AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Why does this keep happening? Why can’t I just die and be done with it all?
I felt warm tears stream down my cheeks, but they were quickly replaced by an equally warm tongue, lapping at them. Where the hell did this dog come from? I had no idea what was going on, but I was pretty sure I was still alive, and as hot air blew across my body, reality came into sharper focus.
I could no longer pretend it was almost over.
“Why are you doing this? You should’ve just left me.”
“Left you?” A man with a deep voice was very close to me, but I didn’t dare open my eyes to look at him. If he was anything like Bruce, one wrong glance could end very painfully. “Why the hell were you out here in this weather? There aren’t any buses coming this late.”
“What time…?” I glanced at the dashboard and saw that it was just after midnight. How long had I been out there? Not long enough. “Oh.”
“We need to get you to the hospital. You probably have hypothermia, and if you want to keep your fingers and toes, we need to get you warmed up.”
I shook my head and reached for the door. “No, no hospital. I can’t go to a hospital here. I’m fine.”
A heavy hand landed over mine and stopped me before I could open the door.
Great. I had escaped one tyrant to be rescued by another. Sounds about right.
“You can’t go back out there right now. You need to warm up first. Is there someone I can call? Somewhere I can take you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Just away.”
His hand was still on mine for a moment before he gently lifted it off the handle and placed it back on the dog in my lap. “Away where?”
“As far as you’re going. I just need to get away from here.”
His fingers trailed up the side of my temple and brushed back some of the hair that was crusted with blood. After a thorough investigation of the visible injuries, his jaw clenched, and he inhaled deeply through his nose. “Where is he?”
I wanted to lie and tell the stranger I had just fallen and bumped my head, but my body wouldn’t let me. I didn’t have the strength to pretend anymore. Instead, I burst into full-body sobs, unable to stop myself from finally reacting to the past two years of hell I just escaped from. This guy might be my next captor, but I couldn’t focus on anything other than being away from Bruce. It didn’t matter how that happened. “As long as I can get out of this town, he won’t find me.”
The man’s fingers gently traced along my face and down my arms until I winced at the pain in my elbow. “I’m only going to ask you this one more time. Where is he?”
I took in a deep breath in an attempt to control my crying and pointed my thumb over my shoulder. “He lives off Boone and Andal. A few miles back.”
Before I could say anything else, he slammed on the brakes and flipped the truck around. On the icy road, the back of the truck bed fishtailed a bit, but he kept it between the lines and hit the gas.
“Please don’t take me back. He’ll kill me.”
The man stared straight ahead with a determined look on his face. “No, he won’t.”
Goddammit. This was one of his friends. I didn’t recognize him, but clearly he had been sent to find me and take me back. I considered reaching for the door handle again, but there was no way I could outrun this guy and his dog. I would be hard-pressed to even jump out with the weight of the dog pinning me to the seat.
I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. At least I tried. I was almost there. Wherevertherewas after death, I was close. But I had a feeling I’d gettheresoon enough.
We got to the main intersection, and he turned to me. “Left or right?”
“Don’t you know?” If he knew Bruce, he should know where he lived.
“Left or right?”
“Left,” I whispered. Maybe this was a test. So he could report back to Bruce whether or not I tried lying to him.
“How far up?”
Why the hell would Bruce send somebody out searching for me without giving him the address? “The driveway on the right. Just past those tires.”
As soon as we got to the driveway, the man turned off the headlights on his truck and slowly rolled toward the trailer parked at the end of the lot. There were no additional lights turned on, so I wondered if Bruce was still asleep. But then… how could he still be asleep if he sent someone out to find me? Nothing was making sense, but I attributed that to my frozen brain. Maybe my body was shutting down and this was just a final survival push before I completely turned off.
