Princess Read Online Free PDF Page B

assured her. “What’s your name?”
    Jess squinted through the rain. “My name? I’m—”
    Something stopped her from answering. She didn’t know the man on the motorcycle; she didn’t know the voice on the other end of the phone, and she had been attacked earlier.
    No names, she decided.
    “My name doesn’t matter. Just hurry with that ambulance.”
    “They’re five minutes away. Don’t worry, it won’t be long now. Is he breathing? Can you check that for me now?”
    “It’s hard to tell.” Jess searched, trying to feel his breath. “I can’t be sure. It’s windy out here. Sweet heaven, just
hurry.
”
    “Stop shouting, will you?”
    The voice was shaky, originating somewhere near her wrist, and Jess dropped the phone in shock when she realized it was the biker. His eyes were open, staring at her. “What the hell happened to me?”
    “You’re alive,” she whispered, closing her eyes in relief.
    The man on the ground rolled his shoulders and grunted in pain. “Yeah, I’m alive, even though you tried to flatten me with that damned Jeep of yours.”
    “Listen, I was trying to avoid you. First the van crossed into my lane, and then the truck was there, skidding toward me, and you—” Jess took a nervous breath. “I don’t think you should be talking.”
    “Yeah, we’ll argue the details later after my head stops feeling like razors drilling in from both sides.” He dragged his backpack over his shoulder and struggled to his feet.
    “Don’t do that!” She lunged toward him as he pulled off his helmet. “You’ve been hit. You’re not supposed to move at all after something like that.”
    “I’m okay,” he growled, swaying.
    Jess leaned into him, grabbing his waist when he started to stumble. “You’re not fine. You can barely stand up.”
    Lights cut toward them. Both of them went still. A big blue van eased onto the shoulder and stopped.
    “About time.”
    “Who’s that?” Jess asked anxiously.
    “Don’t worry, they’re friends of mine.”
    “How did they get here so fast?” Jess looked down at the cell phone she’d dropped on the ground. “Wow. Your friend must really be good.”
    A man in a nylon parka walked around the side of the van, carrying a medical bag. He looked at Jess, then frowned at the man she was struggling to hold upright.
    “Mr. Randall, I take it?”
    “That’s right.”
    “You shouldn’t be standing up. You shouldn’t have moved at all.”
    Shaking his head, the man in the parka raised a small white penlight and flashed it briefly at Jess, then at the man beside her. In the sudden light Jess had her first good look at her victim’s face.
    “You?”
She struggled out from beneath the man’s arm and backed up fast. “You’ve been following me, haven’t you? Listen, my sister’s an FBI agent, and if you touch me again, I’m calling her.” When she continued to back up, Jess banged into the fender of her car and grunted in pain.
    “Hold on.” The doctor frowned at her. “There’s been a misunderstanding, but I’m certain we can straighten it out.”
    “Good luck trying. The woman’s crazy.” Her victim sat down abruptly on the opposite fender of her Jeep, swaying a little. “Tell Izzy she’s the suspect I told him about.”
    “Me?”
Jess glared back at him. “In that case, tell your Izzy, whoever she is, that
you
knocked me out and locked me in a hotel room.”
    “Because you were about to scream.” The man on her fender shook his head, then winced. “What the hell were you doing in my shower?”
    Jess preferred not to remember. It was a standard part of her hotel assessment to see if she could have other guests switched from their rooms, but it wasn’t
her
fault that the clerk had agreed so easily. Nor did it explain how this man called Randall had bypassed hotel security and made his way into her room so easily. “Never mind me. How did you get inside? My door was locked, I’m certain of that.”
    The man on the fender of