A Twist of Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page A

her to Lakeside Campground. They were completely alone. The campground was closed for the winter season and wouldn’t be open for six months. She and Dan had camped there several times in the past six years. Dan had asked her to marry him here.
    She couldn’t think about that now.
    The man with the beard pulled her up against him. She felt the hardness of him and tried to shrink away, only to find it impossible.
    “I’ll take this.” His breath hit her face, and her stomach twisted into a knot.
    To her disgust, she felt his hand at the juncture of her legs. For two horrible seconds, she thought he was going to rape her, but then he moved his hand, picked the pocket of her jeans, and took her cell phone. He slipped it easily into his own pocket.
    His hands on her sent terror though her in cold waves. Then he pulled her toward a second van hidden in the nearby trees. She couldn’t let him put her into his van.
    “Please let me go—” she tried again. “You don’t need me anymore. By the time the police find me, you’ll be miles away.”
    He stopped and looked at her, and Justine recognized unmistakable determination in his eyes. “I already told you—the entire robbery—it was all staged just so I could get my hands on you, Mrs. Franklin. I’ve been following you for long time, watching and waiting for the right moment.”
    His words along with the knowledge that he had targeted her, pierced her like a knife and filled her with a sick feeling. Despite the gun, she had no choice but to fight now. There was no way she could let this man take her.
    “If it’s because I tried to defend someone you know and lost, you have to know I did everything I could…”
    His laughter rang through the empty campground.
    It took all her will power to look him in the eye and keep her composure. She told herself she’d defended worse criminals in the courtroom. She just was never alone with any of them. “You can’t do this. Whatever your reason, you’re only making things worse for yourself. Right now, all you’re facing are robbery charges.”
    She forced her voice to remain even and knew better than to tell him that kidnapping charges had been known to carry the same penalty as murder. “If you let me go unharmed right now, right here,” she continued, “I think things would go much easier for you when you’re caught—”
    “ When I’m caught?” he said, pulling her even closer to him. His length touched hers, and Justine experienced a soul-ripping invasion of private space at the contact. “I’ve got someone who can help me. Someone on the inside. So who says I’m getting caught?”
    Someone on the inside? “In case you’re caught,” she corrected herself.
    “I’m not getting caught,” he said. “So it probably doesn’t matter what I do to you, does it?”
    His words, as well as the possible truth of them, sent more terror through her.
    “No!” She kicked out at him at the same time.
    He was forced to let go of her as he let out a loud grunt of pain. But Justine didn’t get far as he grabbed her by her ponytail and pulled her back against him. He spoke right into her ear. “Don’t try that again, Counselor. I might enjoy hurting you.”
    He leaned closer, as if to bury his nose in her hair. When he spoke, his voice was rough. “Of course you might enjoy it, too. From what I understand you like a change of pace from your husband now and then, right?”
    What? How could he know? She wasn’t even certain of things. No one knew. No one but her and…
    Justine didn’t move, forcing herself to remain absolutely perfectly still. She could dwell on that later. Now she needed to escape and survive and get back to Dan. She didn’t want to give in, not even enough to nod that she understood.
    They reached the van, and he slid the side door open. “Get in,” he ordered.
    It was then that Justine’s heart dropped to her feet.
    From through the trees, not too far away from the direction of the highway,