Read Player's Challenge for Free Online Page A

emergency. I was assaulted and I need the police…and possibly the paramedics. I have a nasty gash over my eye. ”
    “Gemma?”
    Stunned, Gemma looked at the phone. How did the operator already know her name?
    “Yeah,” she whispered.
    “What happened?”
    Crap! She didn’t call the emergency operator, she’d accidently speed dialed Devin.
    “This guy,” she swallowed to keep from breaking down. “This guy tried to take my purse. I refused you know because the bag cost me fifteen hundred bloody pounds. A girl deserved to treat herself every now and then. So…he attacked me.”
    “Give me your address.”
    Gemma wasn’t sure why she consented, but her address tumbled from her lips.
    “I’ll call the police. You sit tight and lock the door. Is anyone with you?”
    Still somewhat out of it, she nodded into the cell phone.
    “Gemma?”
    “Yeah, my neighbor, Timothy, is here.”
    “Can he sit with you until I get there?”
    Gemma glanced at Timothy. “Can you stay with me until the bobbies arrive?”
    Timothy nodded. “He’ll stay,” she mumbled as she curled her legs beneath her. “Really Devin, you don’t have to come.”
    But she was already talking to a dead line.
    ***
    Vaguely, Gemma could hear voices conferring around her, Pepper lay at her feet and a particularly dogged female inspector kept asking her the same questions. Fed up and needing some fresh air, Gemma moved to stand.
    Barely out of her seat, she stalled. Devin stood on the edge of her family room talking with one of the detectives. A dark expression mottled his handsome face and he was scowling directly at her.
    Sufficiently debriefed, he stalked toward her. Gulping Gemma sat back down. The female detective must have sensed the anger rolling off him as well because she scrambled off the couch. Pepper followed, opting to keep her owner company.
    Devin crouched down in front of her, his hands settling on either side of her. Still dressed in the t-shirt and cargos he’d worn earlier, he had a bad case of bed head. Dishevelment looked great on him, made him more handsome, and oh so fuckable.
    “Are you okay?” His eyes zeroed in on the butterfly bandage above her brow.
    Feeling self-conscious, Gemma reached up and brushed her fingers against the tape used to close the shallow gash. “Yeah, I’m okay,” she mumbled. She deserved to be ripped into, she could’ve been raped or worse.
    “Good. We’ll talk in the car.”
    Gemma frowned. “In the car? Where are we going?”
    “Go upstairs and pack an overnight bag. You’re coming home with me.”
    “I-I’m going to my mum’s.”
    “Isn’t she away on a cruise?”
    Gemma nodded. Wait. How did he know her parents were on a cruise?
    “You’re staying with me, Gemma. Now go throw some things in a bag.”
    Far from being a doormat, she held her ground. “How do you know my mother is out of town?”
    Devin glanced over his shoulder. He had a right to be cagey. Every single person was zeroed in on their conversation.
    “Do you want our conversation to be on the Daily Mail ?”
    Gemma nibbled on her bottom lip. “I’ll go pack a bag,” she consented, but not liking it one bit.

    Devin gripped the Panamera’s steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. Better than wringing Gemma’s neck. Tonight, she’d given him the biggest fright of his life. Unable to hold his tongue any longer, he turned slightly toward her. Just enough to keep his eyes on the road, but also convey he meant business.
    “What were you thinking?”
    She took so long to answer he stole a glance at her. Her plump bottom lip was clamped between her teeth as she traced an invisible circle on the window.
    “Too stupid to live?”
    “Beyond stupid.” Devin squeezed the leather steering wheel tighter. “And over a bleedin’ purse.”
    Devin eyed the kelly green bag perched in her lap. Growing angrier by the second, he suddenly picked it up and turned it upside down.
    “What are you doing?” Her wallet,