Dancing with Deception Read Online Free Page B

motel. She noted the chipped paint and spray-painted profanity on the wall of the building and cringed. She was almost horrified enough to offer to pay for a better hotel.
    “I need a room,” he told the clerk. He pulled out his wallet and paid cash. After signing an insurance waiver, he pocketed the key and led Rebecca up the narrow stairway.
    “Why are we here?”
    “Just shut up.”
    But she was weary of his orders and rough handling. She called him every name she knew and even made up a few. He didn’t flinch, didn’t even falter. He continued to pull her up the stairs and down a dinky hall.
    He didn’t have to come after her. She would have preferred it if he had just gone his own way. Now on top of running for her life, she had a cranky sailor dragging her around and guilt gnawing at her.
    He opened the door to their room and shoved her inside. Before the room enclosed in darkness again, she saw the door to the bathroom slightly ajar. In the few seconds it took for Gideon to turn his back to close the door, Rebecca darted across the room and lunged into the bathroom. She cried out in triumph when she managed to slam and lock the door. The knob rattled and Gideon’s fist beat the wood immediately after.
    “Open the damn door.”
    Rebecca flipped the light on and scanned the bathroom. Her bottom lip poked out in a pout when she saw that there wasn’t a window. Great , she thought, this wasn’t the smartest plan. Judging by the furious curses and threats being made through the door, she couldn’t see the wisdom in going back out there just yet.
    Okay , she considered as she dug through her bag for a brush and rubber band, so he was spitting mad. It couldn’t be helped. Did he honestly expect her to stand there and let him yank her around and yell at her?
    With her hair in a sleek tail, Rebecca studied the bruise that had already formed under her eye. Dark purple rode high on her cheekbone and disappeared into her hairline. It looked almost as nasty as it felt, but at least her eye wasn’t completely black. She dug out a bottle of aspirin from her bag and cupped cool water from the sink to swallow a pill. She could probably face Gideon if she had less of a headache. Later.
    The marks on her neck weren’t as bad. She had managed to get out of the choke hold they’d put her in, but she’d endured a bump on her head for her troubles. Carefully, she sank down on the toilet lid.
    After a few minutes, the pounding and cursing stopped. Rebecca closed her eyes and laid her head heavily in her hands. It had only been a few hours since she’d been stuffed into the back of a car and knocked around by those idiots, but it seemed like days. Her legs burned from running, her head ached from all of the trauma. She was just exhausted, she thought as the first tear spilled over.
    She swiped at it, annoyed that now that she was safe for the moment, she would cry. Everything had just gone so wrong. Now she was stuck in a hotel room with a snarling sailor. She didn’t know if Gideon would harm her. She didn’t even know him at all.. She didn’t know where he worked, what he did. She didn’t know if he had a criminal record.
    From what little he had told her while they’d fished, she knew he was in Cleveland picking up art supplies for his sister. He was going to spend the rest of the afternoon fishing. That is, until she made the insane decision to jump onto his boat, which she now thoroughly blamed on her mother for her impulsive lapse.
    She had agreed to hide The Dance on impulse. She’d wanted to see her father smile at her with gratitude and yes, damn it—pride. But he hadn’t. He’d all but patted her on the head and climbed out her window. I’ll be back.
    And now here she was, locked in a motel bathroom—crying—and blaming everything on her parents. It made her feel small.
    She let the tears fall silently down her cheeks and hoped to God some of the hurt would go with them.
     
    Checking into a hotel under a