Chapter 48
Selena
I blacked out from the pain. When I came to, it was pitch-black beyond the windows, and Nick slept on the couch. He’d wrapped a bandage around his head to stop his ear from bleeding.
I moved, and the pain from my foot shot through me like a bullet. Oh, God. I fought a wave of nausea that threatened my stomach and tried to breathe deeply. The pain kept the panic at bay. I had to think. Think Selena, think.
I looked down at my legs. Nick had hit my foot over and over again, but luckily, he’d kept my boot on, which had blunted the impact a little. But still, my entire lower leg had already swollen up so much that it was nearly busting out of my laced-up boot.
My boots.
I stared at them, my brain lagging. All my weapons of choice—pepper spray, taser, whistle—were in my backpack, which Nick had stashed somewhere.
All my weapons, but one.
I looked again at my boots. My shit-kicking, steel-toed boots, with the retractable blade. Excitement raced through me, overshadowing the pain for a moment. I had a weapon. I had a knife.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself to bring my foot to my knee.
Only one boot had the retractable blade, and it was the one on my newly broken foot.
I kicked the boot backward as lightly as I could, trying to tap the right spot on the heel to extend the blade at the front.
Nothing. I tried again. It wasn’t an easy mechanism to trigger.
Of course, anything easy would be too reckless to wear.
I tried again, and still nothing. I had to hit it harder. I gritted my teeth and kicked back.
Snick.
The knife slid out, and I fought down nausea from the painful force of my kick.
I lifted my injured foot slowly toward my opposite knee.
I nearly passed out from the pain when my foot was hanging in the air.
God, it hurt so much. I set it down gently on top of the opposite knee.
Thank God I was flexible, and the last few weeks of getting back into shape had helped.
Now, I wriggled forward until the blade was just above the rope strapping my arms down.
I pulled my arm on that side as high as I could, until a few inches of rope came into contact with the knife.
Slowly, I started to saw. The motion hurt my foot and sent spots dancing before my eyes, but I pressed on.
Back and forth I sawed. I had no idea how long it took, only that I was dripping with sweat by the time I finished. One arm came unshackled. I nearly cried, except I didn’t have time.
I untied the other side and released my other arm. I was free. I stood silently and nearly fainted when my weight went onto my injured foot. I held on to the chair so as not to fall over.
The journey to the door looked endless. And once I got out there, what would I do?
I couldn’t limp through the woods like this.
Nick had said this was a hunting cabin. It could be deep in the woods.
I had to think about this. Wouldn’t it be better to call the police from here?
But I didn’t know where I was. Could I tie Nick up and wait for someone to find us?
With what? The only rope I could see was sawed through.
And did I trust myself to tie sturdy enough knots that Nick couldn’t escape? No. Not at all.
That left one option, which was hobbling through the woods and trying to make it somewhere safe. A highway, or ranger station, another cabin. Somewhere. Maybe I could make a crutch from a fallen tree branch, that would help.
I started toward the door, as quickly as I could. It was slow going. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before.
I stared at Nick. Was I just going to leave him here sleeping? Should I hit him on the head with a frying pan before I went? But what if it didn’t knock him out, but wake him up? He’d quickly overpower me in a fight.
The endless options exhausted me. I had no idea what to do. Should I try and break his foot, too? Could I find his keys?
All of those seemed to carry a greater risk of failure than just slipping out and making it as far as I could.
So, in the end, that’s what I did. Once I was outside, I encountered another variable I hadn’t considered in my plan. The darkness. It was pitch-black under the tree canopy.
I started by hobbling down the road and past his truck. I decided to slash his tires, so he had no way to follow me except on foot.
Then I oriented myself. I had grown up in these woods.
Sure, I wasn’t the most outdoorsy person in town, but I wasn’t an idiot.
I closed my eyes and listened for the sound of the surf.
One thing about these woods, and Hade Harbor, was that the water was to the east, and the mountains to the west. I needed to get out of the trees so I could see the hulking mountains and figure out which way to walk. To do that, I had to go up.
I hobbled away from the cabin a little before I focused on finding a good branch for a crutch. Once I got one, I made better time, ignoring the pain that ripped through me with every step.
I set off up a hill. The lights of the cabin glowed below me, so I really hadn’t gone far, but hopefully once I got to the top, I’d be able to see the shadow of the mountains.
Once I knew which direction I was heading, I’d either make my way to Hade Harbor or the neighboring town. It was worth a shot.
I reached the top of the hill and emerged into a clearing.
The moon was full, casting its ghostly glow down around me.
I gratefully stumbled into the brighter light and glanced around.
The water shined in the moonlight, not too far away at all.
Water was good. I could follow the coast. I could almost make out the familiar, jagged piece of coastline that the Sinclair mansion overlooked.
I wasn’t as far away from home as I’d worried I was.
That was good news. Less good news was the growing numbness moving up my leg from my injured foot.
Walking on it was making it much, much worse, unsurprisingly.
After a moment’s rest, I hobbled down the hill again. Unfortunately, getting to the coast meant passing by the cabin.
I was just about to do that when the front door flung open.
“Selena!” Nick shouted into the night. He sounded furious. Unhinged, really.
I crouched in the foliage, certain he couldn’t see me in the dark.
He crunched along the gravel in front of the house and then disappeared inside. Before I could decide to move, he was back, this time shining a powerful flashlight into the woods. Shit. I ducked down as the light went just over my head.
The bushes rustled. Fuck!
No, no, no. I’d come so close to escaping, only to get caught now?
I held my breath as he directed the beam of light back in my direction.
“Is that you?” Nick called, taking a few steps toward me, running the flashlight back and forth over the place where I hid.
Could he see me? I couldn’t tell.
Silence fell, and slowly, the flashlight moved away.
I allowed myself to breathe a little. There was the sound of him crunching back over the gravel.
How was I going to get away like this? I thought frantically over the problem.
He was going to find me out here. I held my breath and peeked over the bushes in front of me.
Nick had moved in the other direction, shining the flashlight in bushes around the side of the cabin.
I wasn’t going to get away like this. I needed a plan B.
I waited until he’d nearly disappeared and moved closer to the house.
The problem was that there was no cover there.
Only exposed gravel. If I went with my latest insane plan, I’d need to run to the door of the cabin, and I wasn’t sure my ankle could manage it.
I was so focused on the route I’d take to get to the door, I didn’t realize that I’d lost sight of Nick around the side of the house.
“Well, well, well, you just couldn’t stay away, could you?” he murmured at my back. He’d come all the way around and ended up behind me.
I surged to my feet and nearly went down right away thanks to the pain in my foot.
Nick lunged for me, and I ran. Every step hurt beyond belief.
Not only did it hurt, but my foot would barely tolerate a second of weight.
I half limped, half ran toward the open door of the cabin.
Of course, I didn’t make it. Nick tackled me from behind.
I fell to the ground, scraping my face and arms, and grabbed a deep handful of gravel.
He wrenched me onto my back. I threw it in his face, hitting him in the eyes.
I pushed backward, trying to get to my feet and failing.
My ankle was done. I crawled toward the cabin door. Nick swore and wiped at his eyes.
“Sure, run, if you can. If you can’t, then you fight like a girl…Smarter. That’s your girl superpower. Your brains.”
“Bitch, you’re going to pay for that,” he growled and came after me again, yanking me backward and dragging me along the ground.
Thank God, he’d pulled me by the other foot. I would have passed out immediately if he’d touched the injured one. I tossed the rest of the gravel left in my hand, and he roared with irritation, dropping my ankle.
I pushed myself backward, getting closer to the door.
I was almost there. He rubbed his eyes again and then started toward me, but he was too late.
I shoved myself up with a scream of pure pain and hobbled into the cabin, slamming the door shut and bringing the security bar down just as Nick hit the door with a thud.
“Let me in, Selena, or I swear I’ll burn this fucking place down!” he screamed from outside.
I sighed and sank to the floor. “Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.”
I glanced around at the windows. They were all still securely barred. I rested my head back against the door, my chest heaving.
Okay. What now?