Page 4 of Claimed By the Guardian

She saw the headlights of another car. She was flat on her back on the seat, but at the sight of the headlights, she put extra force into screaming. If she could just get her feet around, maybe she could break the passenger window.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his voice cutting in whenever she had to draw breath. “I’ve got data. Information.”

“Help! Help!”

“You have to calm down.”

Her wrists were slick and painful. Blood? Sweat? She didn’t know and didn’t care. She drew back and shoved her feet outward as hard as she could against the window.

Like hitting a brick wall.

She did it again. Nothing.

“We’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “You’re the CDC. You need this data.”

She kicked her feet again. WTF? Why wouldn’t the window break?

“I just want to give you the data. Then I’ll take you back to the hospital.”

She wasn’t screaming anymore. All her concentration was on slamming her feet into the window, which would not break. Her heart was pounding, and she couldn’t catch her breath. Why the hell wouldn’t the damn window break?

“What’s your email? I’ll email you the data.”

She didn’t want to listen to him. She didn’t want to hear his world-weary tone or his false promises that he wouldn’t hurt her. Except, of course she did. She wasn’t escaping. And head-butting him while they were on the freeway going sixty was a quick way to suicide. But most of all, he kept saying weird things. Stuff that she didn’t expect to come from an abductor. Who kidnapped a woman then asked to send data to her email?

She stared at him, her breath coming in short, gasping pants through her burning throat. She couldn’t possibly have heard him correctly. But when she stared at him, he was holding up his phone.

“Your email address, Dr. Lu. Spell it for Siri, please.”

She frowned. He had a message app open with the microphone turned on.

“You want my email address?”

“I’ll text it to my boss. He’ll email you the data. They sent it to me, but I can’t email and drive.”

“Abduction is a felony. It carries the death penalty.”

“No, it doesn’t. And Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846. One of the few good things about this state.”

Great. Her abductor had a wry sense of humor.

“Life in prison sucks, too,” she said. “Most people say it’s worse.”

“Nah. Death is always worse.” His gaze met hers in the rearview mirror. “At least it is for me. I can survive just about anything.”

She believed it. Something about the flatness in his expression had her believing he’d seen a lot worse things than she could even imagine. And while she was processing that, he set his phone down.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Dr. Lu. I swear. But we’re not exactly normal people here, so we didn’t know how to get you this information. People are dying. We’re trying to help.”

“So you abduct the nearest doctor?”

He huffed out his breath. “I went to the CDC. I was looking for Dr. Hayes.”

“He bailed. To DC.”

He snorted. “Figures. So yeah, I grabbed you. You were awake and right there. But only to make you believe and to give you the data. Now will you please spell your email address for Siri?”

God, he seemed so reasonable. But why the hell hadn’t he just asked for her email address at the hospital? “You didn’t have to throw me into your car for my email address.”