Page 1 of Fatal Thrill
1
Welcometo Arkansasthe big sign read. Jaya O’Sullivan’s queasy stomach did aroll.
At the last possible second before totally passing the exit, she jerked the wheel of her van right and took the ramp off the interstate, heading for the rest stop. A horn blared behindher.
Eatme.
Her tummy did another roll at the thought offood.
It’s just a bug, she told herself, clamping her teeth against the tingling in herjaw.
Five…
The winterflu.
Four…
She barely braked as she flew down the winding road, the welcome center building a one-story type. The setting sun flashed off the glass frontdoors.
Three…
Several other travelers were parked near the entrance. She wasn’t going to make it thatfar.
Two…
Skidding to the curb, she took up two spaces, her gaze locked on the grass on the other side of the sidewalk. A guy walking a giant coonhound glanced her way, the dog’s nose came up as well, sniffing in herdirection.
One…
Slamming the gearshift into park, she threw open the door, throat burning and eyeswatering.
Not bothering to turn off the ignition, or even shut the van’s brightly colored door behind her, she ran across the sidewalk, bent over,and…
Yep. There it was—for the guy, his dog, and all the spectators stretching their legs, hitting the restrooms, and walking out with Vend-O-Land snacks, tosee.
Food? Ugh. Jaya vomited again, her hot breath creating cottony puffs of air around herface.
Setting her hands on knees, she breathed in and out several times. Slow. Deliberate. When nothing else came up, she squeezed her eyes closed and fought the low-level panic inside herchest.
Oh crud, what have Idone?
“Hey, are you okay?” the guy with the dogcalled.
Jaya didn’t bother looking up, just waved a mittened hand in the air. Taking a tissue from her coat pocket, she wiped her lips, went back to her still running van, and enclosed herselfinside.
People came and went from the rest stop, no one paying any mind to her after that. They all had lives to get to. It was New Year’s after all. New goals, diets,resolutions.
Sweat beaded on her forehead so she adjusted the heat and unbuttoned her coat, shucking her mittens and laying a hand on her belly. A subtle exhaustion wormed its way through her system, making her bones feel utterly incapable of holding up the weight on her shoulders. All she wanted was to be in Jon’s arms again, safe andsecure.
And loved,possibly?
They’d never said the word. Jaya wasn’t sure either of them was capable of saying “I love you.” They’d had a lengthy tryst last fall when she’d followed him to DC to make sure he recovered properly from the injuries he’d received while helping her best friend Shelby, and Shelby’s husband Colton, take down akiller.
Things had gotten super hot and pretty damn serious between her and Jon faster than Jaya had expected, but then reality had set in with the holidays. Jaya had a business to run in Good Hope, and her mother to look after in Oklahoma. A former SEAL, Jon lived and breathed his work for Rock Star Security in DC. Once he’d been cleared by his physical therapist, and Jaya had made some fantastic connections in DC to get her Cherry Bomb line of spa products off the ground, it was time to accept the truth: Her life was in Oklahoma. Jon’s was not. Both knew that long-distance relationships were doomed before theystarted.
They’d parted on good terms, but Jaya had missed him terribly. Good thing she’d had work to keep her mind occupied. Her spa was packed with clients and she only had three months—currently down to nine weeks—before she debuted her CB line on a regional DC TV shopping network calledThe Beauty Shop. Nine weeks to get two thousand Cherry Bomb body butter, body scrub, and lip balm kits manufactured, packaged, and ready to sell for her first TVpromotion.
Then a text had come from Jon the day after Christmas that had made her wonder if their relationship still had achance:
