Free Retribution by Lietha Wards Page B

without looking at it. “Is
that a challenge?”
    Her mouth parted as she
stared at him. Gosh, he was mesmerizing. His grey eyes held such
intelligence that she was momentarily speechless. And his
unwavering confidence seemed to melt her anger momentarily. Get it together Katya ,
she scolded herself silently. This wasn’t possible, the
attractiveness, especially after what she just went through. Maybe
it was some sort of traumatic after effect of her captivity. How
the heck did she know? She knew nothing of what happened to someone
in her position, which is probably why he kept telling her to go
see the psychiatrist. Still, she felt something now, between them.
However, it only seemed one sided. He never gave any indication
that it existed on his end. Well, he was probably used to women
falling all over him. After all, she did witness the nurse’s
reaction to him. God certainly gifted him with all those masculine
skills and looks to attract anyone he wanted, so more than likely
he was immune to that electric feeling. Still that look went beyond
normal. She slanted her eyes as something suddenly occurred to her.
“You run don’t you?”
    “Every morning.”
    She sighed heavily. “Well,
I should have known.”
    He stood up. “I’ll get
changed. Two minutes.”
    He was actually ready in
less than that and came back for her.
    ***
    They ran a good ten miles
along the beach. Neither one of them spoke and she was grateful for
the silence. She also noticed how out of shape she was. She’d
broken into a sweat and was breathing pretty heavy. Her arm was
hurting too. He’d yet to even show any fatigue. What a surprise
though, he’d caught her difficulty.
    “You need to stop for a
minute.”
    She nodded and slowed to a
walk. Then she paused and looked out toward the ocean with her
hands on her hips while trying to catch her breath. Her wrist was
throbbing. It was a bad sprain. One of her captors twisted it and
although she could wiggle her fingers now, she obviously still
lacked the strength to tie her shoe laces.
    “You’ve been hospitalized
and injured. It takes a toll on the body.”
    “You’re being kind.” Yes,
she was out of sorts, but he was obviously in immaculate shape. She
was usually puffing by the time she made it back home but he still
didn’t seem near breathless.
    He never said
anything.
    She turned back to him.
“How far do you usually run?”
    “It doesn’t
matter.”
    That was the first time she
came close to laughing since her captivity. Again, he was saving
her feelings. She was competitive and he obviously knew that. “I
hope there’s something I can do better than you Mr. Casey. My ego
is taking a beating so far.”
    Again, he never said
anything but his eyes seemed to darken for a moment as if there was
some statement in them about knowing something she could do better.
Well, he kept it to himself. She was probably better off that he
did. Unable to hold his gaze anymore, she looked past him at the
crowd as something caught her attention. There was a man, a darker
skinned man, standing there in blue shorts just watching her. He
was a little on the heavy side, and looked very familiar. She felt
her skin crawl with fear and that hit her with a wave of
adrenaline.
    “Katya?”
    Her mouth fell open and the
bottom lip started to quiver. He was looking at her. Directly at
her. It was one of the men that hurt her. She was sure of it. Her
eyes started darting around the crowd. The beach was packed now but
there was no mistaking that face. “That’s him.”
    “Him?”
    “One of the men.” Then her
eyes went to another man. “Him too.” Then, she saw the same face
everywhere. Dark skinned, dark hair and staring at her with those
black, soulless eyes. In fact everyone was staring at her. It
seemed as if things were spinning around her. She buried her face
in her hands unable to look at anyone anymore. Suddenly she felt
blackness close in around her. She was close to
fainting.
    Ryan spun around