CHAPTER 20
PIERCE
Goddammit.
I sprinted after Madison’s retreating form and caught my shin on a fallen tree trunk as the blood dripped into my eyes, blinding me.
In a rage, I tore at the buttons on my shirt.
I yanked it off, crushed the fabric into a ball and swiped it across my forehead, wiping the blood away.
I traced the gash over my eyebrow with the tips of my fingers. Superficial, despite the amount of blood. I didn’t give a fucking damn about my own condition.
I had to reach Madison.
We were already on Worthington land.
The thickets here were dense enough to hide copperhead snakes, and the rain would drive them from their holes. But the snakes weren’t the worst of it. The thick copse of trees so close to the road gave the impression we were traveling through the center of the woods, when in fact we were perilously close to the edge of the cliffs.
The trees gave way to a sheer drop off a jagged cliff into the Atlantic Ocean not one hundred yards from where my car just crashed. With this fog and rain and in her agitated state,Madison wouldn’t see the danger until she was already past saving.
I wrapped my bloodied shirt around my forearm and used it as a buffer against the sting of limbs as I raced through the trees, searching for Madison.
Mud sucked at my shoes. A root snagged my ankle, but I wrenched free without slowing.
My eyes scanned for movement, straining to glimpse the bright white of her blouse through the forest gloom and the wisps of gray fog that swirled and danced around the dark, craggy trunks of the red oak trees mixed among the evergreens. A heavy layer of dead pine needles muffled any possible sound of her footfalls. If she kept heading in a straight line at the dead run she was in, instead of trying to zigzag or double back, I had a chance. I charged deeper into the woods.
Shoving a pine branch aside, I called out, “Madison! Goddammit. Stop running.”
I stopped and held my breath, hoping to hear a response or answering cry.
There was none.
I pushed forward. Trip over the cliff. Bitten by a snake. Fucking bears. As darkness descended over the forest, my mind tallied all the ways she could die.
This was all my fault. I couldn’t risk losing her, even if I didn’t understand why.
My hands were shaking. Not from the wound. Not from exertion. I clenched them and kept moving.
The edges of the forest blurred. The only thing in focus was the space directly ahead of me.
In the distance, just past the low-hanging branches of a red maple, I detected a flash of movement.
I stilled. A twig snapped. “Madison!” I bellowed.
She darted out from behind the tree and ran.
She was heading straight for the cliff’s edge.
My lungs burned with every stride. Each breath came shorter than the last. I barreled after her.
I had to reach her in time.
Nothing else mattered.
The forest sounds fell away. My injuries went quiet. Branches ripped at my bare skin and I didn’t feel them.
I tore through the forest at an inhuman pace.
