Lily
Next to me, Cason makes a low noise and then moves to roll over onto his side. It sounds like a small growl from a contented animal, but I can’t let myself get lulled into a false sense of security. He is still very much the man who’s repeatedly threatened to kill me, no matter what he promised last night.
I have no reason to believe he isn’t the same killer he proudly claims to be, no matter what he said after we slept together. He is that man, and I’m still in as much danger as I was when he tied me up in that chair in his apartment.
So I have to find a way to escape.
His chest expands and contracts as I watch to see if he’s truly sleeping. Every inch of my body is on edge as I slowly back away from him. Instantly, I miss his warmth.
I can’t think like that. A moment’s comfort can easily turn into an hour’s pain. I just have to get away from this place and then everything will be okay. Of course, that’s assuming the fence isn’t electrified.
No. I can’t think about that either. The fear of being fried like a mosquito on a bug zapper can’t be the reason I stay here. Somehow, I’ll get around the fence. It might not even be electrified. Maybe Cason only said that to scare me into not even trying to get away. That would make sense.
He stops breathing for a moment, and I hold my breath while I wait for him to say something. Is he awake? I watch for a second and then another and then finally he exhales as relief washes over me.
I can’t wait forever. I have to take a chance. The worst that happens if he wakes up is he thinks I’m going to the bathroom and I have to wait for a little while longer.
But no matter what, I have to try to get away tonight.
Cason rolls over onto his back, so I quickly drop my head onto the pillow and shut my eyes. I hear him breathing, in and out and in and out, and gradually I open my right eye to check if he’s asleep.
He looks like he’s out. Slowly, I sit up next to him, letting my gaze roam over his naked torso down to where the white bedsheet drapes across his hips. While his chest expands, the muscles in his abdomen gently ripple under his skin, and then the whole thing repeats when he lets out the air from his lungs.
Asleep, he looks like a warrior lying there covered in tattoos, his body tight and toned. I imagine more than one woman has watched him sleep like this and thought how lucky they were to get to be with him.
But he’s no warrior. There’s no nobility in him. He’s just a killer, and I can’t forget that. Even though I can’t forget how he’s made my body come alive.
That doesn’t matter. It can’t. Bodies lie, or at least mine does. What he makes me feel is a physical reaction. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t reflect what kind of man he is or what he does without a hint of guilt.
Cason is a killer. Now I need to get away from that killer.
I take a deep breath and hold it in as I crawl down to the bottom of the bed and gingerly step off. The bed moves, and I quickly look back to check he’s still asleep. My heart races by the second, but he seems like he’s out cold.
Praying to God I’ll be able to get away, I lift my other leg and stand up. The bed moves again, and I glance back to check Cason one more time.
Still asleep.
My heart slams into my chest, but I take a step toward the door and then another, careful to walk as lightly as I can. With every one, I twist my head to look back to see if he’s awake, but I think I’m going to make it.
All I have to do is open the door and hope against hope it doesn’t make a sound. The problem is I don’t know if it usually creaks when I open or close his bedroom door. I’ve never paid attention.
I stop in front of the door and close my eyes, silently praying I don’t wake him up on this last hurdle to my freedom. My palms are drenched, and when I reach out to grab the doorknob, my hand shakes. I twist it and slowly pull the door open, listening for any hint of noise.
But there is none. The door silently swings toward me, and then with one last look back at Cason, I step out into the hallway and close it behind me.
I’m free!
I hurry to my room and dress in another new pair of black yoga pants and the white T-shirt he bought for me yesterday. It takes me only seconds before I’m ready to make my escape down the stairs and out the front door. Slowly, I open my bedroom door and look down the hall toward Cason’s room to see if he’s realized I’m gone yet.
Nothing. Not a sound. Hopefully, he’s still asleep.
With no idea what time it is and only a sense that it must be the middle of the night because it’s dark outside, I tiptoe down the stairs and make my way to the front door. I twist the lock, and then just like with his bedroom door, I open it slowly, desperate to make not even the tiniest sound. I swing it open, eager to finally be free, and step outside into the cool night air.
I almost can’t believe I’ve made it to the outdoors. Closing the front door behind me, I take a deep breath of air into my lungs and hold it there for a moment. It feels different outside now than it did when he brought me out here yesterday.
No one is letting me out now. I’m here because I want to be. I’m free.
The moment passes, and I run as fast as I can toward the front of the property. Clouds mask the moon, thankfully, making my escape harder to see, I hope. I just need to get to where the road turns onto the driveway that travels up to the house, and then the time to see if he lied about the electrified fence will come.
My bare feet glide over the wet grass, and when I begin to run on the pavement, they make a slapping sound with each time they hit the ground. It’s the sound of freedom, the sound of me getting away to safety the only chance I have.
And just as I congratulate myself on escaping, I see up ahead the silhouette of a person standing near the road. In seconds, he turns to face me as I quickly turn and run away. If he yells, Cason will hear him and realize I’m gone, but if I stop to approach him, I’ll be caught anyway.
I have no good choices, so I keep running. Away from the man. Away from the house. I don’t know where to, but I have to find a way to get away from everything and everyone here.
Behind me, a noise that sounds like someone running makes my heart nearly explode out of my chest. I turn around to see the man coming after me. Much larger, his legs are faster than mine. In no time, he’ll catch up to me.
I have to think of something to make sure he doesn’t catch me and take me back to the house. But what? If I climb a tree, he’ll have me trapped. If I try to hide, it will only be a matter of time before he finds me. My plan to get free will be ruined.
There are no choices, good or otherwise, but I keep running, pushing my legs and lungs to perform better than my body is capable of delivering. Pain stabs through my chest, and with every second that passes, the burning in my thighs makes me question if I can go on. I can’t get a full breath of air into my body, and my head is pounding.
I glance back and in horror see he’s catching up. A second later, the clouds clear away from the moon, and in the dim light, I see it’s Doc chasing me.
Should I stop and gamble on him taking me back to Cason? My mind flashes back to the three of us outside on the front lawn. There’s no love lost between those two, and he did ask how I was doing. Maybe he will help me get away?
It’s a stupid idea, but I don’t have any others. I can’t outrun him. He’s just too big and too fast. I can only hope he won’t force me to go back to the house.
Gradually, I slow to a walk and wait for him to catch up. With each second that passes, I pray to God for him to be a good man who will help me now. If I can just get off this estate, I can get back to my father and the two of us can go into hiding. That way he won’t get hurt if he can’t pay the money back, and I’ll be safe from Cason. We can pack up those plates of his and drive away to a place nobody will ever be able to find us.
I just have to get home to him.
“Lily? What are you doing out here?” Doc asks just as his face comes into full view.
“Doc, I need your help. I need to get away from here. Please help me.”
Those weren’t the words I’d planned to say. I wanted to sound strong and powerful, but suddenly when I looked into his eyes, I saw a glimmer of kindness I hope wasn’t my imagination.
He doesn’t answer for what feels like forever, and my heart sinks at the realization that I’ve made a mistake. Doc won’t help me any more than Nate would. They’re just like Cason.
Waving his hand, he beckons me toward him. I don’t have a choice. If I run again, he’ll catch up to me, so why even try?
I take a step in his direction and hear him whisper, “Come with me. Don’t say a word or you’ll be stuck here, so keep your mouth shut.”
What? Does that mean he’s going to help me get off this estate and to freedom?
“Where are we going?” I ask as he takes my hand in his.
Doc flashes me an angry stare and lowers his head to whisper in my face, “Didn’t I just tell you to be quiet?”
Nodding, I try not to think of the heavy smell of coffee that coats every word that comes out of his mouth. It’s pungent compared to the fresh late summer night air and turns my stomach when his breath hits me. He pulls me toward where I first saw him, walking much faster than I can and making me run to keep up.
When we make it to the guard shed at the edge of the property, he turns to look back at me and whispers angrily, “Don’t move.”
Again, I nod my understanding and watch him fling open the shed’s door. A few seconds later, he returns to where I’m waiting and tugs on my arm to follow him.
“Did you have to turn off the electric fence?” I whisper as quietly as possible but still loud enough so he might hear me.
The expression on his face when he turns to look at me makes me feel stupid. There never was an electric fence like Cason said. That lie was just another one he used to control me.
“Nobody uses electrified fences anymore. We have cameras that do the job without frying people. Why would you think we had one of those?”
I hang my head and continue walking with him. “Cason told me it was an electric fence,” I say quietly, not out of a need to be discreet but out of shame for being so stupid.
Doc chuckles at my foolishness. “You really are young, aren’t you?”
He says that like it’s an indictment of not only my age but my intelligence, which only serves to make me feel worse. But even if I could explain to him why I believed it when Cason told me that lie, I wouldn’t. There’s no point.
Looking up, I see a car and my heart leaps in my chest. Doc is going to drive me away from here!
“Get in the back and keep your head down until I tell you otherwise. And this time, do as I say,” he orders before folding the upholstered driver’s side seat forward so I can climb into the back seat.
It’s a small car, which seems strange for someone his size to drive, but I fit easily into the dark area behind him. I press my head against the cloth seat and close my eyes as he starts the car and quickly drives away.
I have no idea how long it will take and even if he intends to drive me all the way to my house. I don’t care. As long as I’m away from that estate and the man I still believe plans to kill me if my father doesn’t pay up, I’m much better off than I was an hour ago.
The car careens left and then right, turning onto roads I don’t know and can’t remember from when I was brought to that house just days ago, my head bouncing against the seat whenever the tires hit a pothole or bump. Doc drives faster than Cason did when we came here, but that’s a good thing.
The sooner I’m far enough away from Cason that he can’t reach me, the better.
Finally, after we ride along those winding roads with me lurching from one side of the car to the other with each turn, the car comes to a skidding stop. I know Doc told me to keep my head down, but I can’t stop myself from popping up to look out the back window.
It’s pitch black outside, so I can’t see where we are, but I know it’s not a city or even a small town because there isn’t a streetlight anywhere nearby. He turns the car off and quickly pushes his door open before poking his head back to look at me.
“We need to stop here for a little while. I think I saw him coming out the front door as we drove away. He won’t find you here, though, so don’t worry.”
Panic rises inside me, and I shake my head in disbelief. “He can’t find me! He’ll take me back there and kill me. Please don’t let him find me!”
Doc reaches into the car and tugs me out of the backseat, but I fight him every inch of the way. In that car, I’m safe. Or at least I feel safe.
“Come on. We’ll go inside and you’ll be fine. I won’t let him get you,” he promises as I stick my head out of the car to see nothing but blackness. “Trust me. It’s a good thing I got to you before he did.”
“Where are we?” I ask and step out onto the gravel dirt road.
He closes the car door and grabs my hand, tightening his fingers around my wrist. “Just a house we can use to hide out for a little bit. Cason doesn’t know about this place. It’s somewhere the security guys use to sleep when they don’t want to drive all the way home after a long shift.”
As he explains about the house I’m about to walk into, it makes sense that Cason wouldn’t know anything about it. He doesn’t seem to have anything good to say about either of the security guards who came to the house while I was there, so naturally, they wouldn’t be close enough to let him in on their secret place to crash.
My heartbeat calms from that thought. Doc’s right. This is a good thing just like him finding me before Cason could was a good thing.
“Okay. If you think it’s going to be safe.”
Doc smiles and tightens his grip on me as we walk through the front door. It’s dark inside, but he continues to guide me into the first room while he mumbles something about not remembering where the light switch is.
That sounds odd, and I wonder about it since he just told me this was a place he and the other security guys use, but maybe he doesn’t use it often himself. I start to ask him about it, but a second later, fluorescent lights flicker on above my head.
I turn to look at Doc to thank him for helping me, but the words never make it out of my mouth. His arm swings around, and his meaty fist hits my cheek like a brick to my face. Pain explodes into my right eye, and I collapse to the ground clutching my head as the agony spikes across my scalp.
Stunned, I try to stand, not understanding what’s happening, but he shoves me back onto the floor with an angry grunt. “Get down, you stupid fucking girl!”
My head pounds from the shot to my cheekbone, but I see out of my left eye Doc glaring down at me with more anger than I ever saw in Cason. How could I have been so naïve? Instead of helping me get away, he’s been working with my captor this whole time.
“Why are you doing this? I thought you were going to help me.”
Doc lets out a low chuckle and shakes his head even as he continues to angrily glare down at me on the floor. “I never said I’d help you. I want to see what’s making that asshole Cason so crazy about you. What do you have that makes you so fucking tempting to a man like him? No point in trying to say nothing because if that was true, he would have killed you already. I’m guessing it’s between your legs, and I plan to have a taste of that myself.”
I try to push myself away from him, but he’s on me in a matter of seconds. His clawing hands grab at my new clothes, ripping the white T-shirt off my shoulders to grope my breasts. He’s not even as rough as Cason, yet it’s far more violating. I cry out, but he doesn’t care. His fingers squeeze my tender flesh, leaving painful wounds on my skin.
“Stop! You’re hurting me!”
For a moment, he leans away from me and shakes his head, like he can’t believe I want him to stop pawing at me. But then he grabs the top of my yoga pants and tugs them hard down my legs, leaving me open to him.
I fight back, but it’s no use. He’s stronger and crueler than I can handle, and it takes no time for me to be naked and cowering on the wood floor. He looms over me, unzipping his pants, and grins when he flops his hard cock out.
“Now we’ll see what’s so special about you that a fucking killer can’t bring himself to get rid of you.”
Shaking my head, all I can do is push him away with my hands and kick my legs to slow him down. I can’t stop what’s about to happen, though, even as regret fills me for the choice I made to trust this person.
