Woman On the Run Read Online Free PDF

enough when he faced his hangover without tossing in pneumonia.
    But Bernie would owe him. Big-time. Playing nursemaid and facing grade school teachers were not high on Cooper’s list of favorite pastimes.
    Cooper stood outside the door of the schoolroom. He didn’t have any more reason to wait. The little plaque outside the door confirmed that this was Miss S. Anderson’s classroom. He pressed his face against the glass pane of the door, hoping the room would be empty, but the lights in the corridor were so bright all he could see was his own face reflected back at him.
    He looked as annoyed as he felt.
    Fuck. I don’t want to do this , he thought, pressing his lips together. He moved forward anyway, wondering if he should knock on the door. Then he thought…what the hell…turned the knob and pushed the door open. A thousand tons of bricks fell on his head.
    “Wha…?” Cooper found himself against the classroom wall, legs splayed out. He raised his hand to his head and felt a large sore area he was certain would start turning into a whopper of a goose egg very soon. His hand came away wet and for a panicky moment he thought it was blood, then he saw it was orange glop and big white seeds.
    Pumpkin? He stared for a moment at his hand, covered with pumpkin pulp and seeds. He’d been brained with a pumpkin ?
    “Don’t move,” a high tight voice warned him. A small, slender, beautiful woman faced him, panting and shaking.
    She was terrified, Cooper realized.
    She should have been a redhead. Though her hair was a dull shade of brown, she had the pale skin and deep turquoise eyes of a redhead. She reminded him of a fox cub he had once come across, paw caught in a trap. The cub was mortally wounded and he wanted to free it from the trap but the cub had hissed and growled and tried to bite him with baby milk teeth.
    So he sat in the puddle of pumpkin glop and stared at her while she hyperventilated and trembled.
    She held a small spray can aimed at him, held in unsteady hands. It was a replica of the breath freshener he had in his bathroom. “This is Mace,” she lied. “If you make a move…just one move, I’ll spray you.”
    He’d already brushed his teeth, so he stayed put.

* * * * *
    Now what?
    Julia kept her finger on the spray nozzle, hoping the can wouldn’t just squirt out of her sweaty, trembling hands. Sweat fell into her eyes but she didn’t dare wipe it away. She could barely breathe. Oxygen deprivation was shooting colored sparks in front of her eyes. Trying to knock this terrifying man out was the bravest thing she’d ever done in her life, but it was useless pulling a Xena, Warrior Princess act if she fell into a dead faint right after.
    Footsteps sounded in the corridor. Keeping wide eyes on the terrifying man sitting against the wall, she edged towards the door.
    “Jim!” she yelled. “Call the sheriff! Tell him I’ve got a dangerous criminal here. Tell him to get over here now !” Julia shifted her gaze slightly and saw Jim drop his mop and hustle out the door. Her eyes flickered back to the man sitting against the wall.
    Even sitting down, he was scary as hell. Braining him with Mr. Big hadn’t knocked him out. Long, massively built with shoulders a yard wide, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater, black bomber jacket and jeans, with hard dark features and dark glittering hyperaware eyes, he looked every inch a killer. Her hand trembled. Thank God she had thought of the little spray can of breath freshener in her purse.
    “Don’t move,” Julia said again, breathlessly, trying to crouch in a gun stance. She was so frightened it felt as if her chest were being squeezed in a giant’s grasp. The terror of the past month came rushing back tenfold, all wrapped up in one long, lean, broad-shouldered package. Obsidian-black eyes fixed on her, and she knew that the man was calculating his next move. This man was a professional killer. How long could she hope to keep him at breath spray