47. Freya
FREYA
T he key twisting in the padlock interrupts the soft chatter I’ve been murmuring to keep Harley calm. Her wide eyes dart to the stairs and I tap a finger against her knee. “You remember what to do?”
She nods. “I don’t want to though.”
“I know. I know you’re scared but I promise I won’t let him hurt you again,” I rush the words out on a whisper as the door opens then I stand up and back away from Harley.
I wince, pulling the sleeve of my shirt over my hand as I go back to pretending to be Allie. What I’m about to do is going to terrify Harley. Nausea swirls in my stomach but I don’t have a choice.
Zach’s boots hit the steps and come to a stop at the bottom. He dumps a tray of food on the floor. “Eat.”
He skids the tray across the room, but I kick it away.
“I don’t want to be here,” I say, channeling one of Allie’s tantrums.
Zach’s piercing eyes narrow.
I point at Harley. “She keeps saying she’s Annie but she’s not. She’s not Annie.”
Zach tilts his head, a smile that makes me sick to my stomach gracing his face as he looks down at Harley. “Are you ready to be my Little Star, sweetheart?”
Harley hugs her knees but she plays her role perfectly, looking at me warily before nodding at Zach.
Every muscle in my body tenses when he holds out his hand, but Harley is a fucking brave kid and she slides her smaller hand into his.
“Where are you taking her?”
“My Little Star and I are going to play a game.” He leads her up the stairs.
“She’s lying. She’s not Annie!” I shout after them.
Zach freezes. He leaves Harley halfway up the steps and turns to face me, his steps predator slow as he walks back down. My gaze drops to the gun he’s slipped into his hand, and I press my back up against the concrete wall as he strolls towards me.
Two steps and we’re breathing the same air. The cold metal of the gun burns my temple as Zach drags the edge of the barrel down my face.
“Maybe not, but she can play the part. Just like you can.” Zach’s laugh is low, manic tinted. “You and I never did get to properly play, did we, Little Star?”
My throat thickens as I swallow.
“Now there’s an idea.” Zach lowers the gun to my side and trails his nose along my jawline, breathing me in. “You know, my father may have made Freya and her temporary lovers off limits for the time being, but he never said anything… about you.”
I close my eyes and twist my head to the side, every inch of my skin crawling from his touch.
His tongue slides against the shell of my ear. “You can be my Little Star, can’t you? I know your memories are a little lost. Why don’t I remind you how good it was between us?”
Bile hits the back of my throat. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. Zach is losing it, reality blurring as he falls into his fantasy. There’s nothing I can do. I just stand there frozen until he pulls back and jabs the gun into my waist.
“Move. Upstairs.”
My legs tremble as I walk. This is good, I tell myself. This is what we wanted.
Zach stays close behind me. He grabs Harley’s arm as we pass, dragging her up with us.
I don’t need to wait for Zach to tell me where we’re going. Muscle memory takes me to the bedroom at the end of the hall. My bedroom.
And it is my bedroom, right down to the small tear in the pale pink wallpaper above the bed.
The desk where I used to do my homework is the same painted white wood and the books I used to escape my life are stacked up on the bedside table.
The one thing my father never did was hurt me in this room.
I thought it was my safe space until I remembered Zach.
Once all three of us are in the room Zach shuts the door. He tucks the gun into his waistband and takes out a knife. Holding it in one hand, he picks Harley up under the arms and places her on the bed.
She stares at me, tears welling in her eyes as he trails the tip of the knife across her neck.
I cringe as Zach presses the blade to her skin and a sob falls from her lips.
He locks his gaze on me. “You try anything, and I slice her throat. Understand?”
“Yes.” The word comes out croaky, my mouth bone dry. I barely hold it together as Zach pushes Harley until she’s lying down on the bed but I force myself to wait.
He places the knife on the bed and strokes a hand down Harley’s leg. She sobs. “It’s okay, Annie. We’re just going to play a game.”
“I don’t want to play,” Harley cries.
“Aw, sweetie,” Zach coos. “It doesn’t matter what you want because you’re mine. You have always been mine.”
I shift, waiting till he moves his hand away from the knife. “How can I be yours, Zach,” I say, “if you can’t even recognize me when I’m right in front of you?”
Zach’s head snaps my way. Brutal realization flashes in his eyes. He erupts towards me and I dodge past him, lunging for the knife on the bed. “Now, Harley! Now!”
“My name is Harley!” she screams as she launches herself off the bed towards the door.
She does exactly what I told her, except the knife I almost had falls to the floor as she slides off the bed.
I reach for it, but Zach grabs my hair and tugs me back. I manage to kick the knife under the bed before he can pick it up and then I turn on him, shoving my shoulder into his waist to hold him back as Harley sprints from the room.
I keep him pinned against the bedside table for precious seconds before he slams the hard edge of a book against my head.
He shoves me and I stumble back, twisting round and reaching for his ankle as he heads to the door. I yank hard, pulling him down to the floor with a sickening crack.
We scramble on the floorboards and I fight with everything I have, each jab I land, each hit I take buying Harley time to run as far away from this cabin as she can.
The slam of the front door unlatches something in my heart. Keep running, Harley.
Zach roars and slams his elbow into my chest. Air shocks out of me and I gasp, desperately trying to fill my lungs. The seconds cost me and by the time I can breathe again Zach has yanked the bedroom door open and stumbled into the hall.
I haul myself up and go after him only to grind to a halt when I find him standing by the front door, laughter bubbling from his mouth.
“That was your plan? Send the defenseless child out into the woods?” He laughs harder before the sound cuts off, darkness slamming down over his face.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, Freya , and it’s freezing out there.
” He laughs again. “You just sent that little girl to her death. And now…” He steps towards me.
“It’s just you and me.” He shakes his head, sick amusement lighting his face.
“You ran so far only to gift yourself to me. Screw Jeremiah. This? This is fate.”
Zach takes another step.
I debate my chances of getting back to the bedroom and retrieving the knife before he can reach me and decide they’re next to nothing.
Zach’s bigger than me and our scuffle in the bedroom told me he’s been trained to fight, probably by Jeremiah.
The likelihood of me coming out on top in hand-to-hand combat is low.
My eyes scan the hall for anything I can use to help, and I almost start laughing myself because Zach’s obsession has unintentionally given me the home advantage. I know this house like the back of my hand.
He takes another step. Without looking, I grab the painting off the wall above my head and throw it at him. Glass smashes against the floor as it deflects off his arm and I run to the right towards the second entrance to the kitchen.
I sprint as fast as I can, sending one of the kitchen chairs flying behind me to slow him down. I’m almost at the door that leads back into the hall, right by the front of the house.
My lungs burn but I push harder. I can do this. I can make it.
A deafening crack.
White-hot pain sears across my leg.
I smack into the wooden floorboards and grip my thigh. Warm blood soaks my hand and I can barely breathe past the pain, but I can’t stop. I’m pushing myself back up when another bullet whips past my ear. I freeze. My breath shallow. Fast.
“Looks like I’ve caught myself a little star,” Zach sing songs.
A hand clasps my ankle and a scream tears out of me as he tugs my bad leg, yanking me back across the floor.
He flips me over, sending fire shooting down my leg.
The gun stays steady, aimed between my eyes as Zach lowers himself to the ground and straddles my waist. I can feel his hardness pressed against my stomach and it takes everything I have not to pass out.
His face is stone, black tar in his eyes.
“You never fucking learn. You can’t run from me, Annie. ”
He leans forward and harsh fingers grab my wrists. He yanks my arms above my head, and I cry out as a sharp pain stabs through my hand.
Zach stops moving.
His eyes zero in on my hand, the one I’d been hiding under my shirt sleeve. Deep lines dig into his forehead. “Why the fuck is your thumb broken?”
I bite my lip and grunt as he presses down on the bruised and swollen flesh. Brows knitted, he pulls my sleeve up my arm.
“You had a bracelet on.”
It would really work in my favor right now if Zach wasn’t smart. If he didn’t work out that the bracelet that’s now around Harley’s arm has a tracker in it, but I know the second he curses that he’s figured it out.
“You’re too late,” I say as he gets to his feet. As soon as Harley got out of range of Zach’s jammer the bracelet would have started transmitting again.
Zach leans down over me. “I’ll find her,” he promises. “Then I’ll bring her back and make you watch as I slice her pretty little throat. After all, I don’t need her when I have you.”
Fear wrenches through me and I make one last ditch effort to grab his gun. I miss and Zach’s boot crashes into the side of my face. My skull crunches against the table leg and the edges of my vision blur.
Pain blooms sharp and furious.
The front door slams behind Zach and I try to follow him, but I can’t get my body to move.
My head swims, darkness tugging me under. Fire streams through my body like my blood is burning.
I can’t stop thinking about how mad Jude will be with me for dying. How Eli won’t laugh anymore, and Oz will bury himself in the dark web. And River. Fuck, I’m not sure the world will survive an angry River.
Tears run down the side of my face.
My leg hurts. And my hand. And my head.
I close my eyes.