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Oh, God She stared at hih the air How could this thug do this to her? The past feeeks had already been bad enough!

Then she shifted her attention to the open door What if there werealone? They never acted alone At least she didn’t think so

Her hands shaking, she quickly shoved her gun in her purse, sprinted across the floor, and closed the door, locking it--although that hadn’t done a lot of good before She rushed to the man and checked his wrist and then his neck for a pulse None

She returned to her suitcase, pulled out black jeans and a black sweatshirt, and hurriedly jerked them on

She looked back at thelifelessly at her, his head leaning against the wall

Dead He was dead

Perspiration trickled down her breasts despite the cool air, and she rubbed her arms as her heart continued to beat at a racer’s pace God, as she to do now?

She had to call this in to the police, as uy’s buddies were about, and she hung around to meet with the police, she’d be dead meat And no number of police in this rinky-dink little town could protect her If they even had any police here

But she was one of the good guys, she had to remind herself She couldn’t kill a man and leave the scene of the crime without just cause

She paced

Hell, if she didn’t call it in, sounshots and would dial 9-1-1, and then the police would question her as to why she hadn’t called it in She would sound guiltier than she already felt Even though he had broken into her room and tried to kill her first

She jerked the phone off the hook next to the bed and punched in the number, then lifted the receiver to her ear An eerie silence met her ear The line was dead Another spiral of fear cascaded down her spine He’d cut the phone lines This was so not good

Then she heard two car doors open and shut just outside her roo late for the night… or they were cohorts of the dead guy She was certain she wasn’t hearing the police because it would be too soon for the outside the

She stood frozen with indecision and went back to her earlier plan Change into the wolf, or hope that, fortified with only a gun, she could be as lucky against two arainst one With the way her luck was going, she was sure it had just corabbed her cell phone, and flipped it open Thank God, it had a little bit of a charge

After punching in 9-1-1, she watched the door, waiting for so for anyone to touch the doorknob Then in her panic, she couldn’t remember Had she locked the door?

The doorknob twisted Her heart thundered

Someone spoke into her ear, "Sheriff’s departency?"

Alicia nearly dropped the phone in surprise at hearing the woman’s deeply brusque voice

The doorknob didn’t twist any farther It was locked Alicia didn’t say anything into the phone, afraid that if she did, whoever was trying to gain entrance into her rooured she’d killed the other thug already

Startling her, the woman repeated the question, more insistent this time "This is the sheriff’s departency?"

Alicia licked her lips and said in a whisper, "Someone broke into my motel Crest--"

But the miniscule relief Alicia felt that the person at the door couldn’t open it without unlocking it didn’t last long A strong kick at the door broke a lower section of the paneling away, the crashto killin!" she shouted, the need for secrecy a moot point, as she hoped the sheriff’s departn of one when she had stopped there for the night

She dropped the phone, still open, still charging, on the dresser, but she didn’t have anyto get her attention "Miss, stay on the line What’s happening? Police are being dispatched to your location Your name?"

So they could identify her in the event these men killed her and stole her identity? Or took off with her and left her for dead in some deserted place? What would it matter then?

Alicia decided that, for better or worse, she’d shift--if she could She thought she was really getting the hang of this, and she figured it was her only chance