Keep Me Safe (Slow Burn 1)

“Ramie? Is that you? Where are you? Are you all right?”

She’d know his voice anywhere. Could often hear it in her dreams, mixed with the voices of others. Only for some odd reason, she found comfort in his voice and she had no reason to. He’d pushed her those final inches over the brink of insanity. And yet . . .

She squeezed her eyes shut, relief making her weak and shaky. So much so that she felt faint. If she hadn’t already been sitting, she would have collapsed on the spot.

“Yes,” she said hoarsely. “I need your help, Caleb. You owe me.”

She didn’t flinch over the demand. He did owe her. There was no excuse for pride when it came to her life.

“Tell me where you are,” he demanded. “I’ll come to you at once.”

She leaned her forehead against her free hand, trying to collect her jumbled thoughts. Her stomach churned, partly in fear, partly in gut-wrenching relief. He’d said he’d come. No questions. No excuses. Just . . . ?I’ll come.

Was she dreaming? Was all of this yet another dream where there was a mixture of Caleb Devereaux and the demons of her past? Was she doomed to forever be haunted by so many faces of evil? But Caleb stood apart, the one good thing in a sea of fear and pain.

“I’m in Shadow, Oklahoma,” she finally managed to choke out. “There’s someone . . . ?I’m in trouble. I’m scared.”

The words came out as scrambled as her thoughts were. She wasn’t making any sense but she couldn’t seem to get her tongue to cooperate.

“Okay, slow down, Ramie. Calm down and collect your thoughts. Then tell me exactly where you are and what’s going on.”

The soothing note of his voice was like a warm blanket surrounding her. The safety implied in his words was the sweetest thing she’d ever heard in her life. What if he got to her too late?

“Someone’s trying to kill me,” she whispered, not wanting the librarian to overhear. “I barely managed to escape him. He was in my hotel room waiting for me, but I touched the knob and I knew he was there. I had to leave my car, my purse, everything. I just ran. I have no place to stay, no money. I’m terrified.”

“Everything will be all right,” he said with calm she sure as hell didn’t feel. “I’ll get you someplace safe to stay tonight and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“But I have no ID,” she said, panic fluttering deep in her stomach. “I can’t just check into a hotel with no ID and no credit card. And I’m afraid to go anywhere because he’s out there waiting for me.”

“Ramie, listen to me. I will take care of it. I’m looking up the city now to see what I can do. Where are you right now?”

“I’m at the public library, but they’re about to close,” Ramie said, glancing up at the librarian again.

“Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to send a car for you and the driver is going to take you out of town to a hotel in a neighboring city. The driver’s name is Antonio. Do not get in the vehicle with anyone but him. He’ll take care of checking you into a hotel and you stay put until I get there.”

Relief nearly flattened her.

“Do you understand, Ramie?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “How long before he gets here?”

“Ten minutes tops.”

“How on earth did you arrange something like that?” she asked in bewilderment.

“It’s what I do,” he said shortly. “My network is extensive. Now let me get off so I can call my pilot. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

She ended the call and slowly walked up to the desk to return the phone.

“Are you all right, dear? Is everything worked out?”

Ramie nodded numbly. “Someone is coming to get me.”

“Would you like me to wait with you until they get here?”

Ramie didn’t even bother to do the whole pretend I don’t want to be a bother thing. She nodded fervently. “Thank you so much. You’ve been so sweet to me. And yes, I’d feel so much better if you waited with me. I was told it would be ten minutes or less.”

The librarian patted her on the hand and smiled reassuringly. “We’ll just stay inside until someone comes for you. Then I’ll lock up on my way out.”

SIX

CALEB’S entire body was tense as the plane touched down in the small municipal airport just twenty minutes from Shadow, Oklahoma. Just as Ramie had disappeared off the face of the earth, she’d reappeared just as suddenly. And she was in trouble.

He’d never given up hope of locating her, of somehow, someway, making up for what he’d done, but as more time had gone by, he’d resigned himself to the fact that he might never find her. But still he kept feelers out and spared no expense in his quest to track her down. At times, in order to assuage his own sense of guilt, he’d told himself that she didn’t want to be found and that he should just leave her in peace as a way of making amends.

But in the end, she’d come to him.

Maybe he would be able to repay his debt after all.

The desperation in her voice kept replaying through his mind. Her fear had been broadcast as loudly as if she sat in front of him. Someone was trying to kill her. Who? He was frustrated by the lack of information he had, but he could hardly risk her life by making her be out in the open answering questions he’d soon have the answers to anyway. He would get to the bottom of things and assess the danger to her, but first he had to get to her and then do whatever it took to ensure her safety. He wouldn’t fail her like he’d failed Tori.