Excerpt: Desiring Truth

Truth's heart leapt in her throat. She quickly looked at Ben, then back at the door. Trepid began barking madly, and no matter what she tried, she couldn't get him to be quiet.

Dave's dark, bone-chilling laughter rang through the door. "Is that Trepid?" he asked. "See, Truth? Your dog wants me to come in, too. So open the damn door!"

Truth was looking around the kitchen frantically, trying to find a way out of the situation. The harder she tried, though, the more hopeless the situation seemed. She knew that at any moment Dave could just bust down the door, and she would be completely at his mercy. It was a wonder that he hadn't already.

"Callie, calm down," Ben said loudly, trying to make himself heard over the racket of Dave knocking and Trepid barking.

Truth stomped her foot in frustration. If she was any less of a person, she might have actually cried. "I'm not opening the door, Dave!" she screamed.

A split-second later, Dave kicked open the door and he and four other guys walked in. Truth knew two of them, so she knew that they were Malcolm's flunkies, but she didn't know the other two.

Dave didn't waste any time. He walked right over to Truth and grabbed her from behind. He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other across her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. Ignoring Trepid, who was barking like crazy, Dave nodded toward Ben and said, "Who's that?"

"That's my boyfriend," Truth said. She was struggling with part of her trying to break free of Dave's grip and the other part of her wishing that there was a way that he could hold onto her more tightly without suffocating her.

"Your boyfriend, huh? I guess that puts you in a bit of a rough situation, doesn't it?"