Midnight Rainbow Read Online Free PDF

her back on the ground. When her weight came down
on her bound arms she couldn't suppress a whimper of pain. "All
right," the man said. "I'm going to cut you loose now, but if you
start acting up, I'll truss you up like a Christmas turkey again and leave you
that way. Understand?" She nodded wildly, wondering if he could see her in
the dark. Evidently he could, because he turned her on her side and she felt a
knife slicing through the tape that bound her wrists. Tears stung her eyes from
the pain as he pulled her arms around and began massaging them roughly to ease
her cramped muscles.
                  "Your daddy sent me to get you out of
here," the man drawled calmly as he began easing the tape off of her
mouth. Instead of ripping the adhesive away and taking skin with it, he was
careful, and Jane was torn between gratitude and indignation, since he'd taped
her mouth in the first place. Jane moved her mouth back and forth, restoring it
to working condition. "My daddy?" she asked hoarsely.
                  "Yeah. Okay,
now, Pris , I'm going to free your legs, but if you
look like you're even thinking about kicking me again, I won't be as easy with
you as I was the last time." Despite his drawl, there was something
menacing in his tone, and Jane didn't doubt his word.
                  "I wouldn't have kicked you the first
time if you hadn't started pawing at me like a high school sophomore!" she
hissed.
                  "I was checking to see if you were
breathing."
                  "Sure you were, and taking your time
about it, too."
                  "Gagging you was a damned good
idea," he said reflectively, and Jane shut up. She had yet to see him as
anything more than a shadow. She couldn't even put a name to him, but she knew
enough about him to know that he would bind and gag her again without a
moment's compunction. He cut the tape from around her ankles, and again she was
subjected to his rough but effective massage.
                  In only a moment she was being pulled to her
feet; she staggered momentarily before regaining her sense of balance.
                  "We don't have much farther to go; stay
right behind me, and don't say a word."
                  "Wait!" Jane whispered frantically.
"How can I follow you when I can't see you?" He took her hand and
carried it to his waist. "Hang on to my belt." She did better than
that. Acutely aware of the vast jungle around her, and with only his presence
shielding her from the night terrors, she hooked her fingers inside the
waistband of his pants in a death grip. She knotted the material so tightly
that he muttered a protest, but she wasn't about to let go of him. Maybe it
didn't seem very far to him, but to Jane, being towed in his wake, stumbling
over roots and vines that she couldn't see, it seemed
like miles before he halted. "We'll wait here," he whispered. "I
don't want to go any closer until I hear the helicopter come in."
                  "When will that be?" Jane whispered
back, figuring that if he could talk, so could she.
                  "A little after
dawn."
                  "When is dawn?"
                  "Half an hour."
                  Still clutching the waistband of his pants,
she stood behind him and waited for dawn. The seconds and minutes crawled by,
but they gave her the chance to realize for the first time that she'd truly
escaped from Turego . She was safe and free… well
almost. She was out of his clutches, she was the only
one who knew what a close call she'd had. Turego would almost certainly return to the plantation this morning to find that his
prisoner had escaped. For a moment she was surprised at her own lack of
elation, then she realized that she wasn't out of
danger yet. This man said that her father had sent him, but he hadn't given her
a name or any proof. All she had was his word, and Jane was