Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
down a richly paneled corridor. Panic rose in Angel as she remembered
another corridor three thousand miles away and what had waited for her at
the end of it. Duke opened a door and propelled her in ahead of him.
A beautiful brunette lay asleep in a rumpled brass bed. Duke walked
over and gave her a hard slap. She came awake with a painful cry. “Get out.”
The young prostitute clambered off the bed, snatched up her robe, and fled.
Duke smiled at Angel. “This will be your room.”
She couldn’t just give in. “Do I have a choice?”
“Still defiant,” he drawled and came to her slowly. He gripped her face
hard, staring down into her eyes. She tried to hide her fear by glaring back
at him, but she couldn’t fool him. He obviously knew she was pretending,
and smiled. “You’re home, my dear. Right back where you belong. You
should be happy.” His hand slid down and closed lightly on her throat. “You
look so in control, but your heart is pounding like a frightened rabbit’s.”
He lit a cheroot and looked at her through the smoke. “You’re so pale,
my dear. Do you think I’m going to hurt you?” He kissed her forehead in
fatherly affection, mocking her as he had always done when she dared to
defy him. “Let’s talk later, shall we?” He patted her cheek as though she were
a child and left the room.
Michael awakened in a cold sweat. Angel had called to him. He had seen her
standing in the midst of a fire, crying out his name over and over again. He
couldn’t get to her no matter how hard he tried, but he saw a dark figure
walking through the flames toward her.
He ran shaking hands through his damp hair. Sweat was running down
his bare chest, and he couldn’t stop shaking. “It was just a dream.”
The foreboding he felt was so heavy he was nauseated. He prayed. Then
he rose from the bed and went outside. It would be dawn soon. Things
would look better in the light of day. When dawn came, the sensation that
something was wrong would not go away, and he prayed again, fervently. He
was full of fear for his wife.
Where was she? How was she surviving? Was she hungry? Did she have
shelter? How was she making her way alone?
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