First Taste of Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page B

back of her wooden chair, keeping her helpless.
    The blond smiled at her. 
    I remember him.
He’d been the needle-happy psycho outside of her hotel.
    “Now that I’ve got your attention…” The psycho murmured, “Call him.” He lifted a cell phone toward her. Not just any cell—
her
cell.
    She blinked at the guy.  The right side of her face throbbed.  “C-call who?”
    His blue eyes narrowed to slits.  “Your lover, lady. Call your bastard of a lover.”
    Blake.
She licked her lips. “I don’t exactly have his number.” It was embarrassing to admit that she’d slept with a man, and she didn’t even have his number—embarrassing, even under these bizarre circumstances.
    A muscle flexed along the blond’s jaw, and the guy lunged toward her. They were pretty much nose-to-nose, and she could clearly see the fury in his gaze. “You don’t want to fuck with me.”
    “No, I don’t,” Jess said with absolute certainty because fucking with him was so not on her agenda. But then again, kidnapping hadn’t been on her to-do list either—and look where she was.  
    “
Call him!”
Spittle flew from his mouth.
    “Give me his number!” Jess heard herself shouting right back to him. “And I will!”
    “I saw you with him,” the man snarled at her.
    Oh, crap, was he talking about the window of the hotel? The sex in the middle of the night? Because then she—
    “You were in that elevator with him. You were going up to his private suite at the Landon Hotel.  You helped to save the bastard.”
    The fear in her belly blossomed even more. “You were the shooter.” The one who’d escaped before Blake’s men could apprehend him.
    The fellow backed away, and she realized that his left shoulder appeared bulky.  Maybe because there was a bandage under the fabric of his shirt?
    His fingers slid over the phone’s screen. “You’re going to call Blake Landon—
    “I don’t have the—”
    “
I’ll give you the damn number!”
    Jess tensed.
    “You’re going to call him, and you’re going to say that you need to see him.  I’ll tell you a location, and you’ll get him to come and meet you.” He smirked at her. “Invite the guy over for sex, and I’m sure he’ll come running. He seemed hot enough for you in the bar last night.”
    That was last night.
“If Blake comes, wh-what are you going to do?”
    “My business.” Flat.
    Her gaze darted to the phone, then back to his face.  “You’re going to kill him.”  That was the only thing that made sense to her.  The guy was using her as bait to lure in Blake. Once Blake took the bait, he’d be dead. “You tried to shoot him last night, and you’re going to try and kill him again.”
    His eyes had narrowed to chips of blue ice. “If you don’t make the fucking call, I will slice your throat open and watch you bleed out—and I’ll be smiling even as you fight to live just a few more precious seconds.”
    Nausea clenched her stomach. 
He’ll kill me after he kills Blake. 
“This was supposed to be my honeymoon,” Jess heard herself mumble. “I was going to get married here in Vegas. Then we were going to gamble and see magic shows.”  Tears stung her eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to die here.”
    The blond frowned at her. “You were marrying Landon? That’s even fucking better!”
    “No.” She swallowed to try and ease the pain in her chest. The pain that came from knowing—
I’m going to die.
“I was going to marry a guy named Joe, but I caught him screwing around on me with my best friend.  I came out to Vegas by myself. I wanted some excitement.”
    His brows rose. “Looks like you found it.”
    No. She’d found death.  Because she was
not
going to let this crazy asshole use her. “I don’t think Sin City was for me.”
    He leaned toward her. The blade of a knife pressed to her throat.  “It’s time for the call.”
    A tear slipped down her cheek. She hadn’t been able to blink that one away. “Yes,” she