Read Relative Strangers for Free Online Page B

she spoke, she got to her feet. "Where did they take her?"
    He straightened, holding the ice bucket in one hand. "Sit down."
    "Just answer me. What do you want from me?"
    "Sit," he said.
    "No, damn it. Answer me."
    "You're getting on my nerves." He took a menacing step toward her.
    Meg cringed inwardly but refused to back down. "What are you going to do? Hit me again?"
    "I didn't hit you the first time, but I'll knock you flat if you push me."
    Her gaze dropped down the length of his body, taking in the sinewy muscles beneath his shirt and jeans. He wasn't a muscleman, but he was strong and agile, steely. She didn't doubt for an instant that he could do major damage with one punch, but she also sensed that he had no intention of harming her. He'd had plenty of opportunity to rape her when she was unconscious. And he could have beat her senseless with the fire extinguisher after she slammed him with it—he'd looked angry enough. Yet he had done none of these things—he hadn't even restrained her in any way.
    But she sat as he'd ordered, her back against the wall. If she didn't relent, he might decide he could handle her better bound and gagged. And that would diminish her chances of escaping.
    His lips were set in a straight line as he plunked the bucket on the bed. Taking a towel from a cabinet along the wall, he made an ice pack and handed it down to her. "For your head."
    She hesitated. Now he wanted to treat her injuries? She accepted the towel and weighed its prospects as a weapon. It wouldn't serve as well as the fire extinguisher, but then, that hadn't proved all that effective. She glanced around for something better as he started another ice pack. The cell phone sat on the table next to the bed, a few feet away.
    His movements were swift and jerky as his annoyance grew. "I saved your ass, lady," he said. "For that, I think I de-serve better than a fire extinguisher bashed into my back. The only thing that saved me from getting my butt kicked was that the bigger one went after your friend. By the time I got there, the other one was all over you."
    He gave the ends of the towel a twist and shoved it at her. His diamond-hard gaze dropped to her lips and then to the left, softening. She was going to have one hell of a bruise along her jaw where Goon Number One had punched her. For a moment, he wished he'd had the presence of mind at the time to beat the guy bloody. But then he wondered why he should give a damn what happened to her. She didn't seem to give a damn what had happened to Beau.
    "Put that on your jaw." He turned his back.
    Meg scrambled to her knees, seized the phone, fumbled for the power button, and jabbed a finger at nine-one-one.
    He faced her. "What are you doing?"
    "Calling for help." What an idiot.
    "You don't even know where you are," he said.
    "They can trace the call."
    "The battery's dead."
    She threw it at him. It bounced off his temple and clattered to the floor in pieces. Meg didn't wait to see whether it stunned him—she dove for the door.
    This time, she managed to turn the knob and get it open before he plowed into her from behind. She sprawled head-long into a larger, more elaborate compartment with a door at the other end.
    He flipped her onto her back, and she thrashed, kicking and screaming for help, more startled by his strength than the fear of what he might do to her. He had already shown that he had no intention of using the gun—he'd just had the perfect opportunity to shoot her in the back and hadn't.
    Still, she was afraid she had pushed him too far as he leaned over her, his face red with rage, blood trickling down his temple. Grappling for the hands that pummeled his face, he captured her wrists and flattened them to the floor on either side of her head. "Be still, damn it."
    Meg writhed, fighting his restraint even though she already knew she had lost. "Get off."
    "Not until you calm down."
    She bucked under him, arching her back off the floor. "Get off!"
    "I'm not going to