Free Green Broke Woman by Zoey Marcel Page A

friends.
    It was a long shot. She'd only glimpsed the
uniformed man's face in the dark when he'd taken off his mask. She'd been
blindfolded at that point, but not quite good enough.
    She cautiously went around the desk and
pulled the video out from his drawer, peeking over her shoulder and stuffed the
tape into her purse.
    Bruce's hushed voice around the corner was
still on the phone. “Two minutes? That's fine. I'll keep her detained until you
get here. No, she doesn't have a clue. I've got the tape.”
    Kayla choked down her fear. Her eyes bugged
out when she recognized the garter in his drawer. The uniformed man had taken
it off her before. A cold shudder chilled her as she shoved the garter into her
purse and hurried out of there. Her eyes stung with fright, but she forbade the
tears to come. She needed to keep her vision and mind clear and focus on not
getting caught.
    Bruce Callaghan had sat there, pretending not
to know her and all the while he had. He'd promised to protect and help her,
but instead he alerted her captors that she was on the run. Even the police
couldn't help her. She could trust no one.
    Everyone walking and driving by looked
suspicious to her, even scampering children. Paid little
spies. Some pedestrians sniffed at her scant attire in judgment, but
self-righteousness didn't bring her down. She didn't give a damn what they
thought.
    It was the people who looked upon her in lust
that made her leery. Certainly most of them would only ever look and never
touch unless given permission. But it was the knowledge that some people would
violate another human being if they were guaranteed not to get caught that had
her scared stiff.
    She knew there were good people who would
never defile her even if there was no law to answer to for it. But walking by
strangers ogling her body and not knowing ... it was the not knowing that got
her. Not knowing whether they were people who sinned in thought alone, but
would always be governed by conscience rather than law, or if they were in fact
dormant criminals who hadn't been born of the required circumstances that would
make them monsters that scared her almost to tears.
    Beck Hammond had too many friends in too many
places in Beverly Hills. She could talk to cops in another city. Right now she
just needed to break away.

Chapter
Five: My Old Kentucky Home
     
    Kayla wandered down the road several miles
outside of Lexington. She hadn't been home to Kentucky in years. Even after the
extensive period of separation, walking alone on the country road with nothing
but lush oak trees and miles of rolling green pastures all around her, it was
like seeing an old friend again.
    The long stretch of greenery was interrupted
every now and then by flowering crabapple trees and four-legged brown splashes
munching on the verdant grass. It had been a while since she'd ridden a horse.
Would it come back to her naturally, or would she be timid if she mounted one
of those tall thoroughbreds now?
    The sweet smell of blooms floated on the
warm, humid breeze mingled with the mild stench of horse manure. When dry, the
little horse pies made the perfect accompaniment to the floral fragrances of
spring. She wasn't sure why, but the combination had always been one of her
favorite smells of the season.
    She removed her glasses to wipe away a thin
sheen of sweat from the bridge of her nose. She'd forgotten about the damned
humidity. The warm temperature was calming, but the moisture in the air made
her clammy. She put her glasses back on, hoping she didn't look like a complete
mess when she saw the three Langley brothers.
    The blacktop basked her bare feet in pleasant
warmth. It had been forever since she'd walked down the road without shoes on—a
childhood habit that was strangely summoned from its jaded sleep upon walking
back into this bluegrass region of innocence.
    Her thoughts shifted to the tape she'd turned
into the police in another city in California. Beck Hammond would never hurt
her