Page 77 of Bedroom Therapy

Rounding a curve, he saw the silhouette of a house through the trees. As he drew closer, he saw a white van pulled up in front.

It flashed through his mind that calling the cops was a definite option now. He knew from the transponder that Amanda was here, and he might need some help.

The trouble was, he’d seen small-town police departments in action. In a crisis, they tended to go for their guns, and Amanda could get caught in the cross fire.

For the moment at least, he figured he was better off on his own.

Weapon drawn, his pulse pounding in his ears, he crept up to one of the windows and cautiously peeked inside. What he saw made the blood in his veins turn to ice.

His gaze zeroed in on Amanda. She was chained to a wall, her face a mask of fear. And the bastard was standing over her, cutting off her clothing with a hunting knife. He’d cut her shirt off. As Zach watched, he slashed through first one bra strap and then the other. After yanking down the cups and exposing her breasts, he cut the fabric at the front of the garment, then lifted it away from her before tossing it onto the floor.

The breath solidified in Zach’s lungs. Every instinct made him want to burst through the door and go for the bastard. But not when he was cutting with that knife.

As he evaluated the situation, Zach decided it didn’t look like Anderson was planning to murder her right away. It looked like he was planning to terrify her first.

And sick as that thought made Zach, he also knew it bought him some time. Her fear tore at him. He wanted to press his face against the window to let Amanda see him. He wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone, and he was going to rescue her. But he understood that revealing his presence wasn’t a good idea. If she saw him, the look on her face would change, and that would give too much away. Edging closer, he tried to hear what was going on inside.

“Write me a letter,” the guy was saying. “I want to hear what advice you’d give to Vicki.”

Amanda licked her lips. “I don’t know.”

“Talk!”

“I . . . I would tell her that she should evaluate her options,” she stammered. “She shouldn’t act hastily.”

“You’re lying. You’re saying what you think I want to hear.” As he spoke, Anderson raised his hand and slapped her.

Through the glass, he heard her breath catch. But she didn’t scream.

He wanted to fly through the door and kill the bastard. But he made himself stay in place.

Now he was wondering if he’d made the wrong decision. If he met the cops at the end of the road, he could help them keep their cool. The problem was, he might not have time.

As he watched, Anderson slid his hand down her naked belly and inside the waistband of her slacks.

The intimate touch of those fingers on Amanda’s flesh was more than Zach could stand. He had to get her out of there before the sicko inflicted any more psychological damage.

Slowly he twisted the knob and found the door unlocked. Taking a calculated risk that the guy would leap to defend himself, Zach eased the door open a fraction of an inch, then kicked it inward with his foot. Almost in the same moment, he jumped out of the way so that he could look around the edge of the window.

Through the glass he saw Anderson whirl away from Amanda, grab his gun from the table, and take a couple of steps forward as he fired at the door.

In old Westerns, the guys holed up in the house broke out the glass in the windows with the butts of their guns before firing. Zach knew that step wasn’t necessary. The glass wasn’t going to slow a bullet from a large caliber gun like his Sig or change the trajectory.

Raising his weapon, he fired through the window, dodging flying shards of glass, seeing Anderson stagger.

Amanda screamed, and the bastard half turned back toward her.

God no! He silently screamed as he kept firing until the kidnapper dropped to the floor and lay unmoving.

Then Zack burst through the door.

Amanda stared at him, wide-eyed.

“It’s all right. Everything’s all right. He can’t hurt you anymore. Just hang on a second,” he shouted, then knelt over Anderson, who was still holding his revolver. And there was a spray of bullets in the door and the wall. When the cops arrived, there would be no doubt what had happened here.

After he detected no pulse in the man’s neck, Zack felt through his pockets and located a set of keys.

Standing, he set his weapon on the table in full view, before hurrying to Amanda. She was staring at him with large blue eyes, and he couldn’t deal with the fear and pain he saw there. Quickly he knelt to free her ankles. Then he placed his own body between hers and the thug on the floor while he worked at the chain that held her wrists. When he’d freed her, she sagged into his arms and started to sob.

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