Page 5 of The Caress

Oh my God. Is he coming back?

Time feels like it’s moving in slow motion as he reaches into his jacket. A sense of dread overwhelms me as I see the morning sunlight glint off the muzzle of a gun.

No.

No.

This isn’t just some random asshole who wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. He wastryingto hit me with his motorcycle. And now he’s going to finish what he started.

He’s going to kill me.

CHAPTERTHREE

KEIR

I'll have almost caught up with Ella by the time we make it to the airport. She’s two cars ahead, close enough that I’ve been able to catch a few glimpses of her in the back seat of the sedan over the past few minutes.

Is she still upset? Still angry?

I keep hoping she’ll turn around and somehow see me, even though I haven’t quite worked out what I’m going to say when I finally get the chance to speak to her again.

Whatever I’m going to say, it needs to be good. It needs to be convincing. It needs to be enough to make her want to stay, even though I’ve been an asshole these past couple of days.

She’ll have to stay. Her safety depends on it. But I have my jet on standby in case I need to chase her all the way to New York City. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I refuse to let her out of my sight while there’s still a murderer on the loose.

Fuck, if I’d only realized how much danger she was in before, I could have avoided all of this. We’d still be sitting in my apartment right now.

Together.

Up ahead, I can see Ella get out of the car. This is my chance. I need to get her attention before she crosses the street to the terminal.

I turn off my car engine and open the door to step outside, not giving a single shit that I’m blocking the traffic behind me. They can wait. If I’m lucky, it’ll only take me a few seconds to convince Ella to come back to the apartment with me.

The sound of an impatient jackass revving his motor behind me interrupts my thoughts. I turned to look over my shoulder just in time to see a motorcycle swerve past.

"Fucking bastard," I mutter, raising my hand to flip the guy off, just as I hear Ella’s voice call out.

"What the hell?" she yells, a hint of fear mixed in with her angry tone. "You almost hit me!"

Up ahead, I can see the motorcycle turning around. What the fuck is he doing? I start to move past the car that’s still standing between me and Ella, then stop in my tracks.

Fuck.

I can see exactly what the guy on the motorcycle is doing now. He’s coming back. And he has a freaking gun.

There isn’t time to think. "Hey!" I shout, hoping to distract the guy as I start running toward Ella. I need to get between her and the motorcycle.

Nothing else matters.

Ella doesn’t seem to hear me, and the guy on the motorcycle is only focused on her. She darts to the side and starts running as the first shot rings out, but she’s running the wrong way.

"Over here!" I yell, chasing after her as she heads straight for the parking garage. She’d be safer in the terminal, but the garage is closer, at least. "Come after me, you fucker," I yell. "Stay away from her."

I’m running as fast as I can and hating that I have absolutely no control over what’s happening right now. I’m too far away to help Ella and too damn slow to stop the crazy bastard who’s chasing her.

She ducks and weaves through the rows of parked cars, leaving the guy on the motorcycle behind.

Perfect.

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