Free What He Sacrifices (What He Wants, Book Fourteen) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford

 
 
 
 
    WHAT HE
SACRIFICES   (What He Wants, Book
Fourteen)
    by Hannah Ford

 
    Copyright 2015, Hannah Ford, all rights
reserved.   This book is a work of
fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.
     

 
    CHARLOTTE

 
    My head began to pound.   The blood rushed through my body, faster
and faster, becoming more intense with each beat of my heart.   My veins expanded and pulsed, and my temples
throbbed.   The panic rolled in like
a tide, threatening to overtake me, and I forced my mind to move faster in an
attempt to stay ahead of it.
    I felt completely disconnected from my body,
like what was happening to me wasn’t real. For a brief second, I imagined
myself as the heroine of a movie, caught in some twisted situation with the
villain.
    In the movie, I would be in danger, but I would
get myself out of it.
    In the movie, I would be okay.
    In real life, I knew I was in deep, deep
trouble.
    Suddenly, inexplicably, a crazed-sounding
giggle escaped my lips.
    “You think this is funny?” Professor
Worthington spit.   His hands were
wrapped around the wheel of his car as he zipped down back streets and weaved
in and out of traffic, sideswiping cars as he moved through the dark alleys of
the city.
    “No.”   I shook my head.   I didn’t
think it was funny.   The panic was
rising, trying its best to pull me under and drown me as the reality of my
situation became horribly clear.
    Think, I told
myself.   Think, Charlotte.  
    My eyes flicked to the window.   I wondered if I could signal to someone
outside that I needed help. But the car windows were tinted, which would make
seeing inside the vehicle impossible.   The professor was intentionally choosing
streets that were dark and deserted, the kind of streets you saw in old
gangster films about New York City, with steam coming up from the manholes and
trucks blocking the view of the buildings.
    I moved my gaze back inside the car.
    I knew from the countless case studies I’d done
that victims had a better chance of getting away from their captors if they
tried to fight back.   Either the
perpetrator would decide it wasn’t worth the hassle, or the victim would escape.
Once you allowed yourself to be taken to a different location, your chances for
survival went down drastically.
    “I’ve been watching you, you know,” Professor
Worthington said.   His tone was calm
and smooth, the same tone he used when he was giving a lecture or leading a
debate.
    “What?”   I asked, startled.
    “Since the beginning of the semester.   I’ve been watching you.”   He glanced at me out of the corner of
his eye, and I made sure to keep my gaze focused toward the front
windshield.   The last thing I wanted
was for him to know I was searching the car for something that could help me.
    “Watching me? Why?”
    “I knew you were special.”   He checked the rearview mirror, making
sure no one was following us.   The
traffic was surprisingly light for this time of day, and I wondered where he
was taking me.   Did he have a remote
cabin in the woods somewhere upstate?   Was he going to take me back to his apartment?   I thought about how Katie had died right
in the middle of the park.   Was he
going to kill me there too?
    “I’m not special,” I said.
    He set his hand down on my knee.   His palm was cool, but his touched
burned through me.   “You are
special, Charlotte.   Noah knows
it.   I know it.”   His tongue snaked out and licked his
bottom lip.   “Of course, you’ve
disappointed me a few times.”
    “I disappointed you?   How?”   I wanted to keep him talking, to distract
him while my eyes combed the car for something I could use as a weapon.
    “Well, for instance, you never once asked what
my connection was to Noah.   Didn’t
you think that perhaps there was a reason Noah had chosen me as his
lawyer?   He could have had anyone in
the state.”
    “No.”   I shook my head as my