Chapter 27 #2
I screamed and cried until my throat felt like it was on fire, but when Carl moved to stand, something inside of me snapped.
My fight-or-flight instincts kicked in and I lunged from the cot, ramming my shoulder into his stomach so hard that he made a sound like the wind had been knocked out of him and he hit the ground.
White-hot pain spread through my shoulder and down my arm, but the surge of adrenaline got me back to my feet and I took off at a full sprint, out of the shack and into the woods.
“You bitch!” Carl bellowed, and I could hear the crunch of leaves and the snap of twigs as he chased after me. “I’ll kill you!”
I wanted to wake up. I needed to wake up. I’d had this dream hundreds of times, and I always woke up before the shadow man caught me.
But this wasn’t a dream. This time it was real.
And I knew with every fiber of my being that if he caught me, that was it.
There would be no waking up. The happiness I’d fought tooth and nail for, scratching and clawing until my fingers bled, would disappear.
I’d never see Hayes again. I’d never get to experience the wonderful life that we were only just starting to build together.
So I forced my feet to move faster and pulled a deep breath into my burning lungs. Then I opened my mouth and screamed as loud as I possibly could.
“Someone help me!”
Hayes
When I burst through the front door of the farmhouse forty-five minutes ago and found Marco lying on the kitchen floor, my mind had taken me to the deepest, darkest place imaginable.
Trick and Lincoln had been there to pull me back from the brink as images of Tempie’s lifeless body flashed through my head.
As the EMTs were checking him over, Marco started to come to, and by the time they had him in the ambulance, he’d been cognizant enough to tell us what I already knew. Carl had drugged him and taken Tempie.
I knew exactly where they’d gone. Every instinct in me said he’d taken her to those woods.
It was where he’d sent her that night. It was the only place that made any damn sense.
And now I was in my truck, with my partner behind the wheel and at lease half a dozen cars and police cruisers behind us, whipping up Tolliver Mill Road, an old, abandoned road kids used to use for drag racing, the road Tempie and I would take before having to go the rest of the way to our spot by foot.
I could have been wrong, he could have taken her somewhere else, but my gut hadn’t led me wrong, so as Trick drove, I pointed out the way.
Trick pulled to a stop where I indicated, and I was out of the truck with my gun in my hands, held down at my side before he had a chance to bring it to a complete stop.
I didn’t bother looking back to see if anyone was following as I took off into the woods.
I knew the way by heart, and as I ran, I prayed.
I prayed I was right, that I hadn’t led the team even further away from her.
I prayed I wasn’t too late, that I’d find my Tempie and she’d be safe.
She had to be safe. I couldn’t lose her.
It wasn’t an option, because without her there was absolutely nothing.
I couldn’t go back to that life of simply existing, not now.
Not when I finally knew what it was like to be happy.
So I prayed and prayed as I ran as fast as I could.
We were losing daylight, but it was still light enough for me to see my way, and I was halfway to the spot when I heard a sound that would haunt me for the rest of my life.
“Someone help me!”
I jerked to a stop, trying to figure out what direction her voice had come from. A second later, she came bursting through the thickets straight ahead. Her right arm hung awkwardly at her side, and her face was smeared with blood, but she was there. She was alive and breathing.
Her head whipped around, her long, dark hair flying, and all of a sudden everything seemed to move in slow motion.
Those crystal-clear blue eyes hit mine, filling with shock, then complete and utter joy as she skidded to a stop.
Her lips parted and I saw her mouth my name.
I could see it in her eyes as clear as day.
Trust and love. She saw me. She saw me and she knew I was there for her, and she trusted me to keep her safe.
Then another figure came running from the trees and my heart dropped like a stone.
“Tempie, run!” I shouted, lifting my arms and taking aim, but it was too late.
Carl lunged, hitting her with incredible force and taking her to the ground.
They rolled twice, coming to a stop with him on top of her.
Then he moved, the light glinted off the blade, and she let out a bone-chilling scream as his arm whirred through the air, poised to strike.
And just like that, years of training kicked in. My mind suddenly cleared of anything and everything but what I had to do. It was my job to protect her, to keep her safe. She trusted me to do just that, and that was all that mattered. That was everything. And with that, I pulled the trigger.
Temperance
With a scream, I slammed my eyes closed and waited to feel that blade pierce my skin. But it never came.
The sound of gunshots suddenly filled the air like a million explosions, and a moment later, Carl’s limp body collapsed on top of me.
It took a second for my brain to register the fact that I was still alive. I was alive and Carl wasn’t. “Get him off me,” I whispered before losing it completely and thrashing around like a madwoman. “Get him off! Get him off, get him off, get him off!”
Carl’s lifeless body was flung to the side, and I was immediately scooped up off the ground. Hayes’s warmth and smell surrounded me, and I began to squirm in his lap, trying to burrow inside of him for safety.
“It’s okay,” he murmured into my ear. “It’s okay, angel. You’re safe. I got you. I’m never letting go.”
I was safe. He had me.
I was safe.
He had me.
Just like always.
I knew right then that everything was going to be okay. Because Hayes made it so.
I snuggled deeper into his chest.
Then I promptly burst into tears.