Then another landed right on my stomach and I fell back, ass right in a puddle of mud that soaked right through my already filthy pants.
I tried to kickstart my lungs, to force my throat to unclench, to suck in all the oxygen I could get but Victor grabbed me by the hair and pressed his mouth to my temple.
"You got that out of your system? Huh? Now be a good boy and keep moving." He pushed me back and I broke the fall by putting my arms down in the mud.
He watched me as I got back up and I was finally able to take a breath again when he reached for me again and grabbed me with both hands on either side of my face.
"And wipe those tears. You're mine? You hear me? You'll always be mine."
He aimed his lips for mine. Time slowed down again. I almost threw up in my mouth at the thought of him kissing me ever again. Without thinking I head-butted him and he stumbled backwards.
"You little—" he spat out and I hunched my shoulders, closed my eyes, braced for impact.
It never came.
I dared to take a peek, and I realized Victor wasn't paying attention to me anymore. No, he was watching something behind us. Something that was fast approaching. Something big. Someone huge.
"Dare!" I shouted, but Victor's instincts kicked back in, and he slapped me across the face. "Move!"
He pushed me forward, deeper into the woods, further into the unknown, but I didn't care anymore. Dare was alive. Dare was coming for me. Dare was going to save me.
Victor let go of me and pulled the magazine out of his handgun, counted the bullets, then slid it back in place and any and all hope that had clawed its way back into my head dropped back into the abyss.
Because Dare was still coming for me. He might be alive, but he was going to die. He would lose his life trying to save me from this monster I'd chosen to follow.
I couldn't let that happen.
I ground my teeth and let out a huff.
I wouldn't.
THIRTY-THREE
DARE
Isaw them. They were just blurs in the distance, but I could see them. So I ran. I kept running despite the pain throbbing in my arm. Despite the blood that had dried all down my sleeve, and how dizzy it made me every time I looked at it.
I had to get to him.
A shot echoed up ahead and I ducked to avoid it, but it must have hit somewhere away from me because I didn't see anything around me burst.
I kept going, trying to close the distance. My arm was sore and my chest heavy, but I couldn't stop now. I was close— and there was no telling what Victor might do to Zach.
If I hadn't chased them down like a maniac, none of this would have happened. I didn't know how safe Zach would be with that monster, but it would be safer than being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no options. I'd made everything worse, but I'd be damned if I didn't see it through. If I didn't try to rescue the love of my life.
Because that was what he was. The love of my life. Or he had the potential to be, if I didn't screw it up and if fate smiled on us.
To think I'd wasted so much time, so much fucking time, afraid of getting hurt again when I could have been with him from the start. We could have had something beautiful. Something unbreakable. Something everlasting.
I've been so stupid! So fucking?—
Something grazed past my ear, and I focused ahead on Victor. He was a few yards up ahead, his gun aimed at me.
I ducked behind a tree and came out the other side, firing at him. I didn't stop running as I did. I was too close to start hiding again, it was time to take that asshole down.
He tried to shoot me again, so I took cover behind another tree and came out the other end. When it happened again though, I popped back out from the same side, taking him by surprise, and fired at him.
My bullet ripped through the top of his shoulder, and he hissed but he didn't back down. He didn't yell in pain or take cover.
