Night Hunter Read Online Free PDF Page B

base of the palmettos. She smiled at images of raccoons, deer, turtles, bright green frogs and exquisitely beautiful birds, but those creatures commanded only a small corner of her mind. Laird Jaeger was out there somewhere.
    As thoughts of alligators and panthers and snakes replaced those of gentle deer and white-feathered birds, she scrambled out of bed. Her nightgown was supposed to be knee-length, but she must have thrashed about so that it was now wound about her waist. Either that or her phantom not-quite-lover was responsible.
    Determined not to let carnal need control her again, she yanked on jogging shorts and tucked her nightgown into the waistband. Then she grabbed her purse and stepped into the empty hall. She didn’t encounter anyone in the parking lot, a good thing because how could she explain what she was doing?
    I lost a man earlier today. And now I’m going out on a moonless night to see if I can find him.
    Right!
    After starting her car, she headed west. By the time she reached Alligator Alley, the first hint of day had begun. No matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t deny or ignore the need humming between her legs. She turned on her radio and flipped through stations, but there was no news of a missing man.
    “I’m coming, I’m coming,” she muttered, the hollow promise in time with the sound her tires made. A few people were already on the road. None had any hint that something terrifying and unexplainable had happened out here yesterday.
    It still wasn’t light enough that she could get by without headlights by the time she pulled off the road, and she could only pray Laird had survived his pitch-black night. She killed the engine, but instead of getting out, she leaned forward against the steering wheel. If only she could kill, or at least ignore, the weight of unfilled sexual need.
    Stop feeling as if she was in heat.
    Through the open window, she caught smells and sounds that must have taken over Laird’s every thought. While she was driving, she’d half convinced herself she’d find him waiting for her. She’d invite him into her car. Eyes locked with hers, his strong hand gripping her arm, he’d tell her how he’d escaped and how he wouldn’t have been able to do it if it hadn’t been for her. How he intended to reward her.
    She’d admit he’d found his way into her dreams, and she’d wakened early because she’d known the time to get him had arrived. They’d shake their heads and then—
    And then he’d take her in his arms and explain he’d survived so he could have her. Then he’d strip off her clothes and…
    He wasn’t here.
    Fear surged through her, and she pounded her fist against the steering wheel. “This can’t be happening! It can’t!”
    But it had. That reality propelled her out of the car. It wasn’t until she was standing on warm, slithering sand that she realized she’d left the motel room without her shoes.
    He didn’t have any either. She knew that as clearly as she’d ever known anything.
    “What happened to them?” she managed. A truck rumbled past, pushing hot air against her.
    “I don’t know.”
    Weak with relief, she sagged against her car’s fender. “Are you all right?”
    “Yes.”
    “What do you want me to do? I tried—the police didn’t believe me. Why can’t you come to me?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Is there—”
    “I’m not alone.”
    “You aren’t?”
    “Night Hunter.”
    “Who or what is that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Are you safe?”
    “I think so.”
    “Thank God. I couldn’t sleep,” she babbled. “I kept thinking—I tried to call everyone in Naples with your name, but no one was home. Are they relatives?”
    “Yes.”
    “What do you want me to do?”
    “What’s your name?”
    “My—Mala Bey.”
    “Talk to me, Mala Bey.”
    Barely aware of what she was saying, she told him she was twenty-nine and lived near Naples, that she worked as a medical secretary but had been on her way to Fort