Read The Heart Has Reasons for Free Online Page B

then he was
fumbling with the rope securing her ankles.  When her feet were free, he shifted
position and removed the handcuffs from her wrists.
    Pain
flamed down her arms when she lowered them.  Pulse thundering in her head,
she rolled onto her back and reached up to uncover her eyes.  He grabbed
her wrists.  “Don’t touch the blindfold.  I’m going to help you out
of the vehicle.  There’s no one around, but if you do anything stupid like
struggling with me, I’m going to hurt you.  If you understand, nod your
head.”
    She
nodded.  Following his lead, she scooted to the door.  He swung her
legs out and pulled her to her feet.  Cinching an arm about her shoulders,
he escorted her inside a building.
    She
heard the door close behind them, and then he led her to sit on the side of
what felt like a bed.  The room was hot and the musty odor threatened to
choke her.  Mindful of his threat to hurt her, she sat unmoving, terror
sharp and acrid in her mouth.  He moved away from her and then what was
clearly an air conditioner coughed to life.  A moment later, a television
blared, presumably to muffle their sounds to anyone passing by.
    The
mattress depressed as he took a seat at her side, and then he was removing the
blindfold.  She blinked and squinted against the sudden light.  As
soon as her eyes adjusted, she could see he was the masked man she’d shot — had tried to shoot — in her kitchen.  The sight of the ski mask sent a
measure of relief trickling through her.  If he were taking pains to keep
her from seeing his face, maybe he wasn’t planning to kill her.  She might
actually survive this ordeal.
    When
she tried to shift away from him, he circled an arm around her shoulders. 
Piercing blue eyes gazed impassively through the ski mask’s eyeholes.  “As
you can see, we’re in a motel.  The other rooms are unoccupied and we’re
too far from the office for the clerk to hear anything.  The rules are
very simple.  Do as I say, and I won’t hurt you.  Do something
stupid, and I will.  Do you understand?”
    She
could read plainly in the eyes behind the ski mask that he was a man who could
be ruthless and that a person would have to be either an idiot or suicidal to
cross him.  Since she was neither, she nodded.
    “You
should know that I’m an expert in administering pain.  Shall I explain in
detail what I could do to you?”  As tears welled up in her eyes, she
shuddered and shook her head.  “I’m going to remove the gag.  Scream
and it goes back on, and then I’ll hurt you.”
    She
quickly shook her head.  He reached behind her neck, there was the sound
of Velcro ripping apart, and he eased the ball from her mouth.  She
groaned as she closed her aching jaws.  Hearing the slur in her voice, she
croaked, “Who are you?  Why have you brought me here?”
    “All
you need to know is that as long as you do exactly as I say, you have
nothing to fear from me.  Are you thirsty?”
    Thirsty
didn’t even begin to describe it.  Her throat was so parched it felt as if
she’d been eating sand.  At her nod, he fished a bottled water from one of
two coolers, screwed off the cap, and held it out to her.  Accepting it,
she held it up to the light.  No obvious residue floated on the
bottom.  Sniffing revealed no suspicious odor, but then, there’d been
nothing suspect about her wine, either.
    When
she continued to hesitate, he took the bottle from her and took several
swallows from it.  “See?  Not drugged.”  Reassured, she took the
bottle back from him and guzzled so greedily that water dribbled from the
corners of her mouth.
    * * * * *
    Chase watched her as she drained the
bottle.  So far, things were going well.  She wasn’t crying or
hysterical, and hadn’t yet attempted to scream.
    He
exchanged the empty bottle for a full one.  “Go over and sit at the
table.”  She obediently complied, with him following close behind. 
Once seated at the small, fifties-vintage