Ransom At Christmas. Barb Han

Чтение книги онлайн.

       Chapter One

      Torpedoing through trees at breakneck speed, Kelly Morgan drew a frustrating blank as she glanced down at the intricately detailed bodice of the white dress she wore. Branches slapped at her face and torso, catching the puffy layers of the full-length dress. She pushed ahead, anyway, because a voice in the back of her mind rang out, loud and clear.

      It shouted, Run!

      Trying to recall any details from the past few hours, let alone days, cramped her brain. All she remembered clearly was that there’d been a man in a tuxedo trying to force some kind of clear liquid down her throat.

      Other than that, Kelly was clueless as to what she was doing in a white dress and her dress cowgirl boots barreling through the woods on a random ranch.

      A cold front had moved in and she was shivering in her formal attire. Instinct told her to follow the creek.

      As she fought her way through the underbrush, a vine caught the toe of her right boot. Her ankle twisted, shooting pain up her leg and causing her to stumble forward a few steps as she tried to regain balance.

      Those couple of steps couldn’t stabilize her.

      Momentum shot her forward onto all fours.

      Thankfully, she missed banging her head on a mesquite tree by scarcely two inches. Her knees weren’t so lucky. They scraped against thorny branches. Rocks dug into her palms as she landed on the hard, unforgiving earth.

      It was probably adrenaline that stopped her from feeling the pain of her knees being jabbed by rough edges and her hands being cut by sharp rocks.

      Or whatever was in that glass of water the tall, bulky tuxedo-wearing male figure had forced down her throat.

      “Tux” seemed familiar but she couldn’t pull out why. And the drink he’d tried to shove down her throat? Kelly had instantly figured out that it was laced with something. The second that tangy liquid had touched her tongue, she realized how much trouble she was in. The tacky metallic taste must be what it would have been like to lick a glue stick that had been dipped in vinegar.

      Of course, she’d spewed out as much of the liquid as she could, but then the dark male figure—why couldn’t she remember who he was or the details of his face?—had pushed her a few steps backward until her back was flat against the wall. He’d pressed his body against hers, pinning her. He’d been so close, mere inches from her face, and yet she couldn’t recollect the details of his face. She’d struggled for control of the glass before he forced the liquid into her mouth.

      All she recalled next was the gross metallic taste and the overwhelming feeling she wanted—no, needed!—to vomit. The cool liquid had made gurgling noises in her throat as he forced back her head. The room had spun as a dark cloud wrapped around her, squeezing, suffocating her.

      Instinct told her to fight back and get out of the bride’s room of the small wedding chapel. But why she’d been there in the first place was still fuzzy.

      The memory caused a rocket of panic to shoot through her and her brain to hurt. She pushed up to a standing position and grabbed a tree trunk to steady herself.

      Kelly blinked her eyes, forcing them to stay open by sheer force of will. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she needed to find shelter while she was still conscious. Temperatures were dropping every minute. There had to be a place she could hide and lie low until the effects of the contents of that glass wore off.

      The minute she gave in to darkness and blacked out, СКАЧАТЬ