the side that she realized she was being run off the road.
Jane fought to control the steering wheel as she caught sight of the blue minivan veering a second time into the side of her car. She steered right, hit a curb, and bounced up onto a grassy area, where she sat and watched the minivan speed through a red light and send several cars screeching to a halt. In her shock, she managed to notice that the vehicle had no license plates.
With shaking hands, she reached for her cell phone a third time and dialed 9-1-1. As she explained to the operator what had happened, a man pulled up in a pickup truck, got out, and peered into her window.
“Are you okay?” he called out, and she nodded, trying hard not to cry.
She called Luke next, told him where she was, and then sank her head onto the steering wheel and practiced taking deep, cleansing breaths. She couldn’t let fear control her.
Easier said than done.
No matter how brave she pretended to be on the surface, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her life had slipped from her grasp. It was in the control of a lunatic and a hunky bodyguard.
Five minutes later, a police car arrived and took a statement from her, and when she’d just finished talking to the officer, Luke pulled up.
