Never Let Go Read Free Page B

her room and didn't have to ask for admittance. Dinah looked quickly for something to cover her flimsy robe. "Just a second—"
    "Immediately, damn you!"
    Dinah jerked the door open and hugged her arms over her chest. She staggered back, gasping, as Valdivia hurled himself into the room and banged the door shut.
    He was disheveled and panting. His heavy cashmere overcoat hung open, revealing a conservative gray suit with pinstripes. Dinah's gaze went to the red stain widening on the top of one thigh.
    Valdivia sank to the bed, his face so ashen that his slender black brows seemed unnatural. "I've been discovered," he rasped in Spanish. "You have to go on alone."
    "But—"
    "There's no time! They may find us at any moment! I'll have to distract them while you complete our job." He lurched to his feet, staggered to the sliding glass door that opened onto a balcony, and slid it open. "Get your coat!" Stunned, she didn't move. He swung about and stabbed a finger at her viciously. "If you don't do this, you know what will happen! Do you understand?"
    Dinah ran for the closet and snatched a coat off a hanger. Swinging the coat over her shoulders, she went to the balcony. Valdivia stood there, surveying the rain-soaked bushes one floor below. They both heard running footsteps far down the hotel corridor.
    "I need money, credit cards, something," she protested, as he grabbed her wrist and urged her over the balcony railing.
    Cursing, he reached into a coat pocket and retrieved a wad of American money, which he thrust into her hand. "Either I or someone else will meet you in New Orleans five days from now. The usual place."
    "What if I'm caught?"
    He grabbed the front of her coat. Dinah clung to the railing, feeling the towel slide off her head. Icy rain began to pepper her scalp. Valdivia's handsome face was twisted with cruelty.
    "Then. you lose everything you love," he warned. "Do not fall. And do not tell anyone anything about your situation, unless you want to be responsible for their safety."
    Dinah drew back one hand and slapped him, hard. A year ago she would have been incapable of striking another human being. She'd learned to fight. "Keep your part of the bargain, Diego, and I'll keep mine."
    With a muffled laugh, Valdivia shoved her off the balcony.
    ***
    "Lady, did you have a quarrel with your boyfriend?"
    Dinah wrapped herself tighter inside the thick sable coat and, for once, blessed Valdivia's penchant for giving her expensive gifts. She huddled in the cab's backseat and tried to keep her teeth from chattering. Her legs stung badly where the bushes had scraped them. One hip ached from the fall.
    "Yes. A q-quarrel," she told the driver.
    "When I saw you on the sidewalk outside that cheap hotel, I could tell you were desperate to get away. Did he hit you?"
    "He wouldn't d—dare."
    "Good. What's wrong with him?"
    It would take a textbook on sadistic personalities to answer that one, Dinah thought. "He's jealous."
    "Where to, now?"
    Dinah took several deep breaths and considered that question for the first time. "Just ... take the interstate and head north. I have to think."
    Her destination was the mountains of eastern Kentucky, at least a nine-hour drive. Dinah rapidly unfolded the wet, crumpled bills in her fist. He'd given her fifty-four dollars.
    She almost groaned out loud. Only fifty-four dollars. No credit cards, no ID, no checks, and no clothes, she added grimly. She had learned to live with fear, but not with defeat. Now she leaned her head against the cab's seat and shut her eyes wearily.
    Think, think, she told herself. When she did, shivers ran through her, this time from anxiety. She spent several minutes trying to find options, but couldn't. "Do you think a bus ticket to Mount Pleasant would cost less than fifty-four dollars?" she asked raggedly.
    The cab driver chuckled. "Where is that?"
    "North Alabama. In the mountains near the Tennessee line."
    "Yeah, you can get there. Whew! When you run from a man, you