Page 55 of Dangerously Tempting

My vision tunnels, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I’m flooded with fear. This is it. This cunt is going to kill me, and she’s probably not even going to get caught. I have a moment of clarity, just long enough to feel anger instead of fear before everything, once again, fades to black.

30

Jameson

Playlist: "White Blood," Oh Wonder

I’m through the door and into the offices we’ve been remodeling before I’ve even taken another breath. My levels of fear and anxiety are so high right now, I don’t think that I could even take a full breath if I wanted to. I’m already dialing 911 before I’m through the doorway, quickly filling them in on the emergency and address before hanging up, hoping not having me on the line will make them hurry as I make my way down the hall, searching rooms as I go.

It’s then that I hear a voice. Screamed words, full of rage, even though I can’t make out what’s being said. My heart stops in my chest because I know that voice, and it’s not Amelia. I don’t hear her reply, which is what makes me break into a run, frantic to get to her.

As I careen around the doorway, my eyes fall on a heap of limbs, chair legs, and blonde hair. Tori is still screaming obscenities, so I’m almost on top of her when she hears me and tilts her head up to look at me. There is shock on her face and her hands are wrapped tightly around Amelia’s throat, her face pale.

It takes everything in me to grab her by her throat instead of hitting her. My fingers tighten as I watch her eyes widen in fear, feeling what my girl must have felt before her eyes fell closed. “Get the fuck off of her right now, or so help me, I will snap your fucking neck.”

She pales, dropping her eyes to her hands before they loosen, and as soon as they do I yank her off Amelia’s still form and throw her away from us. She drops to the floor, crying like she’s the one who got attacked here, but I ignore her and focus on my world.

I drop to my knees by Amelia’s side, brushing her hair away from her face and searching her throat frantically for a pulse. She’s tied to a chair, her arms pinned beneath her body, but I can’t take the time to worry about that right now because there’s no rise to her chest and her throat is completely still beneath my fingers.

“No, no, no,” I chant, quickly moving my hands to her chest to start CPR. Her body rocks with the motion, and I belatedly hope I’m not causing too much damage to her arms. She can recover from that, but not from being dead. That’s one thing I absolutely will not allow. I mumble the lyrics for Stayin’ Alive to myself as I pump her chest.

“Come on, baby,” I growl as I continue to press her chest. “Not like this. Don’t you fucking dare give up like this.” My rhythm falters as my panic rises. I want to scream because I don’t know if I’m even helping, but I fight it back and try to focus on her.

“Help!” I shout between compressions.

I don’t even raise my eyes from her face, constantly trying to see if there’s any response. It feels like an eternity has passed by the time I hear feet on the stairs. “In here! Help!”

A pair of police officers run through the door, followed closely by an EMT, who immediately radios to someone else when they see me. The EMT touches my shoulder. “Let me take over, I’ve got her.”

I move out of the way, letting him take over, and when I look up, I realize Tori is gone. I turn towards the police officers. “She was taken by a woman who’s been following me for months. She was just here. Blonde hair, blue eyes, about 5‘4’.”

The officers glance at each other, and I can immediately tell that they don’t believe me. “Did you report this supposed stalking?”

“Yes, it’s been reported. Detective Gray knows all about it.”

“That may be the case, Mr…” he trails off so I’ll fill in my name.

“King. Jameson King.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. King, but as of this moment, you have to understand how this looks. We’re going to have to take you down to the station.”

My anger rises, and time seems to stop, freezing me in this moment of excruciating hell. I’m being treated like I did this to her, when I’m so full of fear for her that I can’t even pull my eyes away from her laying on the floor as her body rocks under the force of the EMTs compressions.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I’m not going anywhere until I know that she’s okay,” I growl, motioning to Amelia.

Another EMT runs in and I notice the other EMT has stopped doing CPR. “She’s responsive, but we need to move fast.”

“There you go,” the jackass cop says. “They’ll get her to the hospital and you can come to the station with us.”

I’d like to punch the son of a bitch in the face. “Responsive doesn’t mean she’s okay. You can’t be fucking serious right now.”

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Mr. King.”

I grind my teeth and watch as the EMTs cut her free from the chair, and roll her onto the board to get her onto the stretcher the other EMT must have brought up the elevator with their emergency key. “Fine, but can I at least call someone to be with her at the hospital?”

“Whatever you need to do, but let’s go.”

We all pile into the elevator and on the way down I make a quick call to Kat and update her on what’s happening. She’s rightfully terrified and it quickly shifts to anger, which she lashes out at me with.

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