Stranger in My Arms

by Madeline Harper

“What the hell’s going on with you people? First the police, and now this,” the sleepy Kramer demanded.

  “I’m looking for Kasey Halliday. I know she’s in the building somewhere—”

  “Well, she’s not in this apartment, buddy. I haven’t seen her in days. So would you please leave us alone and let us get some sleep for a change? This damned building is getting to me,” he said as he shut the door in Will’s face.

  Will tried the door of the vacant apartment. Locked tight. Then he headed to 1901. Suddenly, he was sure that Kasey had gone to check on the old woman who lived beside her. That was the answer. As soon as he knocked, she’d open the door and laugh at him for his concern. It was going to be fine. Kasey was all right. In fact, he thought he heard her voice coming from the woman’s apartment.

  He knocked softly. No one answered. He knocked again, louder this time. The apartment was deathly quiet. His knocking became a pounding. “Kasey, are you in there? Come to the door! Mrs.—” Hell, he couldn’t remember the old woman’s name. “Kasey,” he called again. “Answer me!”

  Frustrated, he threw his weight against the door. It held firm. Feeling crazed, he continued to throw himself against it again and again, pounding with his fists, and yelling Kasey’s name. He had a gut feeling she was inside that apartment. Not being able to get to her almost drove him out of his mind. She was there—he knew it! There was nowhere else for her to be. The stalker must have used the old woman to lure Kasey inside.

  He had to get into the apartment!

  * * *

  THE POUNDING STOPPED, and Abby took her hand away from Kasey’s mouth. “Don’t say a word,” she threatened.

  Kasey nodded. Did Will know she was inside? What if he walked away and stopped looking for her? No! He wouldn’t. But where was he now?

  “I’ve changed my mind,” Abby said, hurriedly pushing the wheelchair into the living room.

  Kasey let out her breath in a long sigh, and then her relief turned to icy fear as Abby reached in her handbag and pulled out a gun. She was pointing it at Kasey’s head. “We’re all going to die.”

  Kasey gasped.

  “We’re going to die together.”

  For a moment, Kasey thought she was going to faint. Her own death flashed before her eyes. She saw it happening vividly, the gun going off in a flash of red-and-black powder, the bullet entering her brain.

  Then she sat up straight, pulling herself together, and spoke to Abby, her words rumbling out in a croak. “You love him, Abby. You know that’s all that matters to you—your love for Will.”

  Abby looked confused, her eyes wildly darting about. “But nothing is working out right!” she wailed. “You’ve ruined it. Will shouldn’t care if you disappear. He should be glad! But he’s searching for you. That’s not what I planned.”

  Kasey’s thoughts bounced around frantically until she found an answer. “Let him in, Abby. We’ll talk to him. I’m sure if we explain everything, he’ll understand how much you love him—”

  For a moment, Abby hesitated. “Once I thought there might be a chance for us in spite of you, but now I know I was wrong. He loves you. So that means the end—for you and Will, for all of us.”

  Kasey gave a little moan. She was too terrified to speak.

  Abby smiled, a frighteningly eerie wisp of a smile. “Yes,” she said, her eyes lighting up crazily. “Yes! I’ll kill you both. Then—then I’ll kill myself! I can’t have him now, but I’ll have him in death. You’ll see! He won’t be yours—not ever. He’ll be mine, mine!”

  As if in a trance, Abby walked to the balcony doors, opened them and stepped outside. “If I know Will, he’ll be coming for you across the balconies. He’ll pause here at the doors and see you tied in the wheelchair. I’ll raise my gun...and you’ll watch him die.”

  Kasey’s hands clenched and unclenched. Then her fingers touched the wheelchair controls and she remembered that the chair was motorized.

  Abby continued to talk, wrapped up in her soliloquy. “It didn’t have to end this way. Will would have been mine if you’d stayed out of his life. But oh, no, you had to turn him away from me... Now all our deaths are on your head.”

  Keeping her eyes focused on Abby, Kasey moved her fingers on the controls. She heard a slight hum and knew it was just a matter of choosing the right button. Taking a deep breath, she pushed down, and the chair lunged forward, straight toward Abby.

  It took the woman a moment to react. A moment too long. The chair hit her full force, driving her back toward the edge of the balcony. The gun flew out of her hand. Pinned against the railing, Abby began to scream.

  * * *

  FROM THE EDGE of the balcony, Will froze, taking in the chilling scene before him—a woman trapped against the railing, Kasey tied to a lunging wheelchair, fumbling desperately with the controls.

  Before he could move, the railing behind the woman broke with a loud crack, and her scream pierced the night air as she fell backward, hurtling down, down, to the pavement, nineteen stories below.

  The wheelchair stopped, caught on the broken railing, but its wheels kept spinning, its motor grinding on.

  “Be still, Kasey, don’t move! You’ll upset the balance—”

  His warning came too late. One wheel lurched forward over the edge, and the chair tilted toward the terrible void. The motor churned on, and Kasey began to scream.

  Will hit the balcony running, lunged to Kasey and grabbed the wheelchair from behind. But he couldn’t move it, couldn’t pull it back.

  “Oh, God, I’m going to fall. I’m going to die!” Kasey cried.

  “No, you aren’t. I won’t let you, but you have to be still. Freeze, Kasey.” He moved away from her.

  “Will—”

  “Wait for me, and don’t even breathe.”

  Will sprinted across the balcony and through the doors, heading for Kasey’s kitchen. Wildly, he opened drawers, scattering cutlery on the floor, cursing the wasted time. Ten seconds, fifteen. His heart pounded frantically. How long would the railing hold?

  He grabbed the first knife he touched and raced back to her. The wheelchair had begun to move, gradually but steadily. He could feel it shift. Perspiration poured down his face; his breath came in ragged gasps as he used the knife to saw the ropes that bound Kasey’s arms.

  Kasey sobbed and called his name. He had to save her. All he needed was a few more seconds!

  Her hands were free! Holding her against his body, he leaned over into the empty space nineteen floors above the street, cut through the ropes around her ankles and swept Kasey into his arms. The chair, no longer balanced by her weight, plunged into the dark night.

  Epilogue

  WILL’S COTTAGE was set far back from the highway, down a tree-lined winding dirt road. It seemed to Kasey as if they were a million miles from New York City. Will had made no attempt to cut back the brush and brambles that twined around a split-rail fence. Oak and maple trees sheltered the wood-and-stone cottage that overlooked a rolling meadow, fragrant with summer flowers.

  “Wild and untamed,” Kasey murmured. “Just the way I like it.”

  “Talking about me?” Will joined her on the porch steps and gave her a lingering kiss.

  “You and the house. It’s perfect.”

  “A great place to write and concentrate, but it can get lonely.”

  “So can New York City.” Putting her arms around his waist, she kissed him thoughtfully and gave his T-shirt a little tug. “You’re wearing it again, I see.”

  Will looked down at his chartreuse shirt with the huge purple eye. “I decided it was time to take off the hex and wear it in the sunshine with the woman I love.”

  “I like the sound of that. ‘The woman I love,’” she repeated softly before kissing him again, slowly, nibbling at his lips, tasting him, loving him. The more Kasey was with Will, the more she wanted him. Of all the amazing things that had happened to her during the past weeks, that was the most amazing—and the most wonderful.

  She r
ested her head against his shoulder. “I still feel guilty that I dragged you to the park that day.”

  “You didn’t make me wear this shirt, Kasey. Who knows why I picked it? I knew there was a risk going out in daylight no matter what I was wearing. Hell, sooner or later, Abby would have tracked me down, somehow.”

  “What a tangled web of events,” Kasey mused aloud. “And it all began when the elevator at Bartow Tower stalled.” She flashed him an impish grin. “If I’d listened to my friends, I never would have struck up a conversation with a stranger, and you and I would never have met—or fallen in love.”

  “Mmm.” He moved his hand along her shoulder to her breast, eliciting a little gasp from Kasey. “Fallen madly in love,” he corrected.

  “You see, there is something good to be said about being friendly.” She snuggled close to him.

  “I have an idea we would have gotten together anyway. It was fate, Kasey. But your outgoing personality made it happen sooner. Thanks for that extra time.” He kissed her again. “Even if we had to spend it in Bartow Horror.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, the only redeeming feature of that place is that it brought us together. Thank heavens my lease is up next month.”

  “Perfect timing.”

  Kasey was curious. “Why perfect?”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “I was thinking, wondering...if you would want to—” He shook his head in amusement. “Listening to me now, no one would ever believe that I make my living with words.”

  “What is the famous television writer trying to say?”

  “Just this. I’ll be direct. Would you like to move in with me? Make things permanent?”

  Kasey was quiet.

  Will tightened his arm around her. “You’re making me very nervous.”

  “I love you, Will Mastane.” She laughed. “It’s taking some getting used to—your real name. But Eastman or Mastane, I love you. But your cottage in the woods is—”

  “A little too primitive for you?”

  “No! I like the wild and wonderful feeling here. But it’s a long commute to my job at Windows. I’m getting a handle on the job, and doing really well—”

  “That you are. And what you’re telling me is that you don’t want to give it up. You don’t want to leave the city,” Will said flatly.

  “Yes and no. Now that Fred’s back, I’ll have some time off, and I’d love to spend it here with you. In fact, I’d love to spend all my time off here.”

  “That’s more like it,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “And what about the other time?”

  “I was thinking you might want to spend some of it in the city.”

  “Now that I have a reason, you bet I would. A home in the country, a pied à terre in the city. Very chic. Sounds like the perfect life. So where will our New York hideaway be? Another high rise?”

  “No way,” Kasey said emphatically. “Something on the ground floor.”

  “A romantic brownstone apartment, maybe?”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “With a nice sunny bedroom...”

  “And a little private garden...”

  “Where we’ll live happily ever after.” Kasey sighed and settled into his arms. The setting sun blazed across the meadow and bathed them both in its golden glow. She held on tightly to Will. Thinking about all the days and nights ahead of them, she laughed softly.

  “What is it, darling?”

  “I was just fantasizing.”

  “About me and you?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t have to fantasize anymore. I’m right here.” He kissed her deeply.

  She put her arms around him and felt his body, hard and strong beneath her hands. “Yes,” she murmured. “You’re very, very real. Sometimes fantasies do come true.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-8633-7

  Stranger in My Arms

  Copyright © 1995 by Madeline Porter & Shannon Harper

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