This is my only chance to make it out alive.
I’m on my feet, and I run faster than I’ve ever done in my life.
The urge to check behind me is strong, but I resist it. The eco lights provide just enough light to avoid major obstacles, but the rain and the lack of moonlight shroud most of my surroundings in darkness.
While fighting my attacker, I lost my phone. There is no way to call for help. I need to get to the station before my stalker catches up with me.
My lungs are burning as I run with everything I have. There’s also a painful throbbing in my lower back from when I got the wind knocked out of me and I hit the asphalt.
Tending to any scrapes and other injuries will have to wait until I’m safe and not being hunted by a psycho with a knife.
As the rain eases off, I decide to risk turning around to see if I can spot my stalker behind me. I pray to every divine entity and every lucky star that the hooded figure gave up chasing me and returned to whatever dark hellthey came out of.
I see nothing behind me, but maybe I should have kept looking in front of me instead.
The impact is hard enough to make me lose my balance. If I hit a wall, I must be near thestation; it’s the only building vaguely close in the opposite direction from the campgrounds.
But walls don’t have arms, and whatever I just ran into grabs me, keeping me from crashing to the ground.
A flash of light helps me establish that I didn’t run into a wall. Strong hands are holding me upright by my biceps.
A tall figure in dark clothes and a black hoodie is what stopped my escape. My attacker must have run faster than me and turned around, waiting until I ran into them.
“No!” I scream. “Please don’t kill me. Please let me go!” I struggle against the viselike grip that is keeping me nailed to my stalker.
They don’t let me go, and I realize that they aren’t alone. There’s another light and the heat radiating from another body behind me.
If there are two stalkers, this is it. There’s no way I can overpower two armed assailants.
“Taryn?” the attacker holding me still asks. “What are you doing out here by yourself in the rain?”
I’m so terrified that the concern in their tone doesn’t register. “Please don’t kill me.” I beg again, too exhausted to keep fighting against their hold.
“Trouble, it’s me.” He says.
“Pretty girl, it’s us.” The person behind me says, stepping around me to shine the light he’s holding onto Nash.
My heart is still beating at breakneck speed, adrenaline pumping in my body. “Colsen?” I cry, wondering if it’s really them or if I’m hallucinating.
“Yes, it’s us. Taryn, what are you doing alone in themiddle of the road? And why were you begging us not to kill you?”
If this is a hallucination, it’s a really realistic one.
Nash pulls me against his strong chest, and I let him. His clean scent, mixed with a hint of sweat and rain, invades my senses, and I melt in his arms.
My head tells me that it’s impossible that Nash was the person who attacked me and, for once, my heart agrees.
“My stalker was chasing me. They have a knife.” I sob. “I ran and they were there, and they tried to kill me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
NAKED
NASH
Iclose my arms around Taryn.
The weight of her head against my chest feels right, like she was made to fit in my arms.
