The man sighs, and even before his gloved hand wraps around my ankle, I know he’s about to drag me out. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way then.”
I grapple for something to hold onto, but before I have a chance, he’s dragging me across the carpet. My skin burns, but the panic seizing my chest is too blinding to feel anything other than that.
A scream claws from my throat as my phone slips from my fingers, my only lifeline to safety falling away when I try to hold on to the slats beneath the bed.
The dim light coming through the open curtains makes it hard to see my attacker, but even if the lights were on, I doubt I’d be able to process any features of the man.
“There you are,” he says, dropping my ankle a moment before he glances over his shoulder at the empty hallway.
I take the only chance I’m likely to get, quickly flipping onto my hands and knees and crawling toward the closet. It may not be much, but if I can get in and close the door, it might buy me enough time for the cavalry to arrive.
But I only make it a few feet before a hard body tackles me, their weight stealing the breath from my lungs.
My mind screams at me to fight, to buck him off and run, but my body isn’t cooperating. It’s frozen in place, pain and terror binding me in place better than any rope ever could.
Tears stream down my cheeks, sobs breaking through my chest despite how hard it is to just breathe with his weight pressing me into the hard floor.
“It will be a whole lot easier for you if you stop fighting,” he growls against the shell of my ear.
The front door slams open, and even though I want to be relieved, I can’t yet. It would only take a split second for him to kill me.
I’m not safe until I’m in Colten’s arms.
“We’re out of time, my love. But don’t worry. We’ll be together soon.” His words are slow and unhurried, like he has all the time in the world.
He lingers against me for another beat before he pushes himself to his feet.
I drag in shaky breaths, trying to process where he’s going so I can be helpful when help arrives, but the harder I try to stop, the more uncontrollable my sobs become.
“Lexi!” Colten yells, but I’m too far gone.
I feel violated in a way I don’t fully understand. Obviously, he attacked me. He broke in while I was sleeping and vulnerable with the sole intention of hurting me.
But he didn’t get a chance. Not really, at least.
I’m sure I have a few bruises, but they’ll fade in a few days, and the real damage will remain.
Because whoever broke in tonight found me through the only part of my identity that is just for me, and something about that hurts more than any broken bone could.
ELEVEN
COLTEN
There have been exactly four times in my life that I’ve known true panic.
The first was in my senior year in high school. I was at a party keeping an eye on Lexi, who was the year below me, and she disappeared. Her security team had no clue where she was, and at the time I didn’t have any trackers on her person, something that I quickly remedied so I would always know where she was. In the end it turned out she’d snuck out with her boyfriend at the time, but for those forty minutes, I swear my heart was being torn out of my chest.
The second was when I was in college. I followed Cruz to the University of Oregon. Far enough away that it felt like we had a bit of freedom, but close to home if things went south. Our fathers were running the family into the ground, creating conflict with other organizations around the country, and getting more and more out of control as time went on. Lexi, however, went as far away as she could. Cruz supported the move, thinking the more distance she put between herself and their father, the better. But having her so far away didn’t sit well with me. In the end the people our fathers double-crossed werethe same ones that kidnapped Lexi and held her for three days. The three longest days of my life.
The third was the night Cruz and I killed our fathers. Seeing Lexi broken, covered in Santiago’s blood, is a sight I will never not see in my nightmares.
And that brings me to number four. Tonight. This moment.
No matter how hard I push my body, I can’t move any faster.
The guard on duty is doing a sweep of the exits, trying to intercept whoever got into the house, but I have one focus and one focus alone.
Lexi.
