A Profiler's Case for Seduction - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,39
complete job. There was just too much to do.
Fighting back weary tears, she sat down and got to work.
Chapter 8
Mark raced after the dark figure that he’d seen at Dora’s window. It was definitely a man. Clad all in black and with a ski mask on, the man made it difficult to discern anything else about him other than he was fast on his feet.
“FBI...halt!” Mark yelled, but the figure continued to race ahead.
Unwilling to fire a gun in the dark without knowing who else might be around, Mark followed after him, slowly gaining ground in the foot chase that took them from Dora’s house, down the sidewalk and across to the campus grounds.
A ping off a nearby tree had Mark jumping for cover as he realized the man he pursued not only had a gun but wasn’t afraid to fire it.
He dove behind a trash bin, his heart pounding with the rush of adrenaline. When he saw the back of the figure, he left his cover and once again continued the pursuit.
They were in the middle of the campus now, between the history department building and a row of fraternity houses. When the man in black turned back toward Mark, Mark leaped behind a tree. He heard the sound of a bullet whiz by.
Once again as the figure disappeared around the side of a building, Mark burst out from behind the tree. He ran at full speed, ignoring the stitch that nagged at his side.
His heart pounded so hard it felt as if it threatened to burst out of his chest. His only thought was that he needed to get to the man—he needed to find out who he was and what he wanted with Dora.
When he reached the corner of the building, he paused and then whirled around in a shooter stance. And there was nobody to shoot.
The moon shone down on the empty ground, and Mark had no idea in which direction the man had gone to completely disappear. He searched for another fifteen minutes and then headed back to Dora’s house, his heart still banging with fight-or-flight adrenaline.
Why would a man with a gun be at Dora’s window? One thing was clear—Dora’s imaginary stalker definitely wasn’t an imagination. Somebody was after her and what he needed to figure out was who and why.
By the time he reached Dora’s house his heartbeat had returned to something resembling normal and his gun was back in his holster. He’d already contacted a couple of the members of his team to do a sweep of the campus and intended to meet them at Dora’s place. Mark wanted to see if they could find the bullets that had just missed him.
With a bullet they would at least find out what kind of gun had been used, and if and when that gun was found the markings on the bullets would match to it.
In the meantime he needed to make sure that Dora was okay and he needed to have an in-depth talk with her about who might want her harmed.
She unlocked her door after he knocked and called out her name. When he stepped inside the entry she fell straight into his arms. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged him close. “I was afraid. I was so afraid for you.” She stepped back and gazed at him from head to toe, as if to assure herself that he was truly okay.
“He got away from me. But the man at your window had a gun.” He ignored her gasp of shock. “Your imaginary stalker is very real, Dora, and nobody comes knocking on a window on the side of your house with a gun in his hand and goodwill in his heart.”
She stepped back from him and stumbled against the sofa, dropping as though she’d been hit with a stun gun. “But, who...why?” She looked up at him with her beautiful gray eyes.
“That’s something we need to figure out,” he replied. He sat down on the sofa next to her, trying to maintain a professionalism when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and carry her away from any danger. He wanted to take the simmering fear out of those beautiful eyes. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?”
She shook her head, softly at first and then more vehemently. “No, I can’t imagine. I mean, I’m just a student here. I mind my own business, go to classes and work in the