Free Killer's Prey by Rachel Lee Page A

Damn, I remember. Let me give you my cell number. Don’t hesitate to call me.”
    With Emma’s phone number tucked in her pocket, Nora walked up to the dark house. She should have left a light on, but she hadn’t expected to be out so long.
    Her hands shook a little as she inserted the key in the lock and her stomach began to flip-flop uncomfortably. At this point she didn’t know if it was the attack that was unnerving her, or being home again. It was all a mess. All of it.
    Once inside, she locked the door and switched on lights as fast as she could, checking each room as she went. Her fear inside was not as bad as it could get outside, because she hadn’t been taken from her home, but from her evening walk. Still...
    No one in the house. Maybe she could arrange to be in bed before her dad got home. Then she got mad at herself for wanting to avoid him. Darn it, she was a grown woman now. She had nothing to fear from that man that couldn’t be settled by packing her bags and living somewhere else.
    And now with a job at the library, she could probably afford to rent a room somewhere. Real freedom.
    But freedom had lost some of its appeal following the attack.
    The phone rang, almost as if someone had seen her come home. It had to be her dad, she thought, and unfortunately she was proved right.
    “Where you been, girl? I been looking for you all day! I needed you here.”
    “I’m not well enough to work there. I visited a friend, and then I got a job at the library.”
    “How can you work at the library if you can’t work here? Don’t make no sense.”
    “I can work there sitting down, and at my own pace.” Nora felt her spine stiffening. “Dad, I’m still sick. So I took a job I can handle. Live with it.”
    He started demanding to know who she had visited, but she hung up before he finished the question.
    She had to get out of this house. Had to. It was like being sixteen again, dependent, questioned about every little thing, criticized if she didn’t do exactly the right thing...or at least the thing that Fred Loftis wanted.
    No independent thinking or action had ever been tolerated in this house.
    Sitting at the table, she ignored the phone when it started ringing again, sure her father wanted to holler at her for being rude, and tried to decide what to do.
    She couldn’t go back to living under her father’s thumb again. It had seemed better than staying in Minneapolis until the trial, but now that she was here, she wondered if she shouldn’t have stuck it out.
    Fear was driving her entirely too much. Somehow she had to get a handle on it. Yes, it would take time to get her strength back, but that didn’t mean she had to be browbeaten by Fred Loftis.
    No, she had to find another way. Once again the phone rang, and once again she ignored it.
    * * *
    Jake was going nuts. Nora wasn’t answering the phone. He knew Loftis was still at the pharmacy until he closed up around nine. So where the hell was Nora?
    Sleeping, he told himself. He’d seen how weak she still was, so she was probably sleeping. Or maybe she’d gone out for a walk. He drove up and down the streets in his cruiser, hoping for a sight of her, but the length and chill of the approaching winter’s nights had cut down on pedestrian traffic except right on Main Street.
    He waited another twenty minutes, then called again. Still no answer. Enough was enough. Three unanswered calls when she was home alone. At least he thought she was. She could have gone to visit someone.
    But he couldn’t let it go. He drove over to the Loftis house, determined to settle his mind, paramount after what Gage had told him today. There was surely no real reason to think the Langdon creep would or could follow her here, but as long as there was even a remote possibility, it seemed he wasn’t going to rest easy.
    With the streets so quiet with the deepening chill at night, it would be a perfect time for someone to slip unnoticed into town. Few enough folks were