Taken by Surprise Read Online Free PDF

bed where first Xavier and then Phay had touched her, but she could lie here and stare at the ceiling until dawn, when Phay would send for her again.
    And then what? Endure another day of his charming company?
    "If that's what you have to do." She reminded herself that each dinner on the terrace, each stroll around the compound, each venture into another part of the castle-like fortress of Veng Kim Phay's home offered her another piece of research that might lead her to figuring a way out.
    She didn't know if Adrien had found her Facebook post. Roumduol had smashed her BlackBerry before dragging her out of the hotel. She didn't even know if Adrien would understand the message if he read it. Michael wouldn't come for her. With the undercover agent from the FBI dead…
    A vision flashed through her memory. She saw comforting, but carefully guarded eyes in an American face and lips that spilled orders in an authoritative voice lightly underlined with assurance. Those lips had held back the screams for as long as he could manage before the pain became too much, before the knife came down.
    Rhonda gave her head a violent shake to rid herself of the memory. She had taken one look at Roumduol's partner and known instinctively the man must be the undercover FBI agent that had helped save Ryan Magee off the docks in Silver Springs. Seeing him had brought her a hope and comfort that morphed to dread and fear when Phay turned on the guy after welcoming her into the compound. The agent's cover had been blown. She'd watched as Phay's men advanced on him, seen the horrors they'd inflicted, and known she couldn't count on anyone but herself to get out of this alive.
    "The clock is ticking, Rhonda girl." And time might just be running out. She started to feel that way tonight. She walked side by side with a malicious drug lord, listened to his incessant chatter, marveled at his smiles and the things he offered her, heard the minutes of her life ticking by.
    Phay had let her end the night early. She didn't believe he would let her off so easily the next time. He wouldn't kill her, at least not yet. Would he rape her? Definitely. Torture her? Yes, and without an ounce of remorse in his demonic black heart. Keep her? If she gave him his way, agreed to the conditions he put before her.
    He tortured her enough by keeping her locked in this room. Bars blocked the single window, and Xavier guarded the door from the hall. When faced with the choices of suddenly becoming a woman with superhuman strength to break through steel bars or taking down a man ten times meaner, stronger, and uglier than she, Rhonda went for option number three. She lay on the floor and racked her brain for any other option.
    What her gaze landed on brought a smile to her face and pages of past research to mind. Phay's compound might be built with the durability of a fortress, but the structure was old and reminded her of the places she had seen in architectural plans with all the hidden passages and ductwork large enough to accommodate a human. Ductwork with an entrance much like the one she stared up at now.
    Too easy. Too predictable. "This isn't fiction land. You're in the real world." And things like escaping a locked room through an air conditioner vent simply didn't happen anywhere outside of books and movies.
    Despite that knowledge, it didn't stop her mind from plotting out the escape. She ran though each possible scenario, and, as she did so, she drifted off to sleep.
     
    * * * *
     

    The soft pop split the silence like a shot from a bolt-action rifle. Michael waited and listened. When he felt certain no one else heard the sound, he eased the metal grate down, using the blade of the knife in his free hand as a mirror to see into the space below without revealing his presence. The room appeared to be empty save for the sleeping form directly below the ventilation duct.
    Years as an agent kept his heartbeat steady at his first sight of Rhonda. She lay utterly still on