Darkfall Read Online Free Page A

later he left another bunch of flowers. Again, I threw them away. In the back of my mind it worried me, but I also thought he’d go away if I refused to respond.”
    Ian clasped his hands together between his knees, and a hardness came over his face. “Jesus.” His voice spiked with anger. “The wanker stalked you, didn’t he?”
    Tears welled up in her eyes. Okay, girl, now isn’t the time to cry. But the sheer anger in his voice reminded her of Frank’s harsh tone when he got mad. One tear and then another rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away, and then dried her hands on her thighs.
    “Ah, damn it.” Ian moved closer to her on the bench, so close she could feel his heat. She lowered her legs, and he reached for her hands. He gathered them in his, so gently that her mind remembered that his anger wasn’t directed at her. “Are you all right?”
    “I just…a therapist told me I have PTSD from my association with Frank and what happened. If a man raises his voice for any reason, it triggers that night…the last night with him.”
    He rubbed her fingers, softness entering his eyes. “I’m sorry I raised my voice.”
    “You didn’t know.” She retained the hold on his hands, happy for the strength in his touch.
    “Tell me more.” His accent thickened. “If you can.”
    Reluctance tried to edge out her ability to speak, but she pushed through. “Frank broke into my apartment one night about four months after I broke up with him. He just broke the door down, and that wasn’t easy to do with the locks I had. He had a…” Her voice faltered, and she closed her eyes. Ian’s fingers gently squeezed hers. She took a deep breath and continued. “Assault rifle. He shot up the locks and got in that way, kicked the door down. If I’d been standing right there I would’ve been killed.”
    “Bloody fucking hell.”
    She ignored his cursing. “As it was, I tripped over the ottoman and went down face first. Before I knew it he jerked me up and threw me on the couch. I figured with all the noise he’d made the cops would be there any minute, so I thought I’d be able to hold on. I just had to appease him.”
    When she opened her eyes, his brow was furrowed. Anger blazed in his eyes, but not at her… for her.
    “I went through a whole litany of appeasements. I told him I’d come back to him. Anything to get him to de-escalate.”
    “Did it work?”
    “No. He told me that I wasn’t going to survive this.” Remembered fear quickened her breath, anxiety knotting her stomach. “I heard later that a few people called 911 but before the cops got there, he dragged me out of the apartment and to his car. Fortunately a woman saw him drag me to the car, and she got the license plate. Cops started looking for him right away, but he headed out of San Diego toward Arizona. Police called my cell phone and his cell phone, but Frank wouldn’t let me answer my phone. We were an hour out of San Diego and during that time, I tried to talk him out of whatever he had planned.” She squeezed his hands and he returned the pressure. She drew in a slow breath. “The California Highway Patrol caught up with us and Frank started driving like a crazy man. He drove all over the freeway until we were on the wrong side of the highway.” Tension tightened her shoulders.
    “Oh, God.”
    “Yeah. I wanted to close my eyes, but on the other hand I couldn’t. I had to see what was going to happen, even if it…” Penny swallowed hard, unable to continue.
    “Hey, it’s all right.” His voice held a soothing tone.
    She drew comfort from that, her gaze locked with his. “I kept thinking I’d never make it. He would crash us head-on into someone.”
    She wouldn’t say that the one thing she’d regretted, while facing down the imminent possibility of death, was that she hadn’t made love to Ian MacDaniel.
    “But you didn’t?” he asked.
    “He surprised the hell out of me. I guess I talked him out of it, because he