Toni winced when she noticed Julie’s bag of food. “Crap, I should leave. He’s just been so down. I was hoping to cheer him up with a surprise lunch.”
“Don’t be silly. He’ll love to see you, too. Seriously, what guy wouldn’t be thrilled to have two gorgeous girls come to his house for lunch when he’s down? Come on. Let’s go see what we can do for him.”
“Are you sure? He had no idea I was coming. I could leave and he’d never know I was here.”
“Yes, I’m sure.” She basically had to drag Toni up the walkway, but was sure that Pete wouldn’t mind the extra surprise. If he didn’t want to talk with Toni here, Julie could just come back after work.
Julie rang the doorbell and Toni cowered behind her, muttering, “I really should leave. He didn’t invite me and now I feel like a third wheel.
Julie rolled her eyes at Toni, but turned to smile at Pete when she heard the door opening.
“Hey, Julie. Thanks for coming.” He opened the door for her, but his eyes widened when he saw Toni standing behind her.
“Guess who I found in the parking lot. She looked like someone in need of a hot young stud so I brought her along with me, hoping there might be someone around here who could take care of her needs.”
They walked into the house as Julie talked.
Toni stepped up on tiptoe to give Pete a kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry. If I’d known Julie was coming, I would have left you two alone, but she grabbed me in the parking lot and wouldn’t let me escape.”
Pete scowled, but Julie hoped it was just because of the surprise, not real irritation that Toni was with her. Surely with everything else going wrong with him, their relationship wasn’t on the rocks, too. It was probably more the case of him being a macho guy and not wanting to show any vulnerability in front of the new girl he liked.
Julie plucked the bag of food out of Toni’s hands and headed toward the kitchen to give them a few moments of privacy. As she moved further into the house, she was surprised at the disarray she found there. If she didn’t know better, she would think that Pete’s place had been ransacked. She glanced around the room, taking in the broken side-table lamp, the turned over chair and the general disastrous mess that faced her.
It looked as if there had been some sort of struggle here and then she saw the blood. Her heart stuttered. There was a huge puddle to the side of the couch, splashing up on the wall, and judging from the dark streak in the carpet, whoever belonged to all that blood had been pulled down that hall.
A small sound alerted her to Toni’s distress and she turned slowly to see her held captive against Pete’s chest. He had one arm around her throat and another wrapped around her holding her arms down. Adrenaline surged through Julie’s system and she slowly lowered the bags of food onto the couch. “Pete, what are you doing?”
How many times had she told her class that an attacker would more than likely be someone you already know? And here, Toni and she had both been caught unaware.
“She wasn’t supposed to be here. It was just supposed to be you, but don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt her.”
Julie experienced a mild surge of relief. She could see that he truly wasn’t trying to hurt Toni. He was being careful not to damage her windpipe, even though he continued to hold her very firmly. The question was, if Toni acted self-defensively or if Julie attacked, would that change?
Toni’s eyes held panic and a glimmer of trust as she looked toward Julie. This is what they trained for, but Pete knew Toni’s very limited moves. It was up to Julie to get her out of here safely. She needed to get his focus off Toni so he wouldn’t notice if she tensed. Her eyes were drawn to the trail of blood and a chill ran down her spine. “Pete, who’s down the hall? Who’s hurt?”
Pete frowned and for a moment, looked confused and distracted. “No one else was supposed to get hurt.”
She needed to take advantage of his distraction while she could, because Pete was almost as proficient at the martial arts as she was and she wasn’t sure she’d be able