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When she reached the door to the ground floor, she took a peek, and another sigh of relief escaped her when she saw no one standing outside. The fire exit led out to the clinic’s lavishly landscaped gardens. It was bordered by eight-foot walls, but she was confident she would be able to scale it.
What she did not count on, however, were the dogs.
Three German Shepherds, salivating and gazing at her with eerily menacing eyes. They were chained to ornamental lamp posts that lined the garden’s pathways. Those were really thin chains, Mairi thought with a swallow.
She took one step out of the door.
The dogs tensed, their tails standing up, their eyes following her every move.
“G-good dog,” she whispered.
Wrong words, as it seemed.
They lunged towards her, snarling, and Mairi ran towards the walls. A second later, she heard the sound of metal snapping. The chains had snapped. She tried to run faster at the sound, her heartbeat so loud it eclipsed everything else.
One of the magnolia trees in the garden had a branch drooping close to the top of the walls. Mairi headed over to it immediately. As she tried to climb the tree, looking for something for her foot to rest her weight on, one of the dogs finally caught up to her.
Bite.
Razor sharp teeth had clamped onto her leg, and she bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out. When her other foot finally found something to step on, Mairi took a deep breath before kicking the dog away. Taken by surprise, the dog released its hold on her leg and she moved immediately, making sure to climb up fast and keep herself out of reach.
The climb was a hundred times harder now, the pain in her leg making her feel woozy, but Mairi didn’t stop moving. Damen, she whispered to herself. She had to get to Damen. He had been calling out her name the last time. He needed her right now. That was all that mattered.
The world around her blurred. The jump from tree to wall had seemed so easy a while ago. Now, it felt like she was jumping from one end of a cliff to another.
From afar, shouts could be heard and beams of light from torches began to pierce the darkness.
Below, the dogs barked more noisily, angrily.
Damen, she thought again. Damen was outside, waiting for her.
Mairi jumped.
She went over the wall, landing on all fours. When she looked down, her knees were bleeding, too, and her wrists hurt badly. The pain made her feel woozier, but she forced herself up. She had to get moving before people figured out she was gone. She had memorized the name of the hospital Damen was in when she caught it on TV. Now, she had to find a way to get there, without money, without a phone, without anything. But she would get there. She had to. She needed to get to Damen no matter what.
Mairi closed her eyes for a moment.
Damen’s face filled her mind. So sinfully handsome, with his wicked silver eyes and—-
She choked back a sob, her eyes flying open as the Damen in her mind changed. Now he looked horribly beaten, his eyes swollen, his mouth bleeding.
Oh God, she had to get to him. It didn’t matter what she had to do. Walk, hitchhike, or call for an ambulance and get herself driven there. It didn’t matter. The pain in her leg blazed, but Mairi was numb to the hurt. All she could think of was him.
Damen, I’m coming. She would get to him. She would. She needed him. He needed her. And so for as long as Damen needed her, Mairi would be by his side.
Chapter 2
Seven days ago
“I received a text from Mairi,” Norah said as she joined her sister in the living room. She felt so old and frail as she took a seat beside Vilma. It was as if they had aged a hundred years in the past few weeks.
Vilma asked stiffly, “Is she all right?” She would never ever forgive herself if anything happened to her niece. A choked sob tried to escape her. All they had wanted was to protect her. But in the end, they had ended up causing Mairi to risk her life just to escape them.
“There’s no need to worry,” Norah said, squeezing her sister’s hand. “She says she’s with Damen where he’s being treated, and she’s going to stay there.”
The two of them fell quiet as they digested their niece’s words.
Mairi was with Damen.
After everything that the Greek billionaire had done to her, she had chosen to be with Damen Leventis.
Did Mairi know what was going on in Damen’s life now? It wasn’t just that he was no longer a Greek billionaire. According to the media, almost all of his accounts were frozen. It would be a miracle if he even had a million to his name.
