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

attacker, we won’t have a chance to figure it out.”
    “Just forget it,” Mary mumbled, her wounded pride not salved by his reply.
    She hopped down from the black SUV and stormed away, her arms crossed as if that might prevent her heart from breaking. She’d have marched all the way back to town and left Mr. Super Cop, who sleeps in his office and lives by his scanner, high and dry on his precious case if only Nancy’s life didn’t depend on her. He might be married to his job, or devoted to his deceased high school sweetheart, or both, but whatever the case, with those issues hanging over him, he didn’t have the right to dismiss her feelings as some misplaced hero worship.
    Mary drifted around the gravel lot, refocusing on the mission at hand. “This is where you found me?”
    “Not me personally but the rescue team, yes,” Thom replied, coming around the front of the SUV to join her. “Luckily the pay phone still works. You used it to dial 9-1-1.”
    “It looks different in the daylight,” Mary commented. That night, the building appeared abandoned but she hadn’t noticed the boarded up windows. No other buildings interrupted the vista composed of woods and the ribbon of asphalt curving past. It could have been far removed from civilization, just a ruin in the wilderness proving that humans had once settled here before moving on or disappearing, like a lost Mayan city in the jungles of Central America.
    That night, this abandoned gas station served as a lifeboat in an empty ocean for Mary. The phone standing unassumingly to the side of the empty lot acted like a radio beacon to connect her with the real world and led her out of the nightmare she’d been dragged into. Mary touched the phone, saying a silent prayer of thanks that it had been there for her in her need.
    “We need to backtrack from here.” Thom touched Mary’s shoulder, bringing her out of her private thoughts.
    “Right,” she said, wiping the moisture from her cheeks. Mary glanced at her wet hand. She hadn’t even realized she wept.
    Thom squeezed her shoulder, “You can do this.”
    “I know.” She shook her head, clearing away her emotions and focusing on remembering the details. “I’m ready.”
    “We found some bits of grass on your socks. We think you must have walked through the weeds on the side of the road.” Thom prompted. “Do you recall that at all?”
    “I remember everything,” she said, straightening up. “Just follow me.”
    Mary forced her feet to obey and guide her back toward the terror from which they’d fled. Suddenly cold, Mary crossed her arms over her chest as she walked up the road. Thom let her lead the way, staying a few steps behind her. Although she heard his footfalls, she felt hollow inside as if she faced this path alone. She never thought she’d willingly take this journey but there was more than her safety and comfort at stake. She’d brought danger into the lives of everyone she knew and loved and now only she could make things right.
    In the back of her mind, she remembered a fairytale about a princess who willingly went to a dragon as a sacrifice so he would spare her village and her family. In the story the dragon turned out to be kind but misunderstood and everyone lived happily ever after. But this wasn’t a fairytale and she might indeed have to sacrifice herself to whatever awful fate she found at the end of this path.
    Thom was right. She possessed strength enough to face her demon. Thom thought he could defeat it once he’d found it but Mary wasn’t counting on it. She’d escaped her fate for a couple of days and even found a few moments of happiness with Thom but she couldn’t shake the feeling that all of that was coming to an end.
    “There it is.” Mary pointed to the power lines up ahead where they arched across the road. “That’s where we turn off the road.”
    Thom strode up beside her. She’d stopped when the power lines rose into view over the wall of trees