Free Vulnerable: (McIntyre Security Bodyguard Series - Book 1) by April Wilson Page A

creeps.”
     
    * * *
     
    The week progressed as usual for Beth. Every day that passed was a day she didn’t call Shane. She’d programmed his cell number into her phone, but she had yet to push the send button. She just couldn’t do it. Every time she’d tried to get with someone, she ended up having an ugly, all-out panic attack, and she just didn’t want Shane to see her like that.
     
     
    Andrew showed up at the Special Collections room once more Wednesday afternoon, again without an appointment. This time Mary offered to help him, while Beth hid out in the packing room.
    “Beth, I’m afraid you have an unwelcome admirer,” Mary said a few minutes later, as she walked into the back room. “He made his excuses and left as soon as he realized I would be the one helping him today.”
    Beth looked up from the box of periodicals she was unpacking.
    “He was very unhappy,” Mary said, looking concerned. “He seemed... agitated.”
    “Maybe if I avoid him for a while, he’ll get tired of stopping by.”
    “Maybe,” Mary said. But she didn’t seem convinced.
     
     
    That night Beth had a dream that she was in the Special Collections room long after the library had closed. The lights were dimmed, and she was in the stacks, wandering aimlessly. Suddenly someone was there with her, right behind her. She could feel hot breath on the back of her neck.
     
    “Mary?” she said, turning. But deep in her heart she knew it wasn’t Mary.
    “Hi, Beth.”
    Andrew.
    “Do you have an appointment, Andrew?”
    He shook his head, his tousled blond hair sweeping across his forehead. “No.” He smiled at her.
    “Then you shouldn’t be here.”
    “I don’t need an appointment to see you.” He reached out to touch her face. She backed away, and he pressed forward. She kept backing away, until her back hit the wall. He advanced on her, an arrogant grin on his handsome face. The lights went out suddenly and it was pitch black in the room. Strong, rough hands grabbed her wrists, squeezing them as he pinned her to the wall.
    “Andrew, stop it!” she cried. “You’re hurting me!”
    The temperature dropped precipitously, and her skin shivered from the cold as he began to tear the clothes from her body as if they were made of wet tissue paper. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t get free. Then he pushed her down to the floor. He crouched over her, and she could feel his foul, hot breath on her face.
    “You can’t hide from me, little bitch. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
    That gravelly voice was unmistakable. That wasn’t Andrew!
    She took a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could.
     
     
    “Wake up, Beth!”
    Beth’s eyes shot open, and she was blinded by the light hanging over her bed. Gabrielle stood beside her bed in her PJs.
    “Gabrielle!” Beth gasped, sitting up in bed. She struggled to catch her breath, her heart pounding.
    “Are you okay?” Gabrielle said.
    “It was Andrew. He... it was like the other time, but it was Andrew . And then it wasn’t Andrew; it was Kline.”
    Beth lay back in her bed, gasping as she willed her heart and respiration rates to slow.
    Gabrielle switched off the ceiling light and climbed into Beth’s bed. “Go back to sleep, Beth. It’s okay.”
     
    * * *
     
    “You can’t keep this up, Shane,” Liam said, walking into Shane’s office Thursday morning.
    Shane glared at his youngest brother. “Don’t you ever knock?”
    He’d been operating on about four hours a sleep each day all week, and it was starting to take its toll. Diane had managed to avoid him completely for the past two days, resorting to e-mails and voice messages to communicate with him. He’d started to notice people going out of their way to avoid him in the hallways and gym. Even his own brothers had made themselves scarce the past couple of days.
    But it wasn’t the lack of sleep that was making him so damned irritable. It was Thursday, and Beth hadn’t called. He’d