Bound by Danger by Terry Spear

panties to match, then slipped between the ice blue sheets.
    With visions of a day spent at the lake, she hugged her extra pillow to her body, wrapping her legs around it with a warm embrace. Then the phone rang, startling. She grabbed the receiver by the bed and stared at the caller ID. Out of area. She should have known. She fumbled with the cord in the dark, then unplugged it.
    Closing her eyes, she listened to the air conditioner turn on, the monotonous hum lulling her to sleep.
    The scruffy man with the yellowed eyes stared back at her in a hazy daze. The same one who had accosted her at the mall. But then his face grew hard as his hair turned black. The diamond ring he wore cut her hand.
    She ran her fingers over the hurt and moaned lightly.
    To her surprise, he grabbed her arms and threw her hard against something that vibrated with the force. She couldn’t comprehend what it was, but he seemed determined to throw her over it. A fence perhaps? A railing? His apelike hands gripped her wrists with a stranglehold that brought tears to her eyes.
    Remember, Deidre. Remember how to break free of a wristlock. Get the advantage. Throw him into the abyss. Hurry, Deidre, hurry.
    In her dream, she hugged her pillow tighter as she ran across the prairie landscape, stumbling over clumps of grass and broken rock. She ran from some unseen terror and stopped abruptly at the edge of a red clay cliff. The dizzying height terrified her as she stared down into the canyon. Then the struggle began with the unseen force. Thrown from the cliff, she fell as if she’d been pushed from a plane without a parachute, open air, and nothing to impact. She knew the ground quickly approached. Before she reached the canyon floor, her body shuddered awake.
    Her front door creaked open. Deidre sat up in bed. Charlie? She pulled her covers aside and crossed the floor to her bedroom door. Opening it, she saw the front door stood wide open. Jeez, Charlie, don’t you ever close the door? She stormed across the dark apartment and tripped over a sofa cushion lying in the middle of the floor. Tumbling to the carpet, she turned her head as the kitchen light flickered on.
    Drawers yanked open, then slammed shut.
    Charlie? Deidre stood, then walked gingerly toward the kitchen.
    The black-haired man from her vision threw her phone book and receipts all over the floor. She backed away, but his ebony eyes caught sight of her before she cleared the doorframe.
    Swallowing a scream, her heart in her throat, she dashed for the front door. His footfalls pounded the floor as he hurried to catch her. She wouldn’t make it. She knew she couldn’t reach the doorway fast enough.
    He grabbed her arm and yanked her back. Pain shot through her arm and back, but she focused instead on her assailant. She quickly twisted free. He rotated around and slammed the door shut. She screamed then, not out of fear, but to wake her neighbors.
    Grabbing a pillow from the floor, she flung it at him. He socked it away with his fist. She ran for the patio door and fumbled with the lock. His fingers touched her arm. She jerked the glass panel open. Screaming again, she ran onto the narrow patio. Lights flickered on in a couple of the apartments. Someone would call the police.
    The man slammed her into the wrought-iron railing. The pain from the metal against her backbone shot up her spine. He grabbed her wrists and tried to jerk her over the railing. She twisted her arms free in the maneuver her brother taught her. The next skill, the Army had given her.
    Want to play rough, do you?
    She quickly jabbed her knee into his family jewels. Her attacker bent over, groaning in pain. Without hesitation, she jerked her knee upward and struck him squarely on the bridge of the nose. He thrust his head upward with the impact and grabbed his nose, crying out in agony. With her hand stiffened as a lethal weapon, she struck him hard in the Adam’s apple. The man choked and gagged as he tried to catch his