bed, like people actually did. And in the morning she’d definitely book an appointment with Dr. Brooks, because falling asleep for six hours in her clinic wasn’t normal. It wasn’t a problem that would go away by itself.
But first she’d go home and get some sleep.
“Don’t be disappointed,” Daniel told him, his voice loud over the engine. “We’ll go again tomorrow.”
“I’m not disappointed,” he answered, fists clenching on the steering wheel. He wanted to explain to Daniel that you couldn’t be disappointed by the complete lack of air. You couldn’t be disappointed when your throat was parched and the oasis you thought you’d spotted in the distance was nothing but dry sand. Disappointed didn’t even begin to describe it.
But he didn’t say anything. It dawned on him that even Daniel didn’t really understand him.
They were waiting at a red light when he spotted the movement. A thin silhouette walking in the shadows. A woman.
“Light’s green,” Daniel said.
She was walking alone. The street was empty, not another car in sight. He couldn’t believe it.
“Hey, are you paying attention? The damn light is green. Drive!”
He drove. Swerved to the left, van screeching. His foot flooring the gas pedal.
“Where the hell are you going?” Daniel shouted.
The woman looked back, alarmed. The van’s lights shone on her face. She was beautiful.
Daniel was still shouting. “What the . . . no. No!”
Yes.
The driver was clearly drunk. Rhea moved farther from the road, waiting for him to drive past. But he didn’t.
Instead, the van swerved toward the sidewalk, its brakes squealing as it hit the curb with a bump, just a few feet away from her. She froze in shock, staring incredulously at the bright lights. The asshole could have run her over!
The driver’s door opened, and she was about to shout at him, when she caught a glimpse of his face.
She’d seen that expression before, when she’d had to put down a dog with rabies. The snarl, the glistening eyes, the drool.
Reflexes kicked in. She turned and ran. Heard a growl behind her. She ran faster, giving it all she had, fumbling in her purse for her keys. She could key his eyes.
“Help!” she screamed. “Someone help me!”
A sudden burst of pain flared through her scalp. He’d grabbed her hair, pulled her back. She let out another scream. He clamped his fingers on her mouth, her nose. She couldn’t breathe.
Something metal in her fingers. Her keys! She thrust the keys in the direction of his face, felt the scrape as she hit something, then an angry grunt. She bit hard on his fingers, tasting sweat and blood, but she kept biting, shaking her head, gnawing at it.
He shoved her, and her body exploded in shock and pain as it hit something metal. A lamppost. Her vision blurred, and now there were two figures, not just one, and they were dragging her, and she lost her keys and couldn’t scream, or talk, or even move. The lips of one of them brushed her cheek, wet and slimy. The street dimmed, her thoughts fogging.
Then her vision focused, and she saw they were manhandling her toward a black maw, and she knew if she let them drag her there, it was all over. She struggled again, and one of them cuffed her across the face.
“Stop that, bitch,” he snarled.
And then they tossed her into the blackness—the back of a van. She was about to scream again when they crammed something into her mouth. With blood running from her nose and the rag in her mouth, she could hardly breathe. One of them rolled her onto her stomach, pulled her arms back, a sudden pinch on her wrists as he somehow tied them together. She whimpered into her rag, tried to kick him, but it was feeble and useless.
“Get behind the wheel—let’s get out of here!” one of them said to the other.
She was pushed onto her back, saw their vague shadows.
“Let’s go! Someone probably already called the cops.”
Please. Let the cops come. Please.
And then the second man bent down and, to her disgust and horror, licked her face.
“Damn it!”
Daniel wrenched him back, and for a moment he fought to get to her face, to taste her again.
Daniel shook him. “Get a grip!” he roared at him. “We need to go!”
He nodded, scrambled to the driver’s seat, with Daniel still in the back with her. He turned the wheel, maneuvered them back to the road, floored it, the engine screaming, getting them away.