Chapter Twenty-Seven
Linden
The sinister smile in front of me tells me everything that I need to know. These guards aren’t run-of-the-mill security here to guard the rich people.
No… They’re here to guard secrets, and I witnessed something that I was not supposed to.
I try to step around him anyway, and he grabs my arm harder than Edmund did earlier, making me yelp in pain. The bones in my forearm scream as I try to fight him, but he’s too strong.
“You either come with me nicely, or I’ll throw you and the little girl over my shoulder.”
“Fine,” I grit out. He yanks hard, forcing me into step behind him while I barely manage to hold onto Avery’s hand.
She stumbles, and I try to reach out to catch her on instinct as the damn cat she’s been hiding in her dress goes bounding across the yard.
“My kitty!” She screams sharply.
It takes the guard’s focus off of me for one brief second, and I don’t know what gives me the confidence… Maybe seeing Jack pull a gun so effectively that night Turner showed up at my house, or pure maternal rage… But I grab the guard’s sidearm and yank as hard as I can.
But unlike the movies, it doesn’t budge. It’s locked in place.
His meaty paw shoves my grasp from the butt of the gun by twisting my wrist painfully in the air before kneeing me in the gut. I fall to the ground hard, wheezing for breath.
“Mommy!” Avery screams, dropping to my side.
“Nice fucking try, bitch. You’re lucky they don’t want me to kill you, yet.”
His words chill me to the bone as I stroke Avery’s hand.
“I’m okay,” I reassure my daughter even though the contents of my stomach might eject at any moment.
“Let’s go. I don’t have all night.”
I struggle to my feet, but he only watches me with disgust.
“Fuck you,” I spit.
His backhand comes across my face so sharp that I hardly feel the stinging pain over my head ringing.
Avery’s whimpers of fear clear my fog just enough to keep me from falling over again. I squeeze her head against my waist, and breathe through the pain.
I’ve taken hits before, but I can’t fight him.
Not like this.
I can see the faint glow of the pool in the distance, and beyond the gardens that surround the pool are the pastures that separate this estate and my backyard.
We have to run.
The only thing I have on me is my phone and my keys. Neither of which are formidable weapons… But every woman knows at least one singular self-defense move.
He walks on, letting me and Avery trail behind him, no longer seeing me as a threat.
I might not be threatening, but I’m a mother, and I’ll be damned if someone takes me from my baby.
Two keys. That’s all I have, but with my hand concealed in my pocket, I slip them through my fingers anyway. I just need to get him to turn around.
So I take my only lifeline and chuck it between his legs as he stomps ahead of us. My cell phone screen cracks under his stupid boot, making him halt suddenly.
“What the f–”
“Fuck you,” I growl just as he turns to look at me, and throw the hardest punch I’ve ever thrown in my life.
Striking pain explodes through my hand, but the key between my pointer and middle finger gets buried right in the corner of his eye socket.
He howls in pain, swinging an arm out to grab me, but I dodge it, scooping Avery up across my chest like a seatbelt, and go.
I run until I can’t hear his shouts for backup, and I keep going when it feels like my lungs are going to explode, and I’m still only through the garden.
“Sorry, baby,” I warn breathlessly before I loft Avery over the waist-height fence at the edge of the green lawn. She lands in the tall grass with a light thump but doesn’t cry once I fling my body over to join her.
“We have to keep running. Okay?”
She sniffles as she wipes her face, but nods. “Otay.”
The grass is tall, and her little legs struggle to keep up with gravity, but my brave girl does her best to run. If this were a movie, I’d tell her we were pretending to be fairies in the moonlight, frolicking through a field…
But this is no movie. This is a nightmare.
The pasture is one giant slope that goes down forever before it eventually bottoms out in a marshy tree line, but just before we reach the vegetation, Avery slips and falls to her butt, crying out in fear as she slides several feet.
“It’s okay, I gotcha. I gotcha.” My thighs are on fire, and I don’t think I’ve taken a real breath since we started running, but I gather her in my arms again and keep going.
The thick overgrowth and mud in this swampy part of the pasture is suffocating as I trudge forward, being swarmed by bugs, and God knows what else.
My shoes threaten to be lost to the muck I’m stepping in until finally, the hill starts to rise again, and the thick brush starts to thin as I heave our bodies upward.
My knees hit dry ground as I stare upward at the trek ahead of us, but I don’t have a free hand to wipe the sweat out of my eyes.
We’re so close. I just need to get to the top of the hill, and we’ll be home.
But what then?
What am I going to do?
My car is still at the mansion… I don’t have my phone or keys.
We have to disappear. We HAVE to.
“A little further, baby. We’re so close.” I snuggle against her cheek, and she squeezes me tightly as she cries softly in my ear.
My poor girl. She’s never going to forgive me for the hell I’ve put her through. What her grandparents put her through.
“Mommy’s going to go as fast as she can, just hold on tight.”
“I wanna go home.”
“I know, I know. Me too.” I kiss her head, and cry out in exhaustion as I rise to my feet. But once I’m up, I go.
I have no other choice but to keep going until she’s safe. It’s the only choice.
Each inclined step feels impossible, but I manage one staggering step in front of the other as I climb out of the tangled trees and into the taller grass.
A glimmer of hope in the distance ahead fills me as I catch my breath, and I think I might actually be able to do this. The floodlight on the back of Jack’s garage is a lighthouse on a stormy sea.
Jack. I need Jack.
But what if I can’t trust him?
Engines echo through the hills behind us, and I drop to the ground on instinct. They’re far, probably just leaving the mansion grounds, but I don’t have much time, and I’m losing my energy.
It takes every ounce of willpower to lunge forward, and then stand back to my feet. I can do this.
A grunt rocks my body with each inclined step, and I make it ten more feet to freedom, and then another five. One foot in front of anothe–
A strangled scream fills the air as my body is jerked to a stop, and Avery flies out of my arms.
Guttural cries tumble from my throat as I writhe around in pain on the ground until I can finally catch my breath long enough to peer down at my feet.
No… my ankle.
Hot tears roll down my cheeks as I look at the metal jaws biting deeply into my ankle, soaking my sock in blood.
“Ah, fuck, fuck,” I cry in searing pain as I test the trap, but it’s clamped tight.
There are bears in Virginia, but nothing deserves this torture.
My hands shake as I tug on the metal chain, but the radiating pain is so blinding that I can’t fucking breathe. I’m completely trapped.
And the engines are only getting louder.
I look at my perfect little girl and the alarm bells are blaring.
“Avery,” I utter painfully as she cries beside me. “Baby, you gotta run.”
“No, Mommy,” she sobs, grabbing my arm.
“Yes, baby. You gotta be brave now. You need to run.”
“No, no!” She screams, crying and tugging on my arm like it’ll get me to go with her.
“Baby, I can’t.” My voice breaks. Tears stream down my face as I hold her little cheeks in my hands. “I love you so much, my sweet girl. You’re the light of my life, you know that?” I inhale her scent one final time as she cries into my chest.
“You see that glowing light? All the way at the top?” I point to the faintest glow from Jack’s house, begging, hoping, praying, anything that’ll tell me that I’m making the correct choice. “You have to run to Jack, baby. He’ll keep you safe.”
“I can’t,” she whimpers into my neck.
“You have to, Avery.” I sweep her hair and tears off her face, and hold her until we’re nose to nose. “Mr. Jack will know what to do. Just get to his house.”
Please, Jack. Don’t betray me.
“Otay, Mommy,” she cries.
“I love you, baby. To the moon, remember?” My lips tremble against her forehead as I kiss it.
She nods sadly. “To da moon, Mommy.”
I push her butt to get her going up the incline, and I can hear her sobs as she gets higher, letting her legs carry her further and further away from me. I have to muffle my screams of agony into my hands.
My baby.
I wail, tugging on the metal clamp, breaking deeper into the skin on my ankle. My shoe is filling with blood, but I can’t feel the physical pain when my heart has been ripped out of my chest and is getting further and further away from me.
I had to give her a chance.
But if I don’t make it, I’ll never see my baby again.
I want to scream. I want to cry out and curse the universe for doing this, but I hear the roar of engines getting closer, and I know that means I’ll be caught.
They’ll do whatever they want with me, and then they’ll go after Avery.
And she’ll be at the mercy of her grandparents and whatever evil they’re doing in their basement.
So I stay silent to give her a chance to get safe, prying at a chain that won’t break, and praying that she makes it to Jack.
“Please, be home, Jack,” I whisper when all I want to do is yell.
“If I don’t make it, make sure my baby is safe.” Another sob rips free from my chest, and I yank on the chain until my shoulders pop and the flesh on my hands shreds to pieces.
But when a twig breaks just ahead, my entire body stills as I search the darkness before me.
I love you, Avery.