Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Elaina
Everything hurt. I even ached in places I didn’t know it was possible to ache. Muscles I didn’t know existed on my body throbbed. But despite the agony I was in, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going. Keep running.
It was my only chance at freedom, and I would not lose the opportunity to get the fuck away from my father and all the men who answered to him without at least trying.
Most days, trying was all I had. But it was still better than doing nothing.
I stumbled, tripping over a root. My hand slammed against the tree beside me, and rough bark scraped my palm.
My lungs were aching, and every ragged, panting breath I sucked into my lungs burned.
The stitch in my side from running too long hurt something fierce.
But I just needed to keep going. Keep running.
Put one foot in front of the other, push my legs, and focus on breathing in and out.
Nothing else fucking mattered. Nothing else could ever matter. Not at a time like this.
I pushed harder. Faster. I could barely breathe, but who cared?
Once my father got his hands on me, it would no longer matter anyway.
He’d probably take the breath right from my lungs when he punished me.
And no doubt about it, he would make me pay for this.
For tricking one of his men into thinking I needed the bathroom when in reality, I’d seen an opportunity to escape and had taken it.
Did I have any idea where I was? Not at all. But that didn’t matter. So long as I knew I was running away from that fucking mansion, from the next man who had been planning to violate my body, I didn’t care where I ran.
I just had to get away. I had—
A rubber bullet popped me in the back of the knee, and I screamed in pain, my legs crumpling beneath me.
My bare knees immediately split open on the briars I fell onto, and my hands scraped and cut open on the old, fallen tree limb just in front of me.
My leg throbbed, but I couldn’t stop. I had to keep—
Pain exploded through my temple, making my vision go dark. My ears rang. I was vaguely aware someone was flipping me over onto my back, baring the front of my naked body to their disgusting gaze. I blinked rapidly, struggling to clear my vision. My head was spinning, and nausea was churning my gut.
“You thought you could run from me?” my father snarled, looming over my face as one of his men, the one who’d probably shot me in the back of the knee, roughly bound my hands together with rope.
“You silly, stupid fucking girl.” Shaking his head, he jerked his chin in the direction I’d run from.
“Drag her back. She doesn’t get to walk. She’s lost that privilege.”
“Understood,” the man gruffly answered him.
I was dreading being dragged across the forest floor—across briars, tree branches, and whatever else might be on the ground.
But regardless of how I felt, I glared at my father, pure hatred for him burning in my veins.
“One day,” I seethed, “your time will fucking come. And I hope whoever comes for you makes you suffer.”
He smirked at me. “The day someone comes for me is the day you escape me, little girl, and that will never happen.”
I jerked awake, my heart slamming against my chest bone.
My breathing was as labored as it’d been in that flashback, and sweat clung to my skin.
I lifted my hands above me, thankful my vision was clear.
My hands were fine—slightly bruised from when my father had gotten his hands on me again before Alejandro rescued me, but they were healing.
There were no open cuts. No scrapes. They just trembled wildly from the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
A warm hand circled around my wrists. My head snapped around, my eyes meeting Joey’s. He was still laying between me and Alejandro, but his body was turned toward me. Alejandro’s arm was draped over his hip, the man still quietly sleeping.
“You’re safe,” Joey whispered.
I swallowed thickly. “Is he dead?” I asked, my voice just as quiet as his.
Joey shook his head, and my stomach dropped right from my body, through the mattress, and splattered on the floor.
“No, sweet girl. But he can no longer hurt you. I promise. He’s got eyes on him twenty-four-seven, and he’s never alone.
As soon as I don’t feel like death rolled over, Alejandro and I will be making him pay for every bit of pain he put you through. ”
Tears welled in my eyes, and my heart clenched in my chest. I lowered my hands, letting them rest on my belly. He didn’t release my wrists, just kept his hold steady and strong. Sure. His touch grounded me, made me feel secure once more.
“That’s a lot of years of pain,” I managed, my voice ragged.
He nodded, a small smirk tilting his lips. It was dangerous and chilling, but somehow, it still brought me comfort.
“I’ve got time, sweet girl,” he assured me. “When it comes to making him pay for his sins, for touching you, for letting others touch you, I’ve got all the time in the fucking world.”