Free Heated Restraints by Yvette Hines Page A

Captain.”
    Thor waited until his boss left the room, then popped his cell phone out of his pocket and punched in a number.

    * * * *
Liza heard Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 begin to play as she hustled across the campus of Florida State to her advisor’s office. Pulling her cell phone out of its side pouch on her purse, she eyed the caller I.D. screen. Finally locating it, she smiled when she saw it was Thor. She’d given him her number one day while he was healing at home just in case he needed something. He’d never used it.
    “Hello, Thor.”
    “Hi, princess. I want to see you tonight.”

    Damn, his deep voice sounded good. She’d missed him over the week.
    Purposely, she’d kept her distance from him since he’d gotten better, needing him to show her that this relationship of sorts wasn’t one-sided. She was old-fashioned in a sense and desired him to make the next move. “I’m at school now, but I should be done in an hour our so. Then I just have a quick stop by the children’s home and tell the kids goodbye. What time?”
    “Can you come here when you finish?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’ll see you then.”
    They ended the call and she continued her brisk strut across campus with a little pep in her step. After she turned in her thesis to her professor, school would be complete.

    * * * *
Two hours later, Liza walked out of the Sacred Hearts children’s home. It amazed her how dark it was outside. She’d only been inside forty minutes and the moonless sky gave the area an eerie feel. For a moment, she considered returning inside and asking someone to walk her to the car, but knowing the counselors inside were already beyond the ratio of children to staff, she changed her mind and continued. Rounding the corner of the building, she headed in the direction of her car. When she parked earlier, there had only been a few spaces available in the back row; now an extended-cab truck was blocking the view of her convertible.
    Anxious, she accelerated her pace, finally arriving at the pickup. She began to sigh with relief. Stepping around the flatbed, she froze. A few feet in front of her, a tall white man was sliding some type of car jacking tool along her window.
    Not waiting to be discovered, she pivoted on her rubber-soled flats and prepared to run back to the building for help.
    “Well, what do we have here?” A short stocky dark-skinned black man called out as his hand gripped her forearm only two strides into her escape plan.
    In his other hand, he held a dark colored gym bag.
    She’d missed the lookout guy because he’d blended into the night.
    “I take it this must be your car, little lady,” the tool man said from behind her. Liza turned her gaze away from the short mountain, looked back at the tall tawny-haired man, and took note of the scar along his jaw. Identification features . “You can have the car. Please just let me go.”
    “I don’t think so.” The white man leaned his arm on the top of her now open driver’s side door. Evidently, he was savvy enough to disarm her alarm system.
    The blood in her arm began to throb around the place where the black man’s hand held her like a manacle.

    The dark mountain began to shove her toward the open door as he said,
    “You and Georgia plates are going to get us through the little speck on the map called Claremont.”
    Claremont County . Liza dug her heels into the ground and tried to pull her arm free. She didn’t have to be a genius to realize who these guys were. What she didn’t want was them to figure out who she was. That the very same town they wanted to drive through without trouble was her town. “Please, let me go. My family will miss me if I don’t show up home soon.”
    Dropping the bag, the black man grabbed her other arm and pulled her closer to him. “Listen, lady, at this moment I don’t give a fuck about your family.
    I’ve got an appointment on the other side of that shit kick’n town and I don’t plan to miss it.”
    The