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My blood runs colder than the crisp air.
Locking with a silver set of eyes makes the hair stand on the back of my neck.
Donny. No! How?
There’s a moment – the stillness of a wolf ready to devour its prey.
A lump forms in my throat, pressure building in my head from terror. Then I let it out.
I scream, and the sharpness that cuts through my throat is muffled against his palm. My desperation stifled for the second time in twenty-four hours. Only this time, I’m not letting them take me alive.
I flail and kick his shin, his thigh, but he twists so I can’t get his groin. He squeezes harder around my arms, and it feels like a bear is crushing the life out of me.
“Will you stop,” Donny whispers angrily.
My slipper goes flying.
I tear at the arm confining me, clawing him with every ounce of my strength. I can’t go back. I bite for one of his fingers, but he’s done this before. He’s cupping my mouth like a muzzle.
“Hey. Hey!” He shakes me out of hysteria and stares at me. The exhaling vapor makes him look like a dragon from hell. “Are you done trying to get yourself fucking killed?”
My face muscles relax slightly.
Get myself killed? What the fuck does he care?
He slowly loosens his grip around my mouth, testing whether I’ll scream. My fists clench. I hate being manhandled. I hate feeling powerless like this.
“You know there’re bears out here, right?” His tone is even.
“I’ll take my chances with them,” I say, still out of breath from the struggle. I jolt in his grip, and he tightens again.
“Cut it.” He jerks me back toward the path I came from, and a screeching “No!” echoes around the woods.
He sighs. “I’m taking you back to warmth and shelter.” He gestures in the direction of the safe house like I’m an idiot.
“Prison, you mean?”
He squeezes harder, and I yelp. “Neither of us asked for this, Ellie. Now shut up and let me keep you alive.”
xxx
The next day I wake in a panic, half-expecting to be in my own bed because of some terrible nightmare of a rival family kidnapping me because of my name. Unfortunately, my nightmare came true.
Shivers assail me when I think of Gio’s snickering voice and wrinkly skin, and I cower when remembering Donny’s knuckles clapping against my face. But there’s a bright side, literally.
The room is infinitely less horrifying with sunlight beaming through the windows, and the maid must’ve cleaned the blood off the wall while I was knocked out asleep. Now I’m ready for escape attempt number two. All I have to do is find a set of car keys when no one’s looking. Or, in worst case, I have a couple of good meals before I’m sold off to some Russian czar.
My mouth still tastes metallic, though there’s no bad wounds far as I can tell. Just some aches from getting tossed around.
I tiptoe toward the door and put my ear to it.
Only one set of footsteps downstairs. Sounds like they’re coming from the kitchen. Opening the door slowly, a bell chimes over my head.
The footsteps stop, along with my heart.
“Ms. Ellie, please come to the kitchen,” a woman with a Latina accent calls from the first floor.
My belly rumbles when it understands that this pleasant voice likely means she’s the maid… and possibly the cook.
