THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

faced down, but she was moving. Raindrops beat across her back. Water ran around her neck, across her throbbing face and into her eyes. Hair hung around her face, slapping her outstretched arms as she bounced.
    Someone had an arm hooked around her legs, carrying her fireman style across his shoulder. She pushed against the rock-hard back, desperate to give her chest room for air.
    “Be still.”  The rough order left no room for argument.
    “I ... can’t ... breath.”  She squeezed the words past her sore jaw.
    He shoved her higher on his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a child. She pulled in a deep breath. Her head throbbed, nausea threatened.
    Everything started coming back to her. The black-clothed figure standing inside Zane’s patio doors. The intruder attacked her ... in the apartment.
    With Trish. Did Zane’s sister get away?
    Please, God, don’t let Trish be hurt . That would kill Zane.
    The thought of Zane brought tears to her eyes. She was beyond miserable physically, but now the emotional torture of never seeing him again set in. That’s what she got for letting her guard down, getting comfortable.
    Opening her heart to a man.
    The bouncing stopped. Keys jingled. Then a car door opened. He slid her down in front of him, picked her up, and pitched her onto the backseat of a huge sport utility. What was it about thugs and big, dark SUVs?
    Guess a white minivan just didn’t get the job done when it came to the fear factor.
    She tried to push herself up on her elbows.
    Either he moved with amazing speed or she was sluggish from the battering. Frigid gray eyes hovered over her. His noxious cologne and sweaty masculine odor accosted her.
    A black gun handle protruded from the waistband of his pants.
    With his left hand, he reached over the seat into the rear cargo area.
    She breathed in shallow pants, anxious at what he’d do next.
    Fighting him would only get her injured worse, but he’d think he had a crazed animal in this car if he tried to rape her.
    He glanced at the rear area, his arm moving as though he had opened something. When his gaze sliced to her again, a nasty smile spread across his face.
    Goose bumps pebbled along her arms.
    Shifting his body support to his knees, he slid his right hand across the front of her shirt.
    She sank backwards deep into the seat, moving away from his touch. He squeezed one breast as if to gauge her cup size then moved his hand under her neck.
    Waiting to see if he would do worse than grope her, she shivered in revulsion.
    He misunderstood her reaction.
    “That’s better. I like my women more agreeable than you were earlier.” 
    His coarse voice drove terror through her. Her mind shifted from fear of Mason to a new threat. Maybe this man had no connection to Mason. There were hundreds of mega-sized sport utility vehicles in the country. Maybe he was just a sexual predator.
    Just a sexual predator?
    She’d spent too much time around Mason to downgrade a deviant like this one.
    Her fear climbed higher every second he hovered over her. The giant had her pinned to the seat. Fighting a bulldozer would be easier. Muscles bulged in his left arm as he raised his hand from the cargo area behind the seat.
    Waves of panic shot through her. All the survival training in the world wouldn’t save her from this creep.
    Angel sucked in a breath and opened her mouth to scream for help.
    He slapped a damp cloth over her face, forcing her to breathe deeply of the acrid smell.
    She flinched, then everything went black again.
     
    Chapter 39
     
    Zane slammed on brakes in front of his apartment. He’d battled weather all the way back, but he couldn’t attribute sweaty palms to the vicious weather he’d confronted. Flying into a tropical depression didn’t compare with the sick fear something had happened to both Angel and his sister.
    Heidi’s ancient, lime-green Volkswagen bug sat in the lot. Empty.
    Damn. Couldn’t at least one woman he knew follow directions?
    Rain soaked his shirt by the time he’d raced around the corner and flung open his unlocked front door.
    Heidi jumped up from the sofa, her spiked hair wilder than normal. “Am I ever glad to see you,” she declared.
    “You shouldn’t have waited in here, Heidi. It wasn’t safe.”
    “But, Zane – ”
    “I don’t even know what happened to them. You could have been hurt,” he blazed on.
    “But, Zane, you don’t understand – ”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “No you don’t, Sugar.”
    Zane