I went to scream, but only a hoarse croak emerged. It was like those dreams where you try to make a sound and nothing happens.
Rick noticed, though. He looped an arm around my neck and clamped a hand over my mouth. Pinning me to his side. Silencing me.
“Nice and quiet. Okay?” He smelled as if he hadn’t washed in a week. Fear spread into cold, cold ice in my veins. I swallowed hard. Nodded. Hoped that Bill really was okay.
A million things ran through my brain. Unwashed and rumpled, Nina’s ex-husband looked like crap. He’d aged in a lot of ways. Most ironic? After making me feel bad about myself for not being as svelte as my sister, Rick Barrow was now a stocky man. I pushed such crazy thoughts in the background for now and finally found enough of my voice to shout against the suffocating pressure of his palm. I tried to motion that I wanted to speak.
“Okay,” he crooned in a soft, cajoling voice that made me want to throw up. “But quietly, or else I’ll make sure your friend here doesn’t wake up, okay? We don’t want that on your conscience.”
My stomach cramped harder. I nodded.
“How do you know about Shaelynn?” I blurted, when he finally moved his hand enough that I could speak. He kept me pinned to his side in a headlock, deep in the shadows behind the vehicle.
I didn’t want to agitate him any more. His eyes gleamed with a crazy glint and he looked as if he was going to lose it any second. I was alone out here. Joelle didn’t even know I’d come to crash in her hotel room for the night. I hadn’t checked into the Sea Wind yet. And, in another stroke of brilliance, we’d parked as far away from the lobby as possible to hide from photographers.
My heart made a pitiful plea for Damien and all the safe, practical suggestions he would have offered if I’d stuck around the farm for another day.
“How do you think?” Rick thrust one hand into his pocket and I tried to edge farther from him, scared he might have a weapon. He must be seriously unstable if he’d tracked me down fifteen hundred miles from his home. But it wasn’t a weapon he held up.
It was my flash drive.
He jerked me closer, cutting off circulation in my neck. When I started to choke, he loosened his hold a fraction.
“How did you get that?” I demanded, my eyes watering from the pressure at my throat.
“What do you mean, how did I get it? I took it right where you left it for me, in your computer.” He smiled in a way that made me feel as if spiders were skittering over my skin. “When I followed you out of L.A. on Friday, I noticed you left the door to the SUV open for me when you abandoned the vehicle.”
My brain hurried to process this. He’d followed me. He’d gone through my things.
“Rick, I didn’t even know you were in L.A.” The night air felt clammy on my skin and I swore I smelled desperation rolling off Rick along with the scent of cold sweat. “You do not have my permission to have that flash drive.”
Maybe it was stupid to try and reason with him. But what else could I do? If there was any chance I could appeal to his rational side, maybe he’d let me go. Maybe he’d think we could be friends or something.
Damn it, who knew how he thought? I hadn’t understood him six years ago and I sure as hell didn’t understand him now.
He waved the flash drive in front of my nose again, but I refrained from batting at it like an uncoordinated kitten. I’d wait until I knew I could grab it. Besides, his hold on me loosened even more as he teased me.
“This is hot, Miranda. Really, really hot.” He leered at me with brown eyes I’d once found handsome. Now I tried to hide a convulsive shudder, still hoping to get out of here without him...hurting me? I didn’t know if that’s what he had in mind, but I knew he’d manhandled me in the past when he’d gotten me into dark corners, even after his engagement to Nina.
There’d been a time I hadn’t fought back, but those days were done. I’d grown stronger on my own, and then Damien had blasted away any lingering insecurities. I hadn’t realized it until right this moment, but I was a far cry from the vulnerable woman Rick once knew.
“Rick, you’re holding stolen property.” I tried being reasonable, inching away from him a little at a time and hoping he wouldn’t notice. “I suggest you return it before I press charges.”
His eyebrows lifted. “I knew you’d gotten hotter over the years, but I didn’t know you’d gotten fiery.”
There was something foul in his tone. Something that scared me. My legs were shaking hard and I took another tiny step away, hoping I’d be able to run. He didn’t know I was stronger now, and I could use that to my advantage—