Beyond the Edge Read Online Free Page A

stuck with her struck a nerve. He’d invaded her office and had kidnapped her and now he was complaining that he was stuck with her? Irritated, she took a corner fast and the tires squealed, gripping the loose gravel of the side street.
    “Pull the car over.”
    “Why?”
    “Do it.”
    Fallon slowed on the dark, deserted street, wondering if her driving had frightened him—but he didn’t appear to be a man who worried about fast speeds. The crescent moon vanished behind somber clouds. He shifted impatiently in his seat, and when he unlocked his door, the click sent an alarming shiver through her. She had to remind herself that he’d had opportunities to harm her before now and hadn’t taken them.
    After she pulled to a complete stop, she sat frozen behind the wheel, her fingers clenched around the seat belt. He hadn’t asked her to turn off the motor. As he opened his door, she considered whether to throw the car in Drive the moment he stepped out, but he remained in the seat and turned to her.
    “When I exit this vehicle, drive slowly toward your house.”
    Like hell, she’d drive slowly. If he didn’t move out of the way, she’d run him over.
    “Drive slowly,” he repeated, sounding as if he cared about her, “or the sickness will make you so ill you won’t recover until morning.”
    He slipped out of the car and shut the door. Herhand slammed down and locked him out. She pressed her foot on the accelerator. Why he freed her, she had no idea, but she didn’t hesitate to take advantage of her good fortune.
    She had no intention of driving home, where he could jog down the block and recapture her. She’d retrace her route and head straight to the sheriff’s office.
    But recalling her former illness, she didn’t press the pedal to the floor as she would have liked. She kept her velocity to only ten miles over the speed limit. Before she’d driven half a block, nausea smacked her with the force of a head-on collision. Tidal waves of dizziness returned, pummeling her head, squeezing her breath from her lungs, twisting her stomach into knots.
    Fallon hit the brakes and gasped. What had he done to her? Could he have somehow hypnotized her?
    Her body screamed for relief. Through her pain, she remembered how his proximity eased the horrible nausea. She threw the car into Reverse.
    Suddenly he sat beside her, inside the car. One moment he’d been gone, the next he rode in the passenger seat as if he’d never left. Once again she slammed on the brakes, thankful for the seat belt that kept her from smashing into the steering wheel. Was she crazy? Hallucinating? Drugged?
    “Are you all right?”
    She drew deep breaths and didn’t bother responding to the sympathy in his tone. Just as they had earlier, the violent sensations subsided. He remained silent, allowing her to recover and finally she raised her head, eyeing him with suspicion.
    “I’m better now,” she admitted.
    Before she’d worried how to escape this man. Now she bit into her bottom lip concerned he might leave her. She could never withstand this intense physical agony for more than a few moments.
    “It’s going to get worse.” His words rang with regret.
    She turned her head slowly to look at him, horror clutching her throat tight. “Worse?”
    “The comfort distance between us will shrink.” His tone softened with pity, as if he wished he could change whatever the hell he was doing to her. “Eventually you will not be able to take more than a step or two from my side before suffering.”
    “Suffering from what?”
    “The nausea.”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it. What’s causing this illness?” He stared straight ahead. She hated silence more than anything. She hated being kept in the dark. Although the adult Fallon now understood why her parents hadn’t told her about her childhood friend’s cancer, facts made coping with difficult situations easier. Once she had facts, she could work to fix the problem. When he