29
Caroline lay on the ground, the air knocked from her lungs, shock suppressing her movements. A loud crash had registered a few seconds ago but she couldn’t force her body to turn over and look.
She knew what she would see.
Numb, she fought her way to her feet, stumbling around as though drunk. The long belt he’d slung over her shoulder less than ten seconds ago lay on the ground a few feet away, and in her hand a piece of paper he’d shoved into her fist before tossing her like a grenade through the opening.
He’d said he loved her.
Barely able to pick up her feet, she shuffled to the belt and lifted it in her free hand, taking in the pistol and ammo as if from a distance. A fog hovered over her head.
He loved her.
And just like her father, that love had been violently torn from her grasp. Staring at her hand, she opened her grip to see a small folded map.
Somehow, she knew that map would be marked to show her the way out. Next to the gun on the belt hung a set of keys. Along with the wide band of ammo and a grenade.
He’d saved her and given her the tools she needed to escape.
A frantic sense of urgency rushed through her veins and she turned and faced her nightmare. A huge pile of jagged gray rock completely covered where the doorway had been moments before. Reaper was trapped inside.
Or worse—crushed. . .
Even as the pain ripped her apart, she ran to the wall, clawing at the giant boulders in hopeless despair. She couldn’t budge a single one—not even an inch—but that didn’t stop her from digging until her nails ripped away and her fingertips bled.
He’d given her back her hope and snatched it away in the same breath.
“Reaper, no,” she moaned still frantically digging through the impenetrable wall. “Please, don’t leave me. Please!”
Her words hitched on the sob, hopelessness took her to her knees. She couldn’t move a single one of those rocks. Even if he had survived, he’d suffocate.
She felt like her sternum was caving in on her heart. Caroline dropped to her hands, unable to hold herself upright.
Ranier had taken everything away from her. Her freedom. Her father. Reaper.
Why should she even try to keep living now? It wasn’t worth it, not without someone to love.
She should’ve known that Reaper didn’t really want to leave her before; she should have trusted him. And now. . . Oh God. . .
It was all she could do not to curl into a ball and sob.
“I couldn’t have planned that better myself,” a snide deep voice came from behind her.
Caroline didn’t bother getting up off her hands and knees; it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Lover boy just killed himself and delivered you up like a Christmas present wrapped in a bow.”
It wasn’t fair, dammit. She hadn’t even gotten to see her father’s funeral and now, she wouldn’t see Reaper’s either.
Just like it had when he left her in the hut, stabbing pains picked at her brain. She didn’t know how or why, but without Reaper there to soothe her, her environment crashed in. Cold, gnawing sweat formed on her arms, and down her back the pain descended. She knew what was coming—utter and complete agony.
“All right, princess, enough. Get to your feet; we’re going to find you a new home, one no one knows about. You will never see the light of day again.”
The man’s voice paused in her ears, like shards of glass ripping across her periphery. It was then that her awareness returned. Reaper’s belt was beneath her right hand, her fingers inches from the grenade. With her back turned, the man behind her wouldn’t have seen her weapons.
He wouldn’t know she was ready to die.
Pushing through the pain threatening to take her under, Caroline focused all on the minute task of sliding her hand over to hide the weapon.
