I scoffed at her comment. My mind was elsewhere.

“I wonder if Lauren’s boyfriend knows that Kyle was inside her trailer?” I was thinking about Lauren’s fidelity or lack thereof and if her boyfriend was pissed.

“What boyfriend?” Marie asked. She stopped walking.

“Isn’t she involved with that actor, Lucas Banks? That’s the guy she dumped Ryan for, right?” I figured Marie would be up on the latest celebrity gossip.

Marie drew in a big breath. “Tar, she hasn’t been with Lucas for months. Lauren told Ryan that she and Lucas were still together and madly in love, but I just sent a link to Ryan’s phone this morning of pictures of Luc and some model kissing in public to show him that Lauren has been lying.”

“Why are you sending pictures?” I felt lightheaded again. “Why does Ryan care about any of that?” My thoughts immediately returned to visions of Ryan and Lauren together.

“Ryan and I both think that Kyle didn’t act alone in this. I think Lauren wanted you out of the way so she could get back with Ryan,” she said quietly.

The old, familiar burning feeling entered back into my chest.

The minute we returned to my apartment, Marie went right to work, analyzing my cell phone history and making phone calls.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” she groaned. “Customer Service is telling me that this number is a payphone in Miami.”

She drew another circle around the numbers on my cell phone call log and then dropped the pen onto my kitchen table.

“I guess I should call Gary. Are you feeling up to playing poker tonight? It’s okay if you’re not…” she trailed.

“Yeah, I’m feeling up to it,” I answered with a firm nod. “I need to get back into my familiar routine.”

“Good! Okay then,” Marie said as she stood up from the table. She looked at her watch and grabbed her coat. “Do you smell that? Whatever Tammy is baking down there smells fantastic!”

“I know! Let’s go beg for samples!” I snickered.

I decided to stay in the kitchen with Tammy after Marie left.

Tammy pointed to a tray on the large cooling rack. “You can have one of those too, if you’d like. I made extra.”

I was eyeing the chocolate-dipped strawberries when my doorbell rang several times in a row. Marie had just left a few minutes ago; I wondered why she didn’t let herself back in through the kitchen door.

“What did you forget?” I chuckled, opening up my new back door to my apartment.

My smile instantly faded to shock and panic when my eyes caught sight of Kyle. I leaned hard into the door, trying to close it as quickly as I had opened it, but Kyle shoved his heavy black boot in the doorway.

“Taryn, please! Just hear me out!” Kyle pleaded. His fingers were wrapped around the edge, pushing the door open. I leaned all my weight into the door, but it was useless to fight him. He was so much stronger then I was. My planted feet slid unrestricted on the smooth flooring.

“No!” I yelled. “Just go away and leave me alone!”

Kyle gave the door a good shove and it clocked me right in the forehead. I staggered back a step while still trying to maintain my hold on the door to block his entry.

“Taryn, come on. I just want to talk to you… give me a chance to explain.”

Most of his body was already through the doorway. He shoved the door again, more forcefully this time, tossing me like a ragdoll into the wall behind me. I quickly righted myself and lunged for the opposing door to the kitchen as my next means of escape.

I managed to grab the doorknob but Kyle was quicker. His hand wrapped around mine tightly, preventing me from twisting the knob. He used his body to cram me into the doorframe, trapping me in place. I kicked the bottom of the door with my foot.

“Please don’t hurt me,” I begged, pleading for my life. The grip he had on my hand was already sending messages of pain.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered in my ear, chuckling slightly from my fear. “Just don’t do anything stupid, okay… Taryn?”

I felt the doorknob jiggle slightly. I hoped Tammy would run for help instead of trying to rescue me. I didn’t want Kyle to have two hostages.

I was absolutely petrified, fearing he was going to harm me, or worse - kill me. His aggressive stance and the way he breathed hard on my neck terrified me. I nodded quickly. It was the only response I could give.

“You don’t mind if I check you for weapons, do you?” he said, slightly amused, taking the liberty to pat the front and back pockets of my jeans.

“I’d hate like hell to get maced today.”

My pockets were unfortunately empty. Kyle appeared to be pleased with that revelation, almost enjoying the fact that he caught me unarmed and completely helpless. I felt like the doomed rabbit, caught by my unlucky foot in the big bear trap.

My mind started to roll in fast forward, trying to remember the self-defense moves he once told me about. His knee was pressed into my leg, holding me off balance. Could I stamp on his foot and then elbow him in the nose? Just give me some space and I’m going to kick you right in the balls, you son-of-a-bitch!

“You don’t need to be afraid of me!” He laughed, lessening the pressure of his fingers on mine, but still not letting me go. “Sweetheart, I’d never hurt you. I’m just worried that you might try to hurt me.”

“Let go of me and we’ll find out,” I replied, a hard edge accompanied my tone.

“Feisty!” Kyle snickered in my ear. “How about you let go of the door so we can talk?”

“What do you want to talk about?” I breathed into the wood molding, still unable to move. My eyes glanced, noticing the glowing green buttons on the security system keypad. I was pretty sure I could hit the police call button before he would be able to stop me. My fingers were only a few inches away from it.

“I came here to tell you that we caught Angelica. She was picked up in Florida and is being extradited back to Rhode Island on a bench warrant.

Baby, she’s in police custody now, so you don’t have to worry anymore.”

A tinge of revulsion ebbed up my spine when he called me “baby.” Kyle eased up slightly on pressing me into the door. He effortlessly peeled my straining, clenched hand off of the doorknob.

“You can relax now,” he said reassuringly, obviously pleased with himself. “I told you I would get her and I did! You’re safe now.”