When PI Jake Marshall fails to stop the abduction and subsequent murder of a client who was being stalked, he vows to do everything in his power to identify the man responsible. He'll need all the help he can get, including Kelly, his partner in the agency, and Russ Foster, a library security guard he met at a local bar ... with whom he's becoming personally involved.<br><br>Soon, it becomes even more imperative they find the stalker when a friend of Jake's also disappears and everything points to the stalker as his abductor.<br><br>Can Jake and Russ stop the stalker before he kills again? And how will their search affect their budding relationship, presuming the stalker doesn't target one of them next?

Stalker

Now all I have to do is convince him I’m going to stay at his place until he’s in shape to take care of himself. It won’t be easy, but somehow or another I will. 12


“Good morning, Mr. Marshall. I’m Doctor Wallace.”


For a second, all Jake saw of him was from his thighs to his calves. He turned his head enough to look further up and saw a middle-aged man in a physician’s lab coat looking down at him. Jake tried to turn onto his side, but the doctor put a hand gently on his arm to restrain him.


“For the time being, you need to remain on your stomach,” Doctor Wallace said.


Everything that had happened flashed through Jake’s mind and he asked, his voice raspy, “How bad?”


“I’ve seen much worse,” Wallace replied. “We have a man in intensive care who, according to the police, was a victim of the same man who tortured you. He wasn’t as lucky, however. When he was found—”


“I know how he was found,” Jake broke in angrily. “He used to be a friend of mine.”


Chapter 43