Page 5 of On the Chase
Kaylee’s skin prickled with heat before flashing cold, her initial relief overtaken by alarm. There was something wrong. Maybe she was basing her cop knowledge on too many TV shows, but Kaylee was pretty sure that a detective wouldn’t be wearing a uniform. There was also a tenseness in the officer’s posture, in the way he glanced behind him as if checking to make sure no one else was around. Her brain spun as she tried to think clearly, tried to figure out what she was going to do. All her instincts were screamingDanger!
He refocused on her, his light-blue eyes cold and strangely familiar. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” she asked, even as she reluctantly moved toward him. Although she wasn’t sure what she was going to do, Kaylee knew she couldn’t accomplish anything in this small room. With the creepy cop blocking the door, she couldn’t escape it, either.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped back, allowing her to leave the room. As she passed close to him, her gaze dropped to the gold name tag pinned to his starched uniform shirt pocket.
L. Jovanovic.
Numb, Kaylee walked down the narrow hallway, followed closely by Martin’s…what? Nephew? Son? Much younger brother? His hand latched around her upper arm, exactly where Martin had grabbed her earlier, and she flinched. Her breath wanted to come quickly, but she couldn’t show her fear. Her lungs burned as she forced each inhale to slow, each exhale to come out silently, rather than in a terrified sob.
Right before they reached the end of the corridor, the cop steered her toward a door marked Stairs. Just as she’d known she wouldn’t survive if she’d gone back into Martin’s mansion, Kaylee knew, deep in her gut, not to enter the stairway with L. Jovanovic.
Forcing herself to stay outwardly relaxed, to stay compliant and pliable under his hold, Kaylee stepped toward the door, her hands reaching for the release bar. Before she pressed it, though, she wrenched free of his grip and sprinted for the next hallway. She needed to find other people, other cops. L. Jovanovic had taken her out of the room where she’d been trapped like a mouse in a tiny box. He was steering her away from cameras, away from somewhere they could be seen. He wanted to get her alone to do whatever he was planning, and Kaylee knew her survival depended on preventing that.
When she pulled away, he didn’t shout, didn’t call out after her, reinforcing her suspicion that he was trying to avoid drawing attention. The silence doubled her fear. She expected him to grab her hair or the back of her dress at any second. Dragging in ragged breaths, she ran faster.
At the intersecting corridor, she turned left without looking, tearing down the hall. She fought the urge to glance behind her, knowing it would only slow her down, make her stumble, allow him to catch her. Instead, she sprinted down the quiet hallway, desperately wishing for someone—anyone—to step into view.
As if she’d summoned them, two uniformed cops rounded the corner. Kaylee tried to stop, but her momentum carried her forward. She would’ve crashed into one of the officers if he hadn’t caught her by the shoulders.
“Whoa,” he said, steadying her. “What’s your rush?”
With the two other cops there, she risked a glance behind her and caught a glimpse of Jovanovic as he ducked back into the hallway she’d just escaped. Turning to the officers, she took a breath, ready to blurt out the entire story.
Before she could, the tortured man’s words came back to her, and her mouth snapped shut. What if they didn’t believe her? After all, they worked with Officer Jovanovic—maybe even were friends with him. Worse yet, what if Martin had them in his back pocket? Although the station was huge, employing hundreds of officers, it would be just her luck that these two cops were ones on the Jovanovic payroll.
“Sorry,” she said, stalling for time. “I didn’t see you there.”
“No problem. I’m used to beautiful women throwing themselves at me.” The other cop snorted, but the one holding her shoulders ignored the skeptical sound. “Were you here visiting someone?”
Kaylee seized on the excuse with both hands. “Yes! Um…I mean, yes. My boyfriend. But we started arguing, and…” Trailing off, she shrugged, and the cops exchanged a look. Sweat prickled along her hairline. It sounded so weak, but the fake explanation had worked on the valet, and her brain was too scattered to come up with a better story.
Even though she’d scrubbed her hands in the bathroom until they were raw, and the sweatshirt covered most of her bloodstained dress, she felt like everything she’d seen, everything she’d experienced, was written on her forehead. The cops would never believe her. They’d march her back to that tiny interrogation room and leave her there, vulnerable. If that happened, she was dead. Literally.
“Jovanovic?” one of them asked, and her whole body jerked with shock.He knew!Her body went hot and then cold, and her mind filled with panicked escape plans before all thought was overwhelmed with the need to run. “He’s the boyfriend? No loss there. Pretty girl like you can do better than Logan.” The two cops exchanged another glance.
“Anyonewould be better than Jovanovic,” the other one muttered.
The pounding of her heart slowed as their words registered, and she sucked in an audible breath, relief slamming into her. They didn’t know. They’d seen Logan Jovanovic darting away, so they assumed he was her boyfriend. The cops were eyeing her curiously. Shaking off the remaining blanket of terror, she tried to piece together a sentence that made sense.
“I know.” Her voice still shook. “I’m learning he’s not the Disney prince I thought he was.”
One of the cops turned away, obviously hiding a laugh in a cough, while the other fought a smile. Giving her shoulders a squeeze, he dropped his hands. “You’re right about that. Logan’s definitely not any kind of prince. Want us to walk you out?”
“Sure.” Kaylee couldn’t quite manage a smile. She was close, so close, to escape that it almost made everything more terrifying. “That would be great. Thank you.”
The two cops fell in next to her as they walked through the maze of hallways. Although it was late, they passed quite a few people, both in uniform and street clothes. Kaylee was even more grateful for her escort; she would’ve never found her way out of the sprawling station otherwise.
“So, you’re definitely dumping Logan, then?” one of her chaperones asked.
“Oh yes.” An image of Noah flashed through her mind, but it was quickly replaced by the mental picture of the tortured men. “We’re done.”
The cop patted her shoulder blade. “Smart.”
Kaylee didn’t feel smart. She felt anxious and scared out of her mind and hunted. Everything she’d done so far had been based in stupid panic. She’d have to start thinking three steps ahead, or Martin Jovanovic was going to find her.
She needed to start being smart. Otherwise, she was dead.
