Free Bridal Reconnaissance by LISA CHILDS Page B

the police, tells them about the threat, you said you’d be able to keep that animal behind bars.”
    He nodded. “And Royce is working with the Feds on the other cases where Weering was a suspect. If they can find anything to link him to those crimes…”

    She shivered, thinking again of how lucky she’d been to live through her attack. What was a memory in comparison to a life or the life of her then unborn child? But what those other women must have suffered… “How can they even consider letting him out?”
    “Money and power.”
    Resentment coursed through her. As his wife, she had probably had those things, too. But as a victim, she’d become poor and powerless. “You’d know.”
    With a glance across her to the mirror, he effortlessly parallel parked at the curb of a run-down apartment complex. “Yeah, I would.”
    Again the admission was uttered in a way that made her think he was saying more. Had she lost her perception with her memory? And her objectivity?
    When he turned toward the car door, she clutched at the sleeve of his overcoat until he swung back. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. You’re not like him. It was cruel of me—”
    “Don’t apologize. There’re things you don’t know about me.” His dark eyes churned with emotion and a muscle jumped in his clenched jaw.
    “Things I’ve forgotten.”
    “Things you never knew, Amanda. Things I never knew.”
    She shivered despite the warmth in the close confines of the small car. With a trembling hand she fumbled with the catch for the door. “We…”
    Needed to talk. To each other maybe more than this tattooed ex-convict. But they’d have time later. Wouldn’t they?
    “We need to go inside. Let’s hope he didn’t seeus drive up. Looks like the entrance is around the corner.” He leaned over and opened her car door before she could figure out the handle. His gaze intent on her face, he said, “Maybe you should stay here. Let me talk to him first.”
    “I told you—”
    “He could be dangerous, Amanda.”
    “Then he would have hurt me in the van. He didn’t. He warned me.”
    “But that could have been part of the plan.”
    “Plan?” Foreboding crawled along her skin, raising goose bumps, so she shifted closer to Evan’s heat.
    “Weering’s plan to make you run, to take you away from the people who could protect you.”
    “You think he’s planned this?” She clutched at his sleeve again, needing the reassurance of his strong presence.
    “He’s had nearly six years with little else to think about. Yeah, I think he has a plan.”
    Despite the fear, the intensity of which would have normally paralyzed her, desperation inspired her to action. Any action. Anything that would keep that animal away from her. “Let’s go,” she said, climbing from the sports car and walking toward the entrance.
    She kept close to the building where white paint peeled off the brick and flaked onto the cracked sidewalk. The rubber soles of her running shoes were silent on the cement, as were Evan’s leather loafers. Although music and voices drifted through the thin-paned windows and onto the street and, in the distance, police sirens and car horns blared, she felt isolated.
    But for Evan.

    When they rounded the corner, he stepped in front of her, opening the door to the building and staring intently at her as she passed through it. His rich scent washed over her, the woods and leather fragrance camouflaging some of the garbage and urine odor of the foyer.
    “You still want to talk to him first?” she asked, a bit fearful of this place unlike anywhere she’d ever been. She hadn’t known there were areas this deplorable in River City.
    He nodded as he peered up the graffiti-covered stairwell to the next floor. “This isn’t a safe place, Amanda.”
    “Then I wouldn’t be safe waiting in the car, either. And I know I can get through to him.” She wouldn’t feel safe in the car by herself, as dusk fell outside. Surprisingly, only at