I feel his presence gloss over me like a second skin.
The blade of the axe grazes my body like a seductive caress.
“You can run, but you can’t hide.”
It’s a promise given to me on a whisper of a breath.
I close my eyes, waiting for it to be over.
I hear the axe fall to the ground with a thud just before two firm hands grab me and spin me around.
“But I’m not done playing with you yet.”
Hard, frantic lips meet mine. I gasp in surprise, my eyes flying open as I push away from him.
The Axeman holds me firmly in place. He’s wearing a black mask that hugs his face, like a ski mask made of the tightest material. The only things visible are his swollen lips, which are parted and panting like my own.
And those impossibly bright blue eyes. No, it can’t be, can it?
“I sure do hope you’re the one to survive, Lexi.”
It’s the last thing I hear before he shoves me off the hillside.
Chapter twenty-three
“Come on, lassie. Wake up. Please wake up. Don’t leave me here with these boring idiots to fend for me self.” Lochlan’s voice is low, yet still unbearably whiny as I finally come to. His Scottish accent sounds even more prominent in my haze of confusion.
My head pounds even worse than when I woke up after being gassed. I try to move and instead let out a pitiful moan before I dry-heave repeatedly.
“It’s okay, lassie. I’ve got you.”
I’m sagging against Lochlan. He rubs circles on my back with one arm and holds himself up with the other since all of my weight is on him. I try to move and apologize, but I throw up instead.
“You hit your head pretty hard, Lex.” Lee’s voice sounds muffled, like he’s in some sort of wind tunnel. “She probably has a concussion,” he says to someone else.
“We can’t stay out here in the open like this,” a woman says. Must be Kristi. “That masked guy might come back. I don’t know why he didn’t just kill us. Maybe he thought we all died from the fall? It was a pretty rough landing, but not high enough to kill us. Do you think you can move, Lexi?”
My head hurts so badly I can’t be bothered to answer for myself. Instead, I lean against Lochlan’s sturdy chest and let him take charge of me as I try to keep the rest of the contents in my stomach from spewing out all over the place.
“What’s that over there?” Kristi says, her voice rising.
I look up and wince at the bright rays shining down on me. How long was I asleep? How did I even get here? The last thing I remember is running…then…falling.
Why can’t I remember anything?
“Lee,” I croak out, my throat painfully parched. He’s at my side in an instant, his face kind and comforting in this new land of confusion I seem to be stuck in. “I think something is wrong. I can’t—I can’t remember how I got here. It’s like my memories right before the fall are gone. The last thing I remember was running from the Axeman. How did we get away?”
“You guys…” Kristi repeats.
“We aren’t sure how we got away. I just know that the lot of us woke up at the bottom of this rather nasty hillside,” Lochlan answers, rubbing at his shoulder and wincing.
We all look worse for wear. It’s almost like we just ran for our lives and collapsed at the bottom of a damn hillside.
Oh wait, that’s precisely what happened…I think.
I hate it here, but I don’t have time to allow the breakdown I know is looming just behind my vaulted feelings.
Pull it together, Lex.
