Before Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page A

lifted his hands, palms out. “Hey, sorry, buddy.” He didn’t sound the least bit apologetic.
     
    Ryan compressed his lips. “Fuck off.” He started up the stairs. “Make yourself useful and get some coffee going.”
     
    “I could’ve interrupted you as soon as I got here instead of waiting politely,” Savage called after him, sounding too damned pleased for Ryan’s liking. Ryan wisely decided not to take the bait.
     
    The cold draft warned him she was gone before he saw the empty bedroom and the open window. He cursed. Not bothering with clothes, he raced down the stairs, ignored Savage’s startled expression, and burst through the front door.
     
    When he caught sight of her, she was already on the ground and coming around the side of the house, headed for the Volvo he’d told her about. She turned her head, saw him, and sped up.
     
    What the hell?
     
    Ryan leapt over the overgrown shrubbery concealing the porch railing and went after her. She was surprisingly fast and nimble, but the club he belonged to didn’t recruit just anyone off the street.
     
    When he was close enough to reach out and touch her, Ryan dove, caught her, and they both went down on the cold, crunchy grass. He’d curled his body around hers, taking as much of the impact as he could.
     
    To show her gratitude, she turned into a wild thing in his hold, fighting madly to be free of him as low, feral sounds escaped from her throat.
     
    He called her name, told her to stop, but she only fought him harder.
     
    He ended up taking several blows, because he was hampered by the need to not hurt her more than necessary and, frankly, small people, untrained or not, were hard to submit. A small fist struck his temple, making lights dance in front of his eyes. A slender forearm nearly crushed his Adam’s apple as a bare foot dug into the inside of his thigh and another his stomach, making him grunt in pain. A knee would’ve found his groin had he not shifted at an opportune moment.
     
    “Fuck!”
     
    Employing the technique he’d used earlier, Ryan seized her fists, yanked them over her head, and crushed her with his body. She went still, her muscles all but vibrating with tension, but her eyes gleamed up at him. Ryan wondered when he’d stepped into an alternate reality. Was this the same woman who’d initiated some of the best sex of his life?
     
    “You were only supposed to run if there was trouble,” said Ryan, his jaw so tight he wasn’t sure how the words got out.
     
    Mercy blew out the strands of hair in her mouth, all the while eyeing him with blatant mistrust. He sighed then pried the keys from her fist. She resisted until his thumb found a pressure point in her wrist. She gasped, her fingers loosening.
     
    “I’m feeling left out,” Savage called from the open doorway.
     
    Ryan felt like snarling, but he couldn’t tell the other man to go back inside. With his naked ass making one hell of a target, he didn’t feel particularly safe being outside with Mercy and no cover. The safe house’s isolated location was both a pro and con. And right at this moment, it felt like an army of ants was crawling all over the back of his neck.
     
    Ryan felt Mercy tense beneath him. His exposed back and other body parts were cold, and he didn’t think she was all that comfortable herself on the uneven ground. He wanted to simply throw her over his shoulder and carry her back inside the house, but she’d only try to run away again. Tact in combat, he knew. Tact in getting a woman to trust him was as familiar to him as the feminine obsession with footwear. He was going to have to wing it.
     
    “We’ll go inside, I’ll put on some clothes, then we’ll sit down and talk.”
     
    In silence, she continued to eye him with blatant mistrust.
     
    “I’m trying to protect you,” he said, an edge he couldn’t mask in his voice. “Trust me, if I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve done it while you were unconscious and couldn’t