Free Her Kind of Man by Elle Wright Page B

vacation, and apologize for any inconvenience she may have caused. But when she saw the e-mails from Isaac, she felt sick to her stomach.
    She clicked on the first one. Where are you? You better call me as soon as possible or else.
    There were dozens, mostly one liners, ranging from I can’t believe you actually think you’re going to get away from me to I told you I’d ruin your life. Don’t make me . With each message, the tone grew more menacing, threatening. The one surefire way to hurt her would be to hurt her family. The big skeleton in their family closet involved murder and impeding a murder investigation. If he had somehow found out about her aunt’s death it would change everything. She’d do anything to protect her parents.
    She moved the messages to a separate folder as she read, but the last and most recent e-mail gave her pause. The hairs on her arms and neck stood up as a shiver ran up her spine. He’d stepped up the intimidation with another one-line e-mail. His intent was clear and she had to do something. She read the e-mail one last time. The sound of her heartbeat thrashed in her ears as each word came into focus. Don’t worry, maybe your friend Sydney will tell me where you are.

C hapter Eight
    K ent had spent the majority of the night pacing the hall outside of his second bedroom door. He’d tried to go into his own room. Really. But the first bloodcurdling scream from the room where Allina slept woke him up, and he couldn’t relax after that.
    When he’d barged into the room to check on her, she’d held on to him like he was her savior. It took almost an hour to calm her down, but he’d done it with low whispers and soft caresses. Eventually, she’d drifted back to sleep, but he was left with that uneasy feeling.
    Once he realized that getting a good night’s rest wasn’t in the cards for him, he’d tried to work on a project he was painting for the bar. When he couldn’t concentrate on that, he’d busied himself cleaning and rearranging his refrigerator. That’s when he first realized he didn’t have much food. He’d given her the last of the cheese and he was pretty sure she wouldn’t want crackers for breakfast. So he’d pulled on a pair of sweatpants, intending to jump in his car and sneak off to the twenty-four-hour Super Walmart when he heard the next scream. This one was louder than the last.
    Throughout his lifetime, the urge to beat someone up had come and gone. Sometimes he’d end up fighting, other times he didn’t. But there was only one other time when he’d known if he saw the person, he’d do him serious bodily harm. And Isaac was up there with the predator who’d raped Syd years ago on campus.
    He wanted to hurt him, envisioned pummeling him until he couldn’t stand, let alone walk. Who the hell did Isaac think he was anyway? The fact that Allina was scared and anticipating the day that fool would come back to get her made his blood boil.
    Now, Kent was racing back to his condo. He knew he was going to get a ticket. Then he was going to have to explain to the officer why he was doing fifty-five on a twenty-five-miles-per-hour street. He’d taken too long. A simple trip to the store to get yogurt, berries, and granola for his terrified friend had turned into a full shopping trip. Allina had called his cell and told him to get home as soon as possible. He had to get back to her.
    Once he made it home, he rushed in, dropping the grocery bags on the floor by the door. “Allina!” He paused to listen for her. When she didn’t answer, he started down the hallway leading to the spare bedroom. “Allina,” he called again.
    “In here,” she shouted.
    “Hey?” he asked, stepping into his office. Her eyes appeared damp, but bright. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen?”
    “I-I got a…” she stuttered. She swallowed visibly, then sighed. “Isaac e-mailed me.”
    His hands tightened into fists. “And? What did he say?”
    She gestured to