Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,127
listened to the two girls laugh. She wondered what Megan was doing, and felt her pain as her stomach twisted when they pulled into the bowling-alley parking lot. The building had a sign on it that lit up a lot of the parking lot, and streetlights lining the lot added to the visibility. She remembered coming here when she was supposed to meet Peter, and Perry interrupting the meeting. What she wouldn’t do for that to happen again tonight.
“Kylie?” Diane’s soft-spoken, serious tone didn’t sound good.
Kylie’s heart moved to her throat and beat furiously as anxiety created a sheen of perspiration over her body. “Yes?” she asked.
“She went to meet him.”
“Crap,” Kylie hissed, meeting Perry’s dark gaze when he stared at her after parking his car. “Please tell me they discuss where and what time.”
“The bowling alley,” Diane said, and then paused, her breathing coming hard through the phone. Dorine obviously felt the need to keep her mother apprised of the conversation, as she yelled in the background. “And ten minutes ago,” Diane said, her excitement level dropping drastically. “At eleven. You need to get to the bowling alley now.”
“We’re here,” Kylie informed her.
“What’s going on?” Perry demanded.
“Dani agreed to meet her boyfriend, Petrie, here at the parking lot ten minutes ago,” Kylie told him without ceremony.
“Goddamn it,” Perry howled, slamming his fist into the dash hard enough to make the car shake. He jumped out, slamming the door, without another word.
“I’ll call you back,” Kylie told Diane.
“He won’t hurt you,” Diane whispered.
“I know that,” Kylie assured her, forcing her tone to remain calm. “We’re going to go find Dani. You go take care of your mother and sisters and be calm for them. Okay?”
“Okay, Kylie,” Diane said, and said good-bye reluctantly before hanging up.
Perry had stormed off in one direction and Kylie opted to take the other, wishing she was more properly equipped but patting her purse and feeling the small handgun inside. She stared into the darkness, her heart pounding so hard it was damn near deafening.
There weren’t many cars in the lot at this hour, most of the stores closed except the bowling alley and the donut shop on the other side of the lot in the adjacent strip mall. She could see into the shop through its glass windows, and a few people sat at tables inside while one employee stood behind the counter. The best she could tell, everyone inside eating pastries were men. She didn’t see any women or teenage girls. Nonetheless, she sprinted across the lot to the wide sidewalk and then strolled down it, past the donut shop, and confirmed Dani wasn’t inside.
Petrie hadn’t picked her up and taken her for a bite to eat so she could unload the woes of her home life on him. But then the sickening feeling inside Kylie’s gut told her Petrie wasn’t who Dani believed him to be.
“Please let me be wrong,” Kylie muttered under her breath, combing her hair away from her face with her fingers while staring across the parking lot.
She didn’t see Perry. Her cell phone rang, though, and she jumped, then damn near attacked it as she dragged it out of her purse and stared at the unknown number.
“Hello,” she said, answering on the fourth ring and praying whoever it was wouldn’t hang up, and would be someone she wanted to talk to right now.
“Kylie?” a small voice said, sounding broken and terrified.
For a moment Kylie couldn’t breathe. “Dani?” she asked, praying she was right.
“Yes.”
“God, tell me you’re all right.”
“I’m not all right.”
Kylie was hightailing it back to Perry’s Jeep before thinking about it. Perry must have spotted her, because he appeared out of the shadows at the far end of the bowling alley, and she gestured to him frantically as she raced around the truck to the passenger side.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Where are you?” She forced herself to remain calm, take deep, soothing breaths. If the son of a bitch had Dani and was using her to lure Kylie in, she was more than game to take the motherfucker on.
“I’m at a pay phone. I need you. Please come get me and don’t tell anyone. Please? Promise? I’ve done a very, very bad thing and my uncle will kill me for sure.”
Kylie slid into the passenger side at the same time Perry slid into the driver’s side. His wild look was frantic as he stared at her and then her phone.