Her Dangerous Promise - Part 3: (Romantic Suspense Serial) Read Online Free

He chuckled, “They are used to it around here. My captain gave me the punching bag because I knocked too many holes in the walls.”
    Mary turned her face up to him. “Really?”
    “Yes,” he laughed. He tucked her hair behind her ears, becoming serious. “I know the day’s been rough but we can’t stop now. We’ve got to track this guy down.”
    “How?”

Chapter Four

    Before Thom could answer, the uniformed officer Thom had called Brad opened his office door. Thom practically leapt back away from Mary. The comfort that wrapped around her in his arms, snapped in that hasty retreat. With each progressive touch, her heart opened further to him and each time he retreated, deeper pain impaled in her heart like a dagger of ice. He cared about her, wanted her, she knew it without doubt every time he gazed into her soul with those amazing eyes, or caressed her skin with those powerful hands, or shattered her world with those explosive kisses.
    When she’d asked Thom about Tammy Jo, he’d dodged the question. Had he sworn never to love another? How could she compete with a memory? If he could never love her, truly and free of guilt, Mary knew she needed to break off the budding relationship developing between them. Recent events left her too vulnerable to open herself for such disappointment.
    “What have you got?” Thom accepted the stack of papers from Brad, who looked more like a male model in his uniform than an actual police officer. But when he spoke his tone and lingo was all cop.
    “I ran your description. You have a list of several hundred with driver’s licenses with those parameters just in this county alone.” Brad cast a curiously appraising look over Mary, but didn’t derail from his line of thought. His pretty-boy looks didn’t disguise the intelligence in his pale blue eyes. “I saw the tape so I cross-reference the list with registered owners of a white cargo van. There were about a hundred and sixty.”
    “That’s assuming he doesn’t borrow someone else’s vehicle.”
    “And assuming that both he and the vehicle are registered in this county.”
    “What about cross referencing for men with police records?”
    “We are working on that. So far no one who has a similar M.O.”
    “Keep looking,” Thom said. “Use the national database. I’ll keep working with Mary and see if we can’t find something else to help narrow the search.”
    “Check.” Brad gave Mary a nod of acknowledgment, and a hang-in-there wink that she found endearing, before leaving.
    When the door closed, Mary asked, “Me?”
    “This whole investigation hinges on you.” Thom reminded her. “He abducted you first. He sent you a message with that button. He targeted someone who works in the same school and who dressed much like you were the day he grabbed you, even down to the white sweater of yours, which he kept as a souvenir.”
    Mary sank into the chair behind her, thankful it caught her or she would have collapsed to the floor. “Oh God, you are thinking of using me for bait?”
    “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Thom knelt down to eye level beside her. He rested a hand softly on her thigh and her skin tingled with response from her scalp to her toes. “But I am going to ask something difficult of you.”
    “What more can I do?”
    “You made your 9-1-1 call for help from a remote gas station. We are going to have to go back there. If we work backward, we might be able to track your path back to him.”
    Anxiety shot through her bones like electricity. A trembling in her limbs cascaded along her muscles. “I want to help. I really do but I am about to crumble here.”
    “I know that and I would never put you through this without good reason.” Thom brushed Mary’s hair out of her eyes and cupped her face in his capable hands. The strength he exuded dribbled inside her, settling the tremors of panic. He snagged her in his serious jade gaze. “We have to do this, not only for Nancy but for your