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Derek’s face flushed a dark red, and he punched her in the belly. “Shut the fuck up! Shut. The. Fuck. Up!”
Penny bent double, barely able to breathe. She backed away and walked into the living area, pulling her cell phone from her back pocket. She dialed her mother’s number and got her mother’s voicemail. “I’m leaving LA, Mom. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
“The fuck you are!” Derek grabbed her phone from her hand and flung it across the room. It hit the wall and shattered into pieces. “You’re staying here with me.”
“Why?” Penny faced him. “So I can pay the bills while you terrorize casting directors and their staff?” She shook her head. “I’m done. This is your dream, not mine. I’m going back to Montana to get enrolled in school. You can figure out your own life from here. I’m not paying any more bills for you.”
His lips pulled back in a feral leer. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re not leaving me.” He advanced on her. “You’re mine.”
Penny backed away until she bumped into the wall. The anger radiating from his face terrified her.
Derek wrapped his hands around her throat and lifted her off the ground. “Nobody walks out on me.”
She couldn’t breathe. Penny clawed at his hands and kicked her feet, but he didn’t let go. A gray haze blurred her vision. Was this it? The end of her?
Penny did the only thing she could do.
Play dead.
In her heart, she was dead to him anyway.
She closed her eyes and went limp.
Derek’s arms shook under the dead weight. His hands loosened and finally released, allowing her body to slide to the floor.
* * *
She must have passed out. When she came to, air filled her lungs, reminding her she was alive. Slumped over on a hard surface, she found her throat hurt, and every inch of her body ached.
For a long moment, she lay still, her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, she blinked several times. She wasn’t in her bed but on the floor in the living area.
As Penny sat up slowly, memories washed over her like a tidal wave. Her gaze darted around the room, looking for Derek.
From where she sat, she couldn’t see him.
She crawled on her hands and knees around the couch and froze.
There he was, lying on the floor in front of the apartment door, her car keys clutched in his hand. He was passed out, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Her pulse quickened. She had to get out of the apartment before he woke. Staying with him wasn’t an option. Not after he’d almost killed her.
Penny continued to crawl across the floor and into the bedroom. On her way past an end table, she snagged her purse and dragged it along with her.
Once in the bedroom, she went straight for her nightstand, where she kept a spare set of keys to her car.
She didn’t take the time to repack the clothes strewn across the room. The suitcase she’d received from her parents as a high school graduation gift had been ripped in half. The jewelry box she’d received as a birthday gift from her friends back home lay smashed in a corner. Her heart squeezed hard in her chest.
Penny had to remind herself that those were just things. They could be replaced. She only had one life. Her number one goal was to get the hell out before the monster woke.
Once she found the spare keys, she looked around for a way to escape that didn’t involve going through the front door. She eyed the sliding doors that led out onto the balcony. There was a matching balcony in the living room, but she couldn’t risk going back in there and making a noise that would disturb Derek.
The apartment was on the second floor and wasn’t equipped with fire escape stairs off the balconies. It was a long drop to the ground.
Penny ripped the sheets from the bed and tied the ends together with a knot. She carried them across the floor and eased open the sliding glass door to the balcony, stepped out and closed the door softly behind her. Slipping the keys into her purse, she slung the strap over her head and one shoulder.
She tied the end of one sheet to the wrought iron balcony rail and flung the other end over the side. The makeshift rope fell down to within five feet of the ground.
Penny cast a glance toward the glass door and then climbed over the rail, held onto the sheet and stepped off the balcony.
