Free Lost Library: An Urban Fantasy Romance by Kate Baray

herself, but she was tied up, gagged, and stuffed in the trunk of a sedan. If she had only left when John invited her, instead of delaying...
    A nice man—or werewolf, who was she to quibble over small details at this point—invites her home to meet his family. And what did she do? She ran a background check on him and passed along her travel details to a trustworthy friend. And what did that relatively sensible action get her? Nabbed by three big German-speaking guys wearing European shoes.
    At this point , Lizzie started to think her gag was just a little bit too tight and maybe she wasn’t breathing through her nose as well as she might. She must have been oxygen deprived, because what fully-oxygenated woman would dwell on European versus American men’s footwear while tied up in the trunk of a car?
    O h my god—her dogs. Her parents. She absolutely had to get home before someone told her parents she had been kidnapped. Normal people did not get kidnapped! That was a much more sensible reaction to kidnapping. Now Lizzie’s thoughts turned to torture, starving dogs, and traumatized parents. In retrospect, European footwear had been a much better choice.
    Two hours earlier, she’d been in the parking lot of the local pharmacy, going through her mental list one more time. She contemplated work, packing, arrangements for the dogs—all of the little things she needed to finish before leaving town. Only four more days, and she’d be meeting John’s pack. Kenna’s investigator, Jack something or other, had produced a thorough report within three days. Included were no red flags and a significantly better credit and cleaner traffic record than Lizzie herself had. There was nothing in the report to concern her. Not that she had expected anything else. Lizzie was usually a pretty good judge of people. A little glass-half-full, but not usually far off.
    She decided there was n o need for a runny nose just because there was change, drama, and magic in the air. So she’d made a stop at the pharmacy after picking up extra dog food. One pack of allergy meds, a new toothbrush, and a few small travel containers later, and Lizzie was feeling much better equipped for the trip.
    Returning to her mental list, she ran through the items that were left. Kenna’s mom had agreed to take the dogs, but she still needed to pack their…
    “ Ow! I’m sorry. Excuse me,” Lizzie said as she tried to regain her balance.
    A man had come from nowhere and bumped into her, making her stumble and almost fall to the ground. Darn her need to apologize for something not her fault, Lizzie thought.  A thought followed immediately by a rough hand on her arm, which continued to pull her in the direction of her stumble.
    As she looked up, Lizzie quickly saw that she was now behind a large dark car, in a large dark parking lot, and no longer visible from the street. A second man appeared and grabbed her other arm, and then both men pulled her closer to the dark car. A third man grabbed her feet, and she was suddenly horizontal to the ground and neatly lifted into the trunk of the car.
    Only then, after the trunk had closed with her inside, did Lizzie think to yell , “No! Fire! Help!”
    At first she had been surprised . Then confused. By the time she realized something was wrong, she had already been bundled into the car. It had all happened in less than ten seconds. Apparently long enough for Lizzie to notice her abductors’ European shoes, but not long enough to scream her head off.
    When she tried to pop the trunk, she found the trunk release had been removed. And the lights seemed to be secured, because she couldn’t get to the wires or the plastic tail light cover. Again, she wished she had paid more attention in self defense class. Had they covered this type of thing? Probably not, because who got locked in the trunk of a car? She couldn’t phone for help. Her cell was in her purse, which was with the European-shod men riding in the front of