Chapter One

Katie Lloyd hung up the phone and stared out the window. She was seconds away from a full-blown meltdown and she fought to keep her cool. The secret to staying in control, she knew, was to break things down into small, manageable bits.

OK. One thing at a time; one step, then another. So. I need to get there. I need to get there fast. For that, I need a car. Reena and Maggie don’t have cars. So, I need to get my car back. For that, I need to call Mia.

There was a major problem with this last part of the thought process, though, namely, that she had no idea where the hell Mia Ferris was. All Katie knew was that her boyfriend Nick Spencer had taken her away for a week somewhere quiet and calm to recover from her beating at the hands of a pimp and pedophile.

Even more than a month later, Mia was still in terrible shape, and Katie had offered Nick the use of her car to avoid the hassle of public transport and the stress of crowds. The man's only mode of owned transportation was a motorbike, and that was highly impractical in the dead of winter. On Katie’s own insistence, Mia had left her cell with Katie so that Mia could just relax and forget about the world. That was a great plan, or at least it had seemed so at the time – but now she had no way to call her friend. Worse, she knew that Nick had left his cell behind too, so she couldn’t call him either.

No car, and no contact. Goddammit, Katie. Think, think.

OK. If nobody knew where Mia was – and Katie was sure that their other close friends Reena Mackay and Maggie Branson also had no clue – then maybe somebody knew where Nick was. Who did Katie know in Nick’s life?

As the most obvious person occurred to her, she groaned.

Really? Dear God, anybody but him.

The face and body of Adam Pierce popped into her mind and she huffed in disgust. Not that Adam was disgusting to look at, of course: huge and muscled and strong, with ice-blue eyes, dark hair, and an incredibly hot number of tattoos, he was quite the opposite of hard on the eyes. But he was arrogant and annoying and pissed Katie off royally. She had taken some pictures of him at his gym a few months ago, and he had been nothing but dismissive of them from the word go. But he was also Nick’s business partner, and so he was her best bet to find Nick and Mia.

OK, wait. Call a car rental place. Voila! Problem solved!

Except problem not solved, as it turned out. There was a huge real estate fair in Denver that week and every car was rented out. Her heart in her throat, she waited while they checked availability in Colorado Springs and Boulder too, but they reported back with regret that they had nothing for her. Calls to three other car rental places resulted in the same dead end.

Reluctantly, her thoughts turned to Adam again.

Shit. OK, call the jerk.

Katie picked up her cell phone and scrolled through the search results, looking for the contact information for The Rock Fighting Club. She dialled and stared out the window some more.

“The Rock. Gavin speaking. How may I help you?”

Gavin. The Rock manager. Nice guy, she recalled.

“Hi, Gavin. This is Katie Lloyd… I don’t know if you remember me but –”

“Oh, sure I do.” His voice was warm. “The photographer.”

“Right. Listen, I’m sorry to be so rushed, but I need to speak to Adam right away, if he’s there.”

“Yeah, he is. Hang on a sec, OK?”

“Thanks.”

He put her on hold and she counted her breaths. Come on, come on.

Gavin put down the phone and waved at Adam. His boss was in the kitchen making his first and very-badly-needed coffee of the day, and he came over right away.

“What’s up, Gavin?”

“Katie Lloyd is on the phone for you.”

“Oh, awesome. Tell her I’m busy, OK?”

“Normally, I'd say 'yes, boss'. The thing is, though, she sounds kind of panicked.”

“She does?”

“Yeah. You want me to put her through to your office?”

“I guess so." Adam took a fortifying sip of coffee, sure that he'd never be able to handle this damn woman uncaffeinated. "Thanks.”