Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I got the leash attached, despite his squirming and whimpering.
It wasn’t until I threw open the door that I became immediately suspicious, wondering if maybe he’d heard some rustling outside.
A bear? Were bears out yet?
Or, somehow worse yet, considering I had no good way to bathe him, a skunk?
“Buddy, easy,” I pleaded as he bolted forward, threatening to pull my arm clear out of my socket as I struggled to keep up. “What’s the matter?” I asked when he didn’t immediately squat or lift a leg. Apparently, he hadn’t made his mind up on what kind of boy dog he was yet when it came to positional preference.
“He’s got good instincts,” a voice answered, making my blood freeze in my veins as my stomach did a flip before sinking to my feet.
Because… no.
No, damnit.
I’d been so careful.
I’d done everything right.
There was no way he’d found me.
Except, of course, that was his voice.
I wasn’t imagining it.
Even if I worried about that for a second, the way Storm went batshit crazy told me that I wasn’t hearing things as I whipped around.
It was a bright night, the moon almost full, and the trees still too bare to block out the light it provided.
Not that I needed to turn to know.
I knew that voice.
It would haunt me until the day I died.
How did he find me?
I’d been so careful.
It didn’t matter.
I just had to get away.
My first instinct was to rush into the cabin, to board the doors. But there wasn’t enough in the cabin to use. And I certainly wouldn’t be quick enough.
Besides, even if I could get the job done, secured inside with Storm, I knew this man well enough to know that he wouldn’t just let me live then.
He would shoot through the walls.
He would set the entire freaking building and forest on fire.
I wasn’t going to get to live.
Unless I could outrun him.
I wouldn’t pretend to know the woods well, but I knew the general area around the cabin well enough to navigate even in the darkness.
Where the downed trees were.
That one kind of deep hole in the ground, guaranteed to roll or break an ankle if you stepped into it wrong.
I had a slight advantage.
Hand closing tighter around Storm’s leash, I didn’t waste another second.
I turned deeper into the woods, and I ran for my goddamn life.
Because, make no mistake, that was what this was.
If he caught me, he would, I don’t know. Shoot me. Beat me to death. Stab me. Strangle me. The choices were kind of endless when it came to sick bastards like him.
Storm, thankfully, was all too happy to take off at a dead run, likely thinking this was just some sort of game. But as we ran, I wondered if he could be sensing the urgency.
Could he tell how my heartbeat was hammering?
The way a cold sweat had broken out across my skin?
How my stomach was tangling into tighter knots with each passing second?
Behind me, twigs and underbrush crunched under his feet as he seemed to keep effortless pace, regardless of how hard I pushed myself to move forward.
I cursed my aversion to gyms.
Why were long walks my chosen form of exercise? When, clearly, cardio was of the utmost importance.
Stupid.
If I lived through this, I was going to take up long distance running, sprinting, Krav Maga.
I never wanted to feel this helpless again.
My thighs were on fire, and my lungs felt like someone was slowly twisting all of the air out of them as I kept running, feeling branches slap me in the face, some of them scratching hard enough for the skin to break open, a slow trickle of blood coursing down my cheeks.
Sensing we were getting close to the hill coming up, and knowing I was never going to keep an advantage trying to go up a steep incline, I took a sharp turn to the side, finding myself running in the general direction of the road.
There would be no help there, of course. This place was too rural. I could scream until my throat bled. No one would come running to save me.
I had to save myself.
Beside me, I could hear Storm’s ragged breathing. And through the terror, the pain radiating through my own body, I felt a stab of guilt for putting him through this.
Not sure what else to do, I dropped his leash.
If I survived, I could find him.
But he didn’t slow, didn’t stop, he just kept running at my side as I tried to mentally calculate how far it was to the next house.
Too far.
I couldn’t breathe as it was.
My legs were feeling wobbly like they were going to choose not to carry me further at any moment.
Behind me, it seemed like the steady huff of breathing was only gaining on me, like this was no workout for him.