Hidden (To Love A Killer #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

you,” she said, her tone flat and low, seething with disgust. She thought she heard her voice crack, wavering in its conviction with fear, but it didn’t matter. He was already laughing at her, enjoying her like a performance. “If you leave now, I won’t call the police, but if you don’t...” Her voice trailed off into a thin whisper until it was nothing more than a thread, “I’ll kill you.”
                  The smile faded slowly from his face, as his eyes grew dark, menacing. He turned the knife handle over in his hand, and over again, thinking, envisioning where he might plunge it into her, where he would most like to thrust it in. His mouth pressed into a hard line. Hunter knew he probably wasn’t allowed to seriously harm her, only retrieve her. The real blows would be saved for when she was back at the farmhouse, though she knew anything could happen between now and then. He could deliver her in a bloody mess, making any argument he wanted to excuse her beaten state. If that’s what he really wanted to do, Hunter knew he could.
                  “Leave right now,” she said, making every effort to raise her voice.
                  “You know I’m not going to leave, not without you, Hunter,” he said coldly. His voice was devoid of humanity. There wasn’t a shred, not a trace of compassion. It was as though he was soulless, a dark shell of a man. “Come here.” The command sounded more like a threat.
                  “I haven’t done anything,” she replied, as her voice cracked with distress, paving the way for tears. “I haven’t said a word to anyone. Just let me be, please. You don’t need me. No one up there needs me for anything. And I won’t say a word to anyone. No one will ever know. I promise.” She hated that she was being reduced to begging. Tears rolled slowly from the corners of her eyes, betraying her deepest fears, and there was nothing she could do about it.
                  “You know too much,” he said.
                  “But you know I haven’t done anything with it. I just want to live my life, that’s all. I’m not going to report anything. You know that. If I was going to, then I would have already,” she said.
                  The man extracted a roll of duct tape from his pocket and lifted it to his mouth. After locating the edge, he bit and pulled, tugging at it sharply. The noise, shrill bursts, made Hunter quake. It was too familiar. 
                  “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” he barked.
                  Hunter glared at him for a long moment. Her mind raced with thoughts that overlapped so chaotically that she couldn’t make sense of anything. She couldn’t see a way out of this. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath, and her pounding heart only drove her into panic. It was overwhelming. As her anxiety mounted, she became seized in the cold grip of despair.
                  Finally, she lowered her gaze and began slowly turning as instructed. In the corner of her eye, she could see the man smirk, pursing his lips grotesquely. He snorted, laughing at her defeat.
                  Her back was to him.
                  Then a surge of adrenaline, powerful and raw, swept through her, jolting Hunter to action when she realized her purse was concealed from his view.
                  Hunter quickly yanked the front flap up and grabbed the zipper, which stuck for a second, alarming her. It was an old purse and if the zipper wasn’t pulled at a particular angle, the metal tended to lock up. Time seemed to slow down and speed up all at once. She sensed the man lunging towards her. She could hear his heavy boot steps, hollow echoes against the hard wood floor.
                  All of a sudden, the zipper scratched open, permitting her hand to grasp tightly around the cool handle