Page 1 of Rami

CHAPTER 1

“I’m totally keeping your car,” Ivy said with a light laugh, holding her cell phone between her ear and her shoulder. Grocery bags dangled from her fingers. She made her way across the parking lot to her sister’s sleek Mercedes sedan.

It sure beat her midsized car, which was in the shop every other month. The rain had stopped and now the late-morning May sun warmed her face. Wedding season was coming, and her photography business was already booked solid. Come September, she’d buy a new vehicle. It wouldn’t be a snazzy luxury vehicle, but she could get something reliable and not have to borrow her sister’s car every time hers needed repairs.

Gigi snorted. “Borrow it anytime you need. Todd doesn’t care.”

Of course he didn’t. Gigi’s fiancé, an attorney, was loaded. For him, lending a Mercedes for a few days was as simple as handing someone a lighter. But he treated her sister like gold, so she really didn’t mind Todd and all his money.

“We still meeting for lunch?” Gigi asked.

“Yup.” Ivy shifted her groceries to one hand and dug the keys from her purse with the other. She clicked the button on the key fob and opened the trunk. “I’ll just be—”

A scuffle of movement sounded behind her. “Excuse me?” said a tentative female voice.

Ivy turned. A steel-gray van had pulled up behind her car. Ivy frowned at the woman with long, dark, curly hair approaching her. She wore a loose-fitted red T-shirt and jeans. The lines etched in her forehead and around her eyes suggested she was in her forties.

The woman approached quickly. “I’ve lost my dog. Have you seen one running around?”

Ivy shook her head. “I’m sorry, no.”

The woman moved closer, a cell phone in hand. “Let me show you his picture.”

Ivy’s hackles rose. She glanced around the parking lot. Cars were boxed into the spots, but no one was nearby. The proximity of the van would block anyone on the other side of the lot from seeing her.

“What’s going on?” Gigi asked in her ear.

“One sec,” she told her sister. Ivy firmed her shoulders and raised her voice. “Really, I haven’t seen anything.” She took a step in retreat, ready to dive into her car, but her back bumped into a solid chest.

Ivy jumped, and a scream lodged in her throat.

Zap!

Her core crackled, and she froze.

“Ivy?!” Her sister’s shriek reverberated in Ivy’s eardrum.

Her phone and grocery bags fell to the ground as she wheeled around to face her attacker. Pain shot through her chest, stealing her breath. She locked gazes with a man holding a device against her side.

He seized her arm as the sizzling spread through her body. Her consciousness flickered. Her knees buckled and she folded to the pavement. Her body was lifted before she hit the ground. She fought against the fog closing in around her but her muscles were mush. Useless to fight the hands that carried her to the dark mouth of the van.

Blackness rolled in like a storm, sucking her into oblivion.

CHAPTER 2

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.

The constant noise from the chair of the potential client—what the fuck was her name again?—was almost enough to make Rami get up and wheel her into the hallway.

He made a mental note to oil the damn thing when she left.

“Please,” the woman pleaded. “You’re my only hope.”

The balloon of annoyance pressing against his temples deflated as he stared at her strained hazel eyes. She clearly hadn’t slept in days, and her sallow skin and sunken cheeks displayed her suffering. Nevertheless, she was beautiful, with wavy brown hair and defined cheekbones.

Rami didn’t consider himself a compassionate person, but something about the photo of the woman pressed to the top of his desk twisted his heart.

Still. It didn’t matter if Ivy was smokin’ hot. He wasn’t getting involved in something he couldn’t finish.

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