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Kindle Edition
Amazon
Ransom
Amazon
Lulu
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Lulu Press
ISBN-10: 1300445289
Type: Fiction
Pages: 124
Copyright: November 30, 2012
ISBN-13: 9781300445289
Triana Richards finds a prospect in the form of her captor when she is kidnapped from her home. But, her captor has his own reasons for holding her for ransom. Can he do the right thing and let her go or will he keep her?
Triana Richards finds a prospect in the form of her captor when she is kidnapped from her home. For reasons she cannot imagine, she becomes very attached to a man who calls himself Damien. As events unfold, she must ask herself if her feelings are real or if she is a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. But, her captor has his own reasons for holding her for ransom. Can he do the right thing and let her go or will he keep her, as he is also a slave to his own desires?
Excerpt
As the wind blew and the willows sighed, darkness set in, manipulating everything in its path. Triana Richards stood at the window, bathed in moonlight, mesmerized by the shadows taking shape on her father’s lawn. She imagined that any one of those shapes could be a person, a man hiding among the darkness of the forest, watching her as intently as she inadvertently watched him. She shivered. Her imagination was running away with her again. It was something she found hard to prevent. But, surely there was something out there? Her intuition said it, plain as day.
Daddy was gone, away at some kind of dinner meeting again. She hated to be left alone in the house. It made her stomach ache. She had just graduated a month ago, and she would be off to college in the fall. At least then, she’d have a roommate. But now…she couldn’t even call her friends. They were shallow, just the kind of girls Daddy had wanted her to hang out with. But, not really the kind of people she could depend on. No one understood her really.
She hated crowds. She hated big houses. She wanted to get out of here. She wanted to see the world on her own terms. She wanted…God, she was pathetic. She wanted someone to love her, that was all. She would need little else. Whether it was family or a romantic interest made little difference. She wasn’t close with her father. He was always gone, off doing things for work. Doing charities for some cause or other. For appearances’ sake, she was sure of it. It was the exact thing he had trained her for, to be a rich man’s wife, a fate she wanted to avoid at all costs.
She wanted a choice in her life. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to go to college either. She had no interests that would make her choose a major. Well, that wasn’t true. She wrote pretty well. She wrote stories. But, really…where could that take her? When she’d made the mistake of telling her father about her love of writing, he had laughed at her, told her that hobbies were well and good, but a husband was what she really needed to look for.
It was insane. She was only eighteen…well, nineteen in the fall. But, she wasn’t ready for marriage. And she wasn’t going to just take the first rich guy that came along. Her father would be in for a surprise. She might take a few years to choose, but it would be her choice. Not his. Besides, all of the rich kids from her school were jerks, especially the boys. When they’d found out who her father was, they surrounded her like insects buzzing around a neon light. It was disgusting really.
She just wanted to be wanted for herself, not because of her family. God, she hated her dysfunctional situation. Her mother had left years ago, taken off with her aerobics instructor. How typical. And she hadn’t heard from the woman since. Whatever.
Maybe she was destined to be alone. Maybe that was all right too. When she got out of here, she’d get her own little place, make it the way she wanted, and never look back. Daddy would sure be in for a surprise. He would never have a rich son-in-law to shoot the crap with.
Reluctantly, Triana climbed back in bed, heard an owl cooing in the night. Instead of comforting her, the night sounds unsettled her. What she wouldn’t give to live near the ocean, to hear the water moving, crashing on the shore at night. That might be lulling.
She heard her neighbor’s dog bark. With a sigh, she turned to her side.
Suddenly, the house alarm went off, ringing in her ears. Shrieking, she scrambled out of bed, threw on a robe. She picked up the phone to call the security company, but there was no dial tone. It was dead. Someone had cut it. She shivered. She searched in the dark, trying to find a weapon of some kind. God, did she own nothing that could be used as a weapon? She grasped at a dumbbell her trainer had wanted her to use, but it couldn’t be more than five pounds. Damnit.
She crept to the door, quietly turned the handle. She peered into the darkness of the corridor; she couldn’t see anything. She slowly eased out into the hall, stepping toe to foot. An arm suddenly snaked around her middle and she raised the dumbbell, tried to hit her attacker. The man cursed and knocked the weapon aside. He spun her, took her down to the floor, immobilizing her with a knee in her back.
“Let me go!” she screamed.
Then a cloth went over her mouth. Triana inhaled, sputtered on a strong scent. And she knew no more.
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