Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“I need you to let me go,” I whispered.
I could feel the battle that went down inside him, every muscle in his body trembling with malice.
With violence.
Finally, he peeled himself back.
I felt the movement like a loss.
A cold slick that slipped down my spine.
I swallowed down the urge to turn to him, to confess it all, to give him exactly what he’d demanded, and I opened the door, silently berating myself for even thinking of being so reckless.
I’d allowed myself to stumble. To become distracted. I started to duck through the door when the rumble of his words vibrated the air, stopping me in my tracks.
“Fine. Fuckin’ run because we both know that’s what you do best.”
I stalled for two beats before I hurried on my bare feet down the hall and to the room where he’d left my things. Frantic, I stuffed my feet into my shoes, shoved my scrubs that I’d left on the floor into the duffle, slung the strap over my shoulder, and grabbed my purse. I immediately turned and ran back out.
I could feel the heat of him blister down the hall. The energy crack.
Drawn, I could do nothing but look that way.
He stood in his doorway, seething and bent on wrath.
Mammoth shoulders nearly touching each side.
But it was what I saw in his expression that nearly made me falter. The hurt and the pain.
I dropped my gaze to the floor and forced myself to turn and run downstairs.
I didn’t even know where I was going when I hit the landing, but I crossed the rest of the way to the front door and fumbled through the locks and ran out into the cool air of the night.
I didn’t let the tears start falling until I made it up his drive and onto the street.
They burned, streaking fast, the heat of them clashing with the breeze that rustled through the branches of the colossal trees.
The thick, lush leaves blocked out the moon, and I hurried through the murky haze toward the road that followed along the lake.
What was I doing? What was I doing?
I tried to convince myself it was better to end it this way before it was too late.
Before I fell for the man and his little boy.
It was the hacking at my heart that warned it might already be too late.
I hurried down the narrow road in front of his house then made a left at Vista View.
The night surrounded on all sides, though the cover of the trees had opened here. Rays of moonlight slanted through the atmosphere and glittered across the surface of the lake.
Everything was still.
The quiet distinct.
It wasn’t until then that I realized I was alone.
Completely alone.
Again.
So alone that the fear crept in, rising up from the fringes to crowd in at the edges of my sight.
My heart thundered, and I quickened my pace as I fumbled around in my purse to get my phone. I went to thumb into a ride-share app. Frustration and a tremble of something deeper rolled through me when I saw that I had no service.
“Crap.”
My attention darted each direction to search my surroundings, hating the deathly quiet, but also knowing it was the safest.
I kept moving through the fear.
I was close to a jog as I moved down the desolate road. Here, the houses were tucked back on their properties. Most glowed with lights, though they somehow felt a million miles away.
Unreachable.
I rounded the first corner, my breaths coming out of time, out of sync, my pulse careening in my veins.
I felt as if I’d run five miles even though I’d probably barely walked a quarter of one.
The sound of an approaching car grew behind me. I gulped for air as I increased my pace as the wash of headlights sprayed across the road. Terror gushed, and I scolded myself for being so reckless all while encouraging myself I was only being paranoid.
Apparently, I wasn’t great at self-pep talks because I nearly dumped my bag and sprinted into the woods when the car slowed and began to inch along beside me, though I stalled when the window rolled down and the tinkling voice called from within, “Okay, bestie, get your cute butt in my car before I have to toss you in. I can’t believe you’d think we’d let you go traipsing down this road alone in the middle of the night.”
Raven kept inching along beside me.
I finally fell to a full stop and gave her the first stupid defense I could find. “It’s ten.”
Raven rolled her sable eyes. “Whatever you want to call it, it’s dark and scary and there are bears in these woods. Do you think I’m going to leave you out here as bait?”
“I think there are worse things in the world than bears.”
Her hazards were suddenly flashing right as her door clicked open. She climbed out, barefoot and wearing the same sweats she’d been wearing during the movie, though now her hair was undone, a wild, disordered mess.