1
LILA
“Come on, come on,”I mutter, as the car rattles dangerously beneath me.
Rain streaks down the windows, the wind howling just beyond the confines of my vehicle. I glance back toward the road to find that it’s mercifully empty; if he’s following me, he’s far enough behind that he’s not going to catch up anytime soon.
And then, the engine lets out one last splutter, and the car trundles to a sudden and final halt on the side of the rain-slicked road. I sit there for a moment, too stunned to move.
Gripping the wheel tight, I silently urge the thing to start moving again, for the engine to roar to life right then and there and spare me the horror of having to deal with whatever is outside of this car right now.
But nothing happens.
No, the car just sits there. Blood pulses in my brain, my head thumping with panic as the lights fade away to nothing in front of me. I’m out here, in the pitch black, with no damn clue whereI am, and now I don’t even have a working car to get me out of here.
Just my luck.
I should have checked the roads before I pulled out of the city, but I was in such a rush to get away from him, I didn’t dare so much as slow down. If I did, I was sure he would catch up to me. Shit, he’d already blocked the doors, grabbed my arms so hard that bruises were starting to rise on my skin, and told me that if I walked out he would track me down, no matter where I went. All I could think of when I jumped into my beat-up old car was getting away from him, not where I was going or what I would do when I got there.
I close my eyes, a lump springing to my throat as I rub my hand over my face. There has to be a way out of this, doesn’t there? I feel like I’m losing my mind. All the strength it took to get away from that bastard, and now I’m stranded on the side of the road, with no cars coming or going for me to flag down, no insurance company I can call up to try and get help. It’s like some sick, twisted cosmic joke at my expense.
But then, with the way my life has gone these last few years, why would I expect anything different?
I force myself to think. I can’t give up now.
I have a bag in the back of the car with some clothes and food, so that’s something. I can camp out here overnight if I have to. But if he hits the roads to come looking for me, I don’t know what chance I stand of hiding out from him. He’ll recognize the car in an instant, and I don’t even want to think what he’ll do after I tried to get away from him.
If the way he treated me before was when things were going right, the hell he’ll rain down on me when things go wrong is going to tear me apart completely…
I have to get out of here.
The roads leading out of the city might be quiet at this time of night, let alone on a stormy one like this, but there has to be something, anything I can do to make this work. It’s not going to be easy, but then, nothing has been these last few years. The least I can do is give myself a fighting chance to get away from this man for good, no matter how terrifying it might be to think of what will happen when he finds me.
No.Ifhe finds me. That’s his voice in my head, telling me that he’ll never let me go, telling me that I’ll never get away from him. And I have to believe that he’s wrong, no matter how tempting it is to sink into the familiar swamp of trusting him.
I am out. He told me I would never even get this far, but here I am, on my own, out here and fighting for my life. That has to count for something.
I grab my phone and turn on the flashlight, stepping out of the car, pulling my coat over my head in the hopes of keeping the rain off a little while longer. I squint in each direction; trees line the sides of the road, casting dark shadows where the moonlight filters through them, glistening off the roads in an eerie pattern. I ignore it. I’m seeing things to be scared of everywhere, but I’m not going to let myself fall into the belief that I’m right to be scared. I’ve waited long enough, given up enough as it is.
If my life doesn’t change now, it never will.
I point the flashlight up and down the road, trying to see if there’s anyone headed in my direction. Silence fills the air, asidefrom the sound of rain on the ground. I can hear my own breathing, little puffs of breath steaming out before me. It’s cold, really cold, the kind of cold that leaks into your bones. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to last out here if I don’t get some help soon?—
And then, as if I manifested it by sheer force of mind, I hear an engine. My throat tightens at first, wondering if it’s him—Thom, coming to track me down. But a second later, I see a car cresting the hill ahead of me, and the man behind the wheel is not the one who sent me fleeing from the city in the first place.
I wave my phone around frantically, trying to get his attention. I’m all too aware of the fact that I’m seriously vulnerable, a woman on the side of the road like this with nobody to help her, but the universe has to cut me a break one of these days, right?
I hold my breath as the car approaches, silently imploring him to do the right thing.Come on, play good Samaritan, just this once…
The car rolls to a halt beside me, and the driver winds down the window, waving me over. “You okay?”
His voice is lilting, a slight accent to it I can’t place. I can’t make out much of his face, given that I don’t want to hit him full-force with the light.
I shake my head. “My car broke down,” I tell him. “I—I need to get off the road. Away from here.”
I know how it sounds. I’m surprised he doesn’t roll that window up and carry right on down the road, but instead, a silence falls between us.
“There isn’t a garage open this late,” he tells me. “But I have a guest room—it’s not far from here. If you want, you can stay there for the night.”
