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So damn close to escaping Charles. She’d given it her best shot and the bastard’s goons had still managed to track her down. She hadn’t been sure if she could survive another beating, and she couldn’t fight her way out because the guy on top of her was big. Not tall, but stocky and muscular. Worse than that, he’d had angry eyes.
She couldn’t budge him.
Now she was weak. Judging by the pain that stabbed her every time she moved, she’d guess her ribs were broken, and she could barely see out of her swollen eye. She was in worse shape than a hunk of tenderized steak. Closing her eyes, she rested her pounding head on the cold ground. Was this how it all ended for her? In the dirt, miles from home. No one would even know where to look. How long would it take before her family noticed she was missing? She’d quit her job months ago, when she moved in with Charles, so nobody would expect to see her at work in the morning. As for her friends, well, she’d hardly seen them lately.
Tears still burned in the backs of her eyes. Was there any point continuing to plead with the bearded rock of a man hovering above her? She swallowed, her throat aching. It didn’t matter if begging was useless. She had nothing to lose.
She forced her lips to move the way she wanted them to. “Please don’t hurt me.”
Her voice was husky and raw, nothing like usual. She repeated herself. The man’s black brows drew together and he pulled back. Even though every damaged part of her body screamed in protest, she hauled herself out of his reach. If she tried to run again, he’d catch her, but the distance helped her think. She noticed his lips were moving, but with her pulse drumming in her ears, she couldn’t hear a word he said. His dark eyes scanned her face, some of the lines around them easing so they seemed wary rather than angry.
His lips moved again.
“I can’t hear you,” she rasped. Why was he bothering to talk at all? Why hadn’t he thrown her over his shoulder and tossed her in the back of his car? Charles would want her returned immediately, before anyone noticed anything was amiss. His professional future depended upon it. She made an effort to slow her breathing and tune out the furious hammering of blood and adrenaline through her veins.
The man scowled and said with exaggerated patience, “Who are you, and why are you here?”
“You don’t know?”
“If I knew, would I be asking?”
She laughed. Only once, and her ribs paid the price, but it felt good. “You don’t know.”
A statement this time. This man wasn’t here to drag her back to Charles. She’d misunderstood. Now he was looking at her like he suspected she wasn’t right in the head. And who knew, maybe she wasn’t. But she was so wonderfully relieved, she didn’t care if she sounded like she had a screw loose.
“I’ve got no fucking clue who you are,” he said. “I live in a cabin behind the lodge and as far as I can tell, you were trying to break in.”
“You live here? At Sanctuary?” She hadn’t screwed up so badly after all. Maybe she was safe, at least for now. “Do you work here?”
He nodded. Tears streamed down her puffy cheeks, stinging her injured lip. She’d made it. She wasn’t going to be returned unwillingly to Auckland to live out the rest of her life as a captive trophy wife.
She’d done it. She’d escaped.
Turning her gaze heavenward, she stared up at the thousands of twinkling stars interspersed with the twisting ribbons of pink and purple that were the Milky Way. For the first time in months, she was a free woman, beneath a starry sky. The skies in Auckland were never like this. She eased back onto the ground and let all the tension seep from her body.
She was tired.
She was sore.
But goddamn it, she wasfree.
Something wet nudged the top of her head. The dog’s nose. It had stopped barking, but pranced around her body, sniffing curiously.
“Are, uh, you okay?” the man, who still hadn’t told her his name, asked.
“I am,” she replied, with feeling.
“Looks like you need a doctor.”
“No.” The word flew from her lips before her brain had fully processed it. She got to her feet, cringing at how much it hurt. “No doctors.”
“Okay, okay.” He held his palms up in a gesture of peace.
“Can I—” She swallowed her nerves, and wiped her gritty palms on her thighs. “Can I see Katarina? I’m here to stay at Sanctuary.” Stringing so many words together brought more tears to her eyes, but she powered on. “I’ve heard wonderful things about her, and I wasn’t trying to break in, I promise. I was just checking whether anything was open, or if I’d have to sleep in my car.”
His eyes widened in disbelief. “You’d have slept in your car in that condition?”
He scrubbed a hand over his dark beard, then bent and scooped the dog up with one arm. His bicep bulged and a fresh wave of relief overcame her because he had no intention of hurting her with his powerful body, even though he definitely could if he wanted. He must have twenty pounds on Charles, who’d managed to knock her around just fine.
