Page 86 of Keeping Kara

It didn’t help when, after she’d hung up with Kara, he’d spent the rest of the drive alternating between threatening to kill her and telling her how hideous she was. How he’d thought he was going to throw up when she’d taken off her wig at his insistence, to show him the extent of her alopecia. Calling her a freak no man would ever want or be able to stand touching.

Her self-esteem, already low, had hit rock bottom by the time she’d pulled into Kara’s driveway. It was at that moment when she realized she should’ve refused to do what he ordered. That she should’ve warned Kara that she was in danger. Should’ve called someone else, anyone, instead of Kara.

And because of her cowardice, her friend was going to die, Fred was lost, and all the women and pilots she’d gotten close to in the last several months would hate her for what she’d done.

Her tears fell nonstop as Nolan restrained Kara. As she saw the understanding and terror in her friend’s eyes. As she followed Nolan’s directions to the isolated spot near the swamplands where she and Fred had once found a missing autistic teenager.

Even as he was beating her, Jen realized she deserved every blow. It was her penance. For believing his lies, for being so desperate for someone to love her…for the tiny part of her that had hoped to make Roman jealous.

She’d been an idiot, and now she was paying the price.

When Nolan stopped hitting and kicking her, Jen was still alive. But she had an innate feeling she wouldn’t be for long if he thought she’d survived his beating. He’d go back to the car and get that knife he’d threatened her with to make damn sure she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone what happened.

So she lay on the ground, doing her best to keep her random breaths as shallow as possible. It took everything in her not to jerk when Nolan picked her up. It was a shock when she felt herself flying through the air, but she didn’t stiffen up as she fell.

She landed with a massive splash, and she took the opportunity to suck in a huge lungful of air before lying as still as possible in the foul-smelling swamp water, not breathing. She felt and heard something land with a splash next to her seconds later, and before too long, her PT Cruiser’s engine started up.

She heard the car moving, then stop—and for a terrifying moment, she thought he’d decided to come make sure she was dead. But she just heard two more small splashes nearby.

And then, finally, Nolan left…taking Kara with him.

She was alive, mostly. But Kara wouldn’t be for long if Jen didn’t get help.

She was the one who’d put her friend in danger, and she had to be the one to save her. At least, to get a hold of people who could do the physical saving.

Opening her eyes to a slit, Jen risked peeking to make sure she’d truly been left for dead. There was nothing around her. No one. Just her and the mosquitoes that were landing on her face and feasting.

Moving slowly, she rolled from her back to her front with a groan. Damn, she hurt. But it was nothing less than she deserved.

She made her way to the shore and crawled on her hands and knees up the muddy bank. The muck clung to her hands and legs, making it hard to move, but she pressed on. Once away from the water, she tried to stand, only to fall back to her knees at the pain that flashed through her torso and leg.

She wasn’t going to be able to walk, not with the way her thigh was throbbing, but she could crawl. She set off on the very path she’d driven down what was probably only minutes ago, but it felt like hours. The dirt road hadn’t seemed all that long when she was driving, but now it appeared unending.

Jen had no idea how long she’d been crawling, but surely it had to be close to an hour. Her clothes were now only damp as the sun beat down on her back, but the cuts and scrapes from Nolan’s fists still oozed blood. Down her face and into her eyes. Her hands were cut now too, from the sharp rocks she was crawling over, but she barely felt the additional pain.

She was numb. Both emotionally and physically. There were only two things keeping her from lying down and giving up completely. One was Fred. Her loyal companion was out there, probably hurt from being kicked, and she wouldn’t give up on him. The other was righting the colossal wrong she’d committed. She had to get help for Kara before it was too late.

A noise had Jen tensing. Was it Nolan coming back to make sure she was dead?

She had to get off the path! Hide!

She scrambled into the trees to one side of the dirt road and listened as the sound of the engine she’d heard faded away. She let out a long breath of relief, then groaned with the pain it caused in her ribs.

She was getting weaker and wouldn’t be able to crawl much longer, but she had to. She had no choice. Not if she was going to get Kara some help.

A few minutes later she heard another engine, but this time instead of hiding, she stayed where she was, on her hands and knees, listening. It too went by, and Kara finally realized that she was nearing the road she’d taken to get to this dirt path to nowhere.

Cars meant help.

With a renewed purpose, she began to crawl faster. Ignored the rocks digging into her knees and palms. Ignored the sharp pains in her belly. Ignored the blood dripping into her face.

When she reached the main road, Jen wanted to cry. She’d done it!

A car was coming, and she lifted a hand to wave, but it zoomed past her.

Jen blinked in surprise. She’d been so sure it would stop, and she’d be able to call for help. But it hadn’t. Had the driver not seen her, or had he or she decided they didn’t want to get involved in whatever she was about?

It took a few minutes before another car showed up in the distance, and Jen once more waved frantically, but it too drove on by.