Free No One Heard Her Scream by Jordan Dane Page A

get a better view. Squinting, she tried to catch a look at his face. Her mind played tricks.
    It made no sense, yet she pictured Diego's handsome face in her mind.
    "Come on, Beck. No way," she muttered.
    From her perch, foot traffic this time of night always drew her attention, but this man stood still, almost a fixture. He melded with the footbridge as if he were part of the stonework. She almost missed him.
    But suddenly, he moved.
    He held something in his hand, raising it to his face in a sweeping gesture. Even though his features were shrouded in darkness, the object caught the light before he tossed it into the water. She leaned forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of what he'd thrown. It floated on the water's surface, buoyant, not heavy enough to sink. A bulb of white caught in the lazy current of the river. As it drifted by her vantage point, under the reflection from a security light, she recognized it.
    A single white rose.
    The flower bobbed on the water. Faint ripples skimmed the surface, undulating with every movement of the rose. Becca furrowed her brow and peered through the shadows toward the bridge, searching for him. Nothing. She stood and leaned over the parapet wall, straining to see under the heavy bower of trees. Up the river and down.
    He was nowhere in sight. Gone. How did he disappear so fast? Damn it!
    Becca's heart picked up the pace to match the jazz band downriver, pounding for all the wrong reasons. Her face flushed. She searched every shadow, yet eventually gave up on finding him. Clenching her jaw, she wrapped her arms across her chest to ward off the chill of the night breeze. The wind rustled the trees of her garden, stirring a memory. Becca pictured Diego's lips, his strong jawline, and she remembered the gentle touch of his large hands when he wiped the smudge off her chin. But most of all, his dark eyes haunted her.
    "You better put him out of your head, Beck. The man's trouble."
    No doubt, it had only been her imagination that willed the stranger to be him. A heaping dose of wishful thinking and a couple of Coronas hadn't hurt either.
    "Last call." She raised the bottle of beer to her lips and downed the rest.
    With empty bottle in hand, Becca navigated the steps down, her mind preoccupied with the image of the man on the bridge. As she turned to her window near the landing, Becca caught a glimpse of something. Her eyes fixed on it.
    "What the hell?" A breath jammed in her throat.
    Another white rose lay on the cement near the open window to her condo.
    On pure instinct, she pressed her back against the outside wall, hiding in the shadows. Becca didn't want to be silhouetted by the light coming from her living room, making herself a target. Her eyes searched the darkness, squinting to regain her night vision. After a long moment, she felt certain her mystery man had skipped.
    Exercising caution, she inched her way toward the window and peered in. Everything was like she left it, but had he been inside? She hadn't been gone long, but damn it, the man was a ghost. A blasted ghost!
    And he had the gall to leave a calling card, one that would lurk in her memory for nights to come. Either he knew her routine, or he'd waited for the right opportunity.
    Why? None of this made sense.
    He could have come and gone without her knowing it. Instead, he chose to leave a rose and made a show of calling her attention to it—a very deliberate act. A romantic gesture tinged with an element of danger. The man had some kind of personal agenda involving her, but she had no clue what it could be. Not yet.
    Becca knew she'd see Diego tomorrow when she called on Hunter Cavanaugh. Maybe that thought played on her subconscious more than she realized. Or maybe her loneliness had triggered the illusion of romance—driven by her need to be touched by someone. Either way, she had to be careful. She knew nothing about his past, only that Diego Galvan had unsavory connections to the mob and traveled in dangerous