a sound.
Panicked Tess checked to see if she had a pulse and if l~er lungs still
rose and fell with her breath. Assured that the woman was alive, she Set
to tying her wrists and ankles and gagging her with the scarves.
She was just finishing the task when the front door slammed open.
Chavez was back!
Tess ran to the rear door. She moved soundlessly and with tremendous
speed, and yet it wasn't enough. The door stuck when she tugged upon it.
Chavez was behind her. He grappled her shoulders and spun her around, a
rich growl thundering against his throat.
Tess stared into his ebony eyes. His fingers closed around her throat.
'You are dangerous! The gringos were right about you! You are trouble
and you need to be taken care of, now?
He was strangling her. She could barely breathe. In desperate
self-defense she brought her knee slamming as hard as she could against
his groin. It was a powerful and direct hit, and Chavez screamed out his
pain, staggering back.
Tess did not want to stay to see if his condition improved. She grabbed
the door again. Gasping, nearly crying, she strained against it.
Then, it opened. She nearly fell against Chavez, it opened so suddenly.
She was about to bolt through it when she gasped. Her heart seemed to
stop in her chest, her knees grew weak, her mind went blank of anything
other than the man standing in the doorway.
It was Jamie. He had come.
Hands on hips, he stood there, staring. The breadth of his shoulders
filled the doorway. He seemed to tower over her and Chavez, and indeed,
the entire room. He stared at Tess and at Chavez, swiftly summing up the
situation.
He was alive! He had come for her. She had not allowed herself to
believe he could be dead, but still he was a dream standing before her,
the hero come to sweep her away. She was so stunned to see him she could
not move, she could not utter a word, she couldn't even cry out her
thrill at seeing him standing there alive, warm blood pulling in his
veins, his chest rising and falling with every breath he took. She saw
nothing but Jamie.
Chavez had not seemed to notice Jamie was there. Chavez was staring at
Tess, and there was pure, cold murder in his coal-black eyes.
'Tess!' Jamie hissed to her.
'Move!'
She found motion at last as Chavez charged after her. She pitched
herself toward Jamie. He caught her shoulders, and his smoke-gray eyes
stared sternly into hers. 'Go!' he commanded her.
'Go, get out of here, run! Do you hear me? Get the hell out and run!'
Then he thrust her behind him and out the door, into the darkness of the
night. Tess heard the sound of the impact as Chavez came thundering
against Jamie.
She couldn't run. She paused and turned back. Chavez had pulled his
knife.
The steel glistened in the pale moonglow of the night.
