Free The Ex Who Glowed in the Dark (Charley's Ghost) by Sally Berneathy

Sunny didn’t lie to each other. However, she couldn’t very well say Charley had told her.
    A beige minivan drove up behind them, pulled off the road and stopped.

     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Amanda yanked off her helmet and gloves, reached for her purse which was strapped to the sissy bar of her bike, and wrapped trembling fingers around the grip of her gun. She got off her bike, holding the gun behind her, and turned to face the van. Her heart pounded so loudly she felt sure Sunny would hear it and know what a coward she was.
    The ominous minivan was probably completely innocent. They had only Charley’s word that it had been following them. Though he had lost the ability to lie in his current state, he was often mistaken and had a tendency to be melodramatic in his efforts to garner attention.
    “They’re getting out!” Charley warned, hovering just behind Amanda.
    Sunny swung off her bike and strode toward the van. She was tall and slim and at that moment she looked ten feet tall. A mother defending her child. A burst of happiness shot through Amanda in spite of the situation as she hurried to catch up with Sunny. She was, after all, the one with the gun. She would defend Sunny.
    Both van doors opened and a man and woman got out.
    “Get back,” Amanda said as she walked faster, trying to pass Sunny.
    Sunny stepped in front of her. “You get back. I’ve got this one.”
    “You ladies need some help?” the man asked, stepping away from the door and closing it. He didn’t look like a serial killer. Average height, a little overweight, bald. The woman coming out the passenger side door was small and mousy.
    But if serial killers looked dangerous, nobody would ever get in the car with them. Amanda moved to stand beside Sunny so she could get a clear shot. Not that she thought it would be necessary to shoot anybody, but it was always good to be prepared.
    “I’ll go check it out.” Charley darted through the roof of the van.
    “Thanks, but we’re fine,” Sunny assured the couple.
    The man nodded. “Saw you stopped and thought you might be having bike problems. I used to ride. I know how tough that can be, stranded miles from nowhere.”
    “No problems. Just stopped to take some pictures,” Amanda said.
    The man glanced around them at the flat landscape dotted with mesquite trees and scrub oak.
    Even Sunny gave Amanda a questioning look.
    “It’s a stark kind of beauty.” Amanda shifted her grip around the gun. Her fingers were starting to sweat.
    “I do a little photography myself. Just a hobby. What kind of camera you using?” The man walked closer to them. Though his stomach was rounded, his legs beneath his shorts were thin and pale. Not an intimidating figure, but Amanda felt somehow intimidated.
    Ridiculous, she told herself. She was overreacting to Charley’s melodrama.
    “Just the camera in my cell phone.”
    Sunny took a step closer to the man, and Amanda took two steps.
    “Thanks for stopping to see if we need help,” Sunny said. “We’re fine and really need to get on with our ride. We want to get back to Dallas before dark.”
    Charley burst through the windshield of the van, his eyes wide. “It’s them! It’s the kidnappers! They have blankets they could have wrapped him in and rags that probably have chlorophyll on them!”
    “Chlorophyll?” Amanda repeated.
    “Chlorophyll?” Sunny sounded even more astonished than Amanda.
    The man from the van halted a few feet away and looked puzzled at the odd turn the conversation had taken.
    Charley settled beside Amanda and pointed to the van. “You know. That stuff they use to knock people out.”
    Chloroform. Amanda doubted that the frumpy couple had kidnapping tools in their van, but she made a mental note of the license plate anyway. Charley wasn’t always wrong. Most of the time but not always.
    Sunny turned to Amanda. “Ready to get on the road again? Think you have enough pictures?”
    Amanda gave a final glance at the man and