Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales #27) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,63

He didn’t think much of Earth technology—it was so clumsy and unsophisticated.

“Hello?” he said, frowning.

“Commander Roark?” It was Meg’s voice speaking to him. “Sammi’s phone and her purse and everything else is still up here on the Mother Ship,” she told him. “I got worried after you left and tried to call her on the think-me but I didn’t get any answer. So I tried her cell phone and it just rang and rang. I went to her suite and found that she’d left it here along with everything else. She must have been so upset she came down to Earth with nothing on her.”

Roark felt his throat constrict. He could just imagine Samantha wanting so badly to get away from him that she came straight down to Earth with none of her personal belongings—nothing to help her at all.

My fault, he thought, feeling guilty. This is all my fault! And meanwhile, the feeling that she was in danger was still growing.

“Where could she be?” he asked Meg, frowning.

“I don’t know.” Meg’s voice sounded like she might start crying in a moment. “But I tried her on the think-me too and she didn’t answer this time. Does that mean she…she’s dead?” Her voice cracked on the last word and Roark felt sick. But he tried to stay strong.

“No, not necessarily,” he said firmly. “She might be in a building that’s blocking the reception. Some kinds of metal and stone do that.” Which was true, he reminded himself. Besides, wouldn’t he somehow know if Samantha had been killed? Wouldn’t he feel it, the same way he felt that she was in danger?

Roark didn’t know for sure but he thought that he would.

“Okay, okay…” Meg took a deep breath. “I want to come down there but Berik won’t let me. So you have to find her! What if he’s got her? What if that awful stalker…” But her sentence ended in a choked sob.

“I’m going to find her,” Roark promised and handed the phone back to Aunt Vicky. “Do you know of anywhere else she might have gone?” he asked her.

Samantha’s aunt shook her head reluctantly.

“I’m afraid not. Oh, do you think she’s okay?”

“I don’t know,” Roark said grimly. “But I’m going to find out.”

“How, though?” Aunt Vicky’s eyes were wide with alarm. “How can you find her?”

“To start with, I’m going to retrace her steps,” Roark said firmly. “All the way back to the HKR building. Someone there must have seen her—must have seen where she went.”

He hoped. Because if not, Roark had no idea how he was going to find her.

Forty-Six

“Please don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me!” Sammi’s voice came out in a choked whisper as her stalker brought the scissors down.

But instead of stabbing her, he only took a lock of her hair in his free hand and snipped it off.

“There, now.” He smiled down at her, his face only inches from hers. He was heavy as a mattress on top of her, and just as immovable.

“What…what are you doing?” Her breath came out in a relieved sob, her cuffed hands clutched to her chest as though to ward him off.

“Just taking a little souvenir. Something to remember you by after our date is over.”

He smiled down at her, his crooked yellow teeth so close she could see a shred of something green—spinach maybe—caught between them. His breath was sour—like old coffee.

“Please get off me,” Sammi whispered. “I can’t…can’t breathe.”

She thought about telling him she was pregnant and that he was squashing her belly, but she was afraid that might set him off.

“I’ll get off. For now.” He grinned at her, making no move to get off, though he had said he would. “But only so you can get ready for our date tonight. I brought you something to wear—something almost as gorgeous as you, Beautiful.”

“My name is Samantha,” Sammi said, her voice shaking. It was absolutely horrifying to have him so close—to have him actually laying on top of her like this. She could feel his whole, heavy body against hers and the sensation made her want to gag.

She fought the urge to buck wildly under him—anything to try and get him off. She was afraid if she made him angry he might use the scissors again—in a more lethal way this time.

“You really are—beautiful, you know. It was worth all the time and trouble I had to take to get to know you.” He stared down at her, his small black eyes empty of any pity or