Zach didn’t waste a beat. He put his foot in the stirrup and mounted Roam. “Let’s go then. Horses’ll be faster than runnin’ to find a truck.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I jumped up on Zephyr’s back and shot out of there at full speed. My heart felt like it was in my throat the entire ride, and the feeling only got worse when we pulled the horses to a stop and I spotted the front door thrown open.
I jumped off Zephyr and sprinted toward the house, leaping over the steps without taking a single one. “Lennix!” I shouted as I skidded to a halt just inside the door. “Lennix, baby, where are you?”
The only sound I heard was a sharp whine that came from Ziggy as he rounded the kitchen counter and staggered into the living room. His muzzle was covered in blood and he was limping like he was in serious pain. He came right for me, and I crouched down, roughing his head. “Hey, buddy. Hey. You’re okay. Everything’s gonna be okay.” I felt down his side, gently prodding until I reached a spot that hurt him bad enough he let out a yelp and exposed his teeth in a pained snarl. “Shit. He’s bad off.”
“What the fuck happened?” I looked up at Zach to find him scanning the open area. In the kitchen, the fridge doors were hanging open and the frying pan from this morning’s breakfast was on the floor, along with several spots of blood.
“Fuck!” I barked as I pulled my phone back out and called up the app for the security system. I tapped on the camera by the front door and scrolled back through the footage to a couple minutes before the panic alarm went off. I watched it back at two times the normal speed, trying to figure out what the fuck had happened.
My entire body turned cold as I watched that fucker from the bar pull up in front of the house. Lennix came into the frame from the side a few seconds later. There was a conversation, then the two of them went inside. I scrolled through the next few minutes until something popped up on the camera again.
Lennix ran out of the house so fast she was nearly a blur, but there was no missing the stark terror on her face when she glanced back over her shoulder, nearly tripping on the steps, as she raced away from the house.
“This can’t be happening,” Zach spoke, watching the screen of my phone over my shoulder. “This can’t be fucking happening.”
I looked back to the screen. Less than a minute later, Davis came back into frame, an open wound on his temple and the legof his jeans mangled. Both those wounds were drenched with blood. He was limping and moving a hell of a lot slower than Lennix, but there was no denying he was chasing after her. Ziggy had acted to save his master, and that piece of shit had obviously kicked him to get him off.
“She fought back,” I said, my voice low and flat. “She fought back, knocked him upside the head with that pan and slowed him down.”
I didn’t know who I was trying to reassure more, Zach or me. It was taking everything I had to keep from losing my shit completely, but I wouldn’t be any good to my Chaos if I lost it. I scrolled to another camera so I could get a better angle of which direction she’d run in.
What she’d said the night she found me after the news about Danny came rushing back. My girl was strong, and she fucking knew it. She wasn’t going to let this piece of shit beat her. She wouldn’t stop fighting, there was no doubt in my mind. I prayed she fought hard enough to give me the time I needed to get to her. “She slowed him down, Zach. That head wound looked bad and his leg was fucked. She got a good head start. We just need to get to her.”
I watched as he shoved his panic down and steeled himself for what we had to do. “Then let’s go. You lead the way and I’ll call this in as we ride. That fucker doesn’t get to win.”
In less than a heartbeat, I was back on Zephyr and rode him harder and faster than I ever had, one thought circling my brain on a loop.
Please let me get to her in time. Please, god, let me get to her in time.
Lennix
I silently cursedmyself as I ran through the thickets. There couldn’t have been a worse pair of shoes to run in than the rubber rain boots I was wearing. I should have headed in the direction of the lodge, but I hadn’t exactly been in my right mind as I bolted out of my house, trying to get away from Davis. The man who’d been stalking me all this time. The man who’d been so good at hiding the fact he was a raging psycho. That was the only explanation I had for why I ran in the direction of the stream instead of heading to safety. All I could think was that, subconsciously, I thought I had a better chance of losing him in the woods behind my house.
My lungs felt like they were on fire, thanks to the cold air I was sucking in as I ran. The toe of my boot caught on a raised tree root, and I went down, grunting as I threw my hands in front of me to try and catch my fall. I cried out as a jagged stick stabbed into my palm. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t have time to slow down and cry as I ripped the twig out. I was already slowing, fear and adrenaline only taking me so far. My energy wasn’t limitless, and I’d never been a fan of running.
I forced myself back to my feet and kept going, moving closer to the stream in the hopes that the sound of the rushing water would mask any noise I made. The problem with that line of thinking was that I couldn’t hear him either.
A scream wrenched from my chest when Davis collided with me, coming at me from the side and taking me to the ground so hard the wind knocked from my lungs.
“You ungrateful bitch!” he screamed at the top of his lungs as he reeled his arm back and thrust it forward, punching me in the face. Pain exploded in my cheek as I thrashed on the ground, fighting with all the strength I had left to get away from him. My lungs felt like they were taking an eternity to reinflate, and everything was painful. I could feel the pain tugging at my consciousness, but I refused to stop fighting. In the back of my mind, I knew someone would come—at least I hoped so. I kept telling myself I needed to hold on a little longer. But that was proving to be harder than I thought. Davis wasn’t as big as Raylan in height or weight, but he was no slouch, and I was downright tiny in comparison. Shoving at him as I scratched and clawed and bit was like trying to move a brick wall.
The terror grew thicker as the edges of my vision started closing in on me. Finally,finally, the air returned to my lungs in a whoosh, and I opened my mouth to scream so loud my vocal chords felt like they’d been doused with acid. I screamed for help. I screamed with frustration and fear. I screamed in the hopes the sound would blow out his eardrum.
“I’m gonna get what I’m owed if I have to fucking beat you unconscious to do it,” he threatened.
I didn’t know this man. Nothing about the twisted rage on his face was familiar. The Davis I thought I knew was long gone, the real one in his place, and I’d never been so scared.
“No!” I screamed, baring my nails and raking them down his face as he ripped at the collar of my shirt, splitting the front open. Tears poured through my eyes, the salt from them stinging the cuts all over my face. “No, please! Don’t!”
“Shut up, you stupid cunt,” he grunted as we continued to battle each other on the forest floor. “If you had cooperated, Iwould have made this good for you. Now I’m taking what I want whether you fucking like it or not.”
My fear turned into a visceral, living thing, filling me up and sending a surge of adrenaline through my system strong enough to give me a little more strength. I’d rather die than let him do what he planned on doing, and if that’s what it took, so be it. When his hand clamped down on my mouth in an attempt to silence my screams, I bared my teeth and bit down until I tasted blood. Even then I didn’t let go. At the same time, I jabbed my thumb into his eye socket.
His head thrashed back on a bellow of pain, but there wasn’t enough time for me to appreciate the damage I’d done. It was enough, though, to get his hold to loosen, and I rolled, using my hips to throw him off me and try to scramble to my feet. As soon as I was free, I spotted two hazy blurs in the distance, coming at me at lightning speed. But I was too disoriented to make out what or who it was.
Then time seemed to slow down as I heard the most beautiful sound in all the world. “Lennix!”
