I try to ignore the fact that I’ve forgotten I’m lying next to a killer.
Some-fucking-how, that’s not the focus.
13
Greer
Waking up, I find that I’m alone. The house is silent other than Bear’s low moans as he stretches. Every bit of anger from last night is still seething through me as memories fill my head.
My body aches, and I’m furious.
By now, Allison has to be going out of her mind at finding me missing, and I’m sure she has a search party looking for me.
Tiptoeing through the house, I check every room, the ones that aren’t locked, anyway.
With a quake of fear in my gut, I step onto the porch.
His truck is gone.
He left me here? Unattended?
Bear bounds down the steps, finds the same tree he marked the night before, pees, and then sniffs the yard.
“Don’t go too far!” I tell him.
A breeze whistles through the surrounding trees, and I take a moment to take in the property. It’s truly astounding.
The cabin sits in the thickest swath of trees I’ve ever seen. Looking at it, it seems like civilization is a world away.
Running seems futile.
Which is precisely what my stalker probably thought, too. Hence, why he left me here alone.
Well, fuck him.
Decision made, I storm through the house, leaving the front door ajar for Bear.
I shove into my jeans and a T-shirt, slip on shoes, and braid my hair in defiance of the fucker who thinks he owns me.
Leaving my bag, I snatch a protein bar, a banana, and a bottle of water from the kitchen before leashing Bear.
His being with me is going to pose another obstacle.
Getting myself lost is one thing. Getting my dog and me lost in the woods with a bottle of water to share isn’t ideal.
But we can’t just sit around and wait to see what the psychopath who has me plans to do.
One look at the ankle monitor, which my jeans had barely fit over, gives me pause, but I decide I still have to try.
So what, he can find me again.
If I get back into town and get to safety, the cops can use the fucking thing to lure him in.
Plan solidified, I rush out of the house and down the steps. I don’t want to walk down the driveway, in case he appears randomly and spots me, so I walk the inner treeline, close enough to see the driveway that should lead me back to the clay roads we drove in on.
From there, I should be able just to flag someone down who isn’t my stalker and get a ride back into town. That is, if other people live out here.
When I get a reasonable distance from the cabin, the monitor on my ankle starts beeping and sounding an alarm. I can’t help the quake in my hands when I keep going, gripping Bear’s leash firmly and jutting my chin up in fake pride as I continue.
