Her Dangerous Promise - Part 3: (Romantic Suspense Serial)

by Ashley Stryker

  “Do you think it will be enough?” Mary pressed into Thom’s comforting embrace until nothing but their clothes separated her hips from his, or her tingling breasts from his solid chest.

  “It might,” Thom’s gaze shifted, meandering a loving path down her face and settling on her upturned lips. “But we can’t stop now. Not until he’s behind bars.”

  “We can’t stop now,” she agreed, focusing in on his mouth until, as if by the flame of her need alone, those lips closed the final distance between them.

  He matched her hunger. Thom crushed her mouth under his, plundering with his demanding tongue. Desperately, Mary clung to Thom, feeling his powerful back muscles move with the strength of his desire. He fisted the hair at the base of her neck to support her under the onslaught, while his other hand massaged her bottom. Pulling her tighter to him, Mary felt his firm passion straining against his jeans and her stomach.

  Reality softened and faded away until only Thom and she remained. Mary wanted him and in more than just a sexual way. She wanted his body and soul. She wanted his heart, his love, his everything, for the rest of their lives.

  Reluctantly, the blazing kiss ended. Thom drew back, his eyes soft and darkly green, as if passion actually deepened the color. “We shouldn’t,” he said.

  Mary reached up and stroked her fingers through the dark softness of his hair. His face eased into her palm, a flicker of pain crossed his features. She asked, “Why not? Is there someone else?”

  He gently caught her wrist and eased her away. He stepped back from her. “In a way.”

  The attractive blond teenager from Thom’s photo album flashed in her mind. “Tammy Jo?”

  Thom turned from her. “You are not the only one who’s made promises.”

  Somehow his kiss acted like a drug on Mary. It numbed the pain and smoothed away her doubts. But as he withdrew from her, those feelings began to creep back like tendrils of a persistent fog woven between them. Those tendrils morphed into the tentacles of an octopus determined to drag her into an ocean of loneliness.

  Thom reached back to her. “I’m sorry. I should never have…”

  “Don’t,” she plastered on an understanding smile that she knew must look as forced as it felt. Mary accepted his proffered hand and struggled unsuccessfully to fight off the explosion of sparks the touch showered through her over-stimulated body.

  He guided her back to the SUV and helped her settle into her seat. “Thom,” she started, wanting to say something but the words wouldn’t form. At last, his gaze met hers and with it she saw her own pain mirrored. Without a word he gently closed the door between them. The click of the latch securing the physical barrier between them tore a hole in Mary’s heart. She wanted him. She needed him. But Thom closed her away from him.

  As Thom circled to his side of the SUV, he snatched the cell phone clipped to his belt. She couldn’t hear what he said and his side of the conversation halted by the time he climbed into the driver’s seat.

  Mary watched him quietly. From the change in his expression, she knew he listened to something important.

  “I’ll be right there,” Thom said and flipped the phone closed.

  Chapter Three

  The commotion in the precinct rivaled any previous investigation. A serial kidnapper, with two abductions in a week, shook up every cop in a town the size of Stony Bend and the news vans outside belonged to more than just the local network affiliates. The press statement released to the media tried to inform and warn the public without creating a panic but more than a quarter of the children failed to show up to school that morning. Their frightened parents kept them at home. That strategy complicated the investigation, because the department had to verify the location of each absent child.

  Phone calls, mainly from concerned citizens, kept the lines ringing. Most of the leads proved useless as people became paranoid of every unfamiliar car on their block or suspicious of a neighbor they didn’t know well.

  They hadn’t released Mary’s name or photo to the press, so the reporters hadn’t hassled them. Thom held on to Mary’s hand as he plowed through the pack of people milling around on the way to his office. Brad waited for him inside.

  “Good call, Inspector,” Brad began. “You were right about the security tape.”

  A television set with built-in VCR balanced on a rolling cart to one side of his desk. Brad handed Thom a cassette tape. “I cued it up to the section of interest.”

  “Thanks Brad.” Thom jammed the tape into the slot. “We’ve got a partial description of this guy now. I want you to get the information distributed to the troops.” He jotted the description he’d coaxed out of Mary onto a piece of paper and passed it to him.

  “Sure thing.” Brad closed the door behind her.

  Thom watched Mary appraising the office with a critical eye. “Mini fridge, punching bag, futon, several changes of clothes hanging on your coat rack. It looks like you live in your office.”

  “Sometimes it seems that way.”

  Mary examined the pictures, purposefully avoiding the TV Thom noticed. “Is this your family?”

  Thom glanced up at the photo to which she pointed. “Yeah. That’s my folks and brothers.”

  “And here’s your niece, the undercover fifth grader.”

  “She still needs some work on the undercover part.” Thom grinned, fondly remembering how Jena had blown her cover by calling him ‘Uncle Thom.’ “Listen, you don’t really need to watch this.”

  “No.” Mary settled into the chair opposite his desk. “I need to do everything I can to help Nancy. I won’t let her down.” Mary locked eyes with Thom, sparking a rush in his lower regions. “I won’t let you down.”

  Her very proximity alerted all his senses. The peach scent of her perfume penetrated his good sense and called him to her. Determination only enhanced the beauty of her features, adding a tinge of color to her cheeks. The taste of her kiss still lingered, making him thirsty for more. He couldn’t prevent his hands from seeking her out and he fought to merely stroke her silken tumble of hair, when he really wanted to explore every inch of her naked body.

  “We’ll get through this,” Thom assured her. He needed her to believe that. He would always protect her but ultimately she needed to reclaim her own power. If she adopted the victim mentality and lived every day in fear, in effect she’d let her abductor ruin her life. He’d seen the soul killing effect firsthand, back before he understood the danger. He’d seen the slow demise of an abused spirit who didn’t or couldn’t find the will to fight back. He didn’t want that to happen to Mary.

  Thom settled on the edge of his desk. After double checking Mary’s determination to witness the tape, he reached over and hit the play button. The view of the parking lot came to life on the screen. Nancy’s car was partially visible on the left side of the screen. Only the tail end appeared clearly in view where it stuck out behind the car between her vehicle and the camera. A white van was on the far side of her car.

  “That’s Nancy.” Mary pointed to the woman coming into view from the lower right.

  Thom leaned closer to the grainy image. Nancy looked exactly like Mary from this perspective. She wore a long summer dress similar to the one Mary wore yesterday. The white sweater flapped open with her purposeful strides. Nancy’s hair flowed out behind her, a whiter blond than Mary’s but similarly cut. She struggled with an armload of grocery bags but when she reached her car, Thom could see she held her keys ready.

  Nancy reached the passenger side door, opened it and deposited her purse and bags. Meanwhile, unnoticed by her, a man sprung out of the back of the white van. Thom struggled to control his reaction as he watched a replay of the assault Mary described. If he hadn’t known differently, he could easily believe this footage showed her attack.

  The first thing he not
iced about the perpetrator was that Mary’s height and weight estimates were dead on. The second thing he thought was that he would bash the man’s head in if he ever got the chance. In two steps the man caught Nancy. He grabbed her from behind by the throat. He forced her down, out of view of the camera but the brute remained visible.

  Thom couldn’t sit still during the long moments while the attacker choked Nancy. He balled his fists when the man slammed the girl head-first into the side of his van. When Nancy continued to struggle, he slammed her again. He bent forward, almost slipping out of sight himself, except his elbow rose twice from behind the car, presumably indicating he punched her. When he finally stood, Nancy hung like an armful of laundry in his arms. He hoisted her to the back of his van, tossed her in like an inanimate object and followed. The doors closed and the van drove off seconds later, never flashing the camera its license plate.

  The whole attack lasted under a minute and no witnesses appeared on tape.

  Thom rose and turned to Mary. Her eyes widened and glazed with tears. He could tell she blamed herself and that stupid promise. In her stillness, he saw the calm before the collapse. He should never have allowed her to watch the tape.

  He hated that man on the tape. He hated what that monster had done to Mary and now to Nancy. He hated feeling helpless to stop the violence.

  Thom spun to the punching bag hanging in the corner. With a roar of rage, he pummeled the bag. “Damn it!” Visualizing the man on the tape, Thom swore he would see him dead or behind bars. He punched the bag again and again, making it jump on its chain with the force of his blows.

  “Thom, stop it!” Mary cried. “Please, I need you.”

  He stopped and turned toward her. Mary stood, looking like she didn’t know if she should run to him or run from him. He held out his arms. “Come here.”

  Mary rushed to him. She buried her face in his chest. He hugged her tight, soothing her tremors as best he could. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Don’t fall apart on me,” Mary pleaded. “I can’t make it without you.”

  He stroked her hair. He loved hugging her. Loved feeling her slender form pressed against him. Loved the way she made him feel human again. For years, he’d lived for the job, thought of nothing else. Each day, he’d retreated further into the logic and the facts that made up his life. With Mary, he found himself longing to keep her by his side and not just for her protection. Maybe that is why he found himself reaching for her so often. “Don’t worry. Just letting off steam, is all. I won’t let you down.” He chuckled, “They are used to it around here. My captain gave me the punching bag because I knocked too many holes in the walls.”

  Mary turned her face up to him. “Really?”

  “Yes,” he laughed. He tucked her hair behind her ears, becoming serious. “I know the day’s been rough but we can’t stop now. We’ve got to track this guy down.”

  “How?”

  Chapter Four

  Before Thom could answer, the uniformed officer Thom had called Brad opened his office door. Thom practically leapt back away from Mary. The comfort that wrapped around her in his arms, snapped in that hasty retreat. With each progressive touch, her heart opened further to him and each time he retreated, deeper pain impaled in her heart like a dagger of ice. He cared about her, wanted her, she knew it without doubt every time he gazed into her soul with those amazing eyes, or caressed her skin with those powerful hands, or shattered her world with those explosive kisses.

  When she’d asked Thom about Tammy Jo, he’d dodged the question. Had he sworn never to love another? How could she compete with a memory? If he could never love her, truly and free of guilt, Mary knew she needed to break off the budding relationship developing between them. Recent events left her too vulnerable to open herself for such disappointment.

  “What have you got?” Thom accepted the stack of papers from Brad, who looked more like a male model in his uniform than an actual police officer. But when he spoke his tone and lingo was all cop.

  “I ran your description. You have a list of several hundred with driver’s licenses with those parameters just in this county alone.” Brad cast a curiously appraising look over Mary, but didn’t derail from his line of thought. His pretty-boy looks didn’t disguise the intelligence in his pale blue eyes. “I saw the tape so I cross-reference the list with registered owners of a white cargo van. There were about a hundred and sixty.”

  “That’s assuming he doesn’t borrow someone else’s vehicle.”

  “And assuming that both he and the vehicle are registered in this county.”

  “What about cross referencing for men with police records?”

  “We are working on that. So far no one who has a similar M.O.”

  “Keep looking,” Thom said. “Use the national database. I’ll keep working with Mary and see if we can’t find something else to help narrow the search.”

  “Check.” Brad gave Mary a nod of acknowledgment, and a hang-in-there wink that she found endearing, before leaving.

  When the door closed, Mary asked, “Me?”

  “This whole investigation hinges on you.” Thom reminded her. “He abducted you first. He sent you a message with that button. He targeted someone who works in the same school and who dressed much like you were the day he grabbed you, even down to the white sweater of yours, which he kept as a souvenir.”

  Mary sank into the chair behind her, thankful it caught her or she would have collapsed to the floor. “Oh God, you are thinking of using me for bait?”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Thom knelt down to eye level beside her. He rested a hand softly on her thigh and her skin tingled with response from her scalp to her toes. “But I am going to ask something difficult of you.”

  “What more can I do?”

  “You made your 9-1-1 call for help from a remote gas station. We are going to have to go back there. If we work backward, we might be able to track your path back to him.”

  Anxiety shot through her bones like electricity. A trembling in her limbs cascaded along her muscles. “I want to help. I really do but I am about to crumble here.”

  “I know that and I would never put you through this without good reason.” Thom brushed Mary’s hair out of her eyes and cupped her face in his capable hands. The strength he exuded dribbled inside her, settling the tremors of panic. He snagged her in his serious jade gaze. “We have to do this, not only for Nancy but for your own protection. Otherwise he’ll come for you again. He targeted you from the start.”

  Mary searched his face, finding only sincerity and concern. All the while, in the back of her mind, she screamed. She remembered stumbling through the fields, the long fingers of grass snagging on her socks and skirt, chasing the power lines as instructed. Her lungs ached and her legs burned as she fled. Every shadow and ripple of the wind through the weeds frightened her as she mistook each for her abductor.

  “I’ll be with you every step of the way,” he promised.

  Mary cut her eyes away from Thom, ready to bolt. Her gaze settled on the now black television screen. The image of Nancy on that screen haunted her. And just like that image which faded to empty black, the real Nancy just vanished without a trace. And if Thom was correct, only Mary could help bring her home. She whispered, “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter Five

  “This is where the rescue crew found you.” Thom explained as the SUV coasted into the deserted lot, crunching the gravel beneath the tires. Mary noticed Thom glancing at her, as if watching for any sign of panic. She’d hyperventilated at the school but she’d made it through that and felt somewhat stronger for it. A day ago she wouldn’t have guessed she could survive it but with Thom by her side, she felt she could weather anything. Mary glanced out the window at the overgrown grassy expanse on the far side of the road. Well, maybe not
this, she thought, fisting her trembling hands before Thom noticed.

  He continued, “You were pretty shocky and drugged when I saw you in the hospital. Do you remember?”

  “I remember seeing your badge.” Mary furrowed her brow, trying to remember. “And didn’t you hold my hand?”

  “Yes, I did.” He smiled, taking her hand and squeezing it.

  “You’ve been there for me since the beginning, haven’t you?” Her eyes captured him in their candor and knew he understood she meant more than the mere words implied.

  “I have been with you since the beginning,” he began, “but I’ve only walked beside you. Each step forward you’ve taken on your own.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Only you could face the memories and pull out the evidence we needed to narrow the search.” He caressed her hair and then tangled his fingers in it. “Only you could decide to break this monster’s hold over your life.”

  “But he is still there,” she began.

  “We are going to catch him and you are going to be the reason why.” Thom said.

  She closed her eyes. “I’m such a bad person.”

  “Why would you say that?” Thom shook her until she met his gaze. “Because of the promise? I thought you already understood you can’t hold yourself responsible for what this guy does.”

  “Try explaining that to Nancy.” She covered Thom’s hands with her own. “But that’s not what I meant. I’m a bad person because even with all this horror, I can’t stop thinking about you. Thom, I think I might be falling in love with you.”

  Thom sat back, as if stunned by her admission. He considered her words for a long time. Too long, Mary thought. Finally, he said, “Is it possible what you feel is gratitude?”