Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Her fingers ached and sweat dripped into her eyes, but Maya didn’t dare stop. She wasn’t sure how long ago the man had left. Probably hours. She was exhausted, but she refused to sleep.
She had finally gotten the bottom pin removed.
All that stood between her and freedom now was the middle pin.
And whatever lay beyond this room. But she couldn’t think about that now.
All she could focus on was doing one thing at a time.
She needed to get out of here, away from her captor and whatever horrible fate he had in store for her.
Wedging the tip of the mortar between the top of the pin and the hinge, she began to wiggle it. Just like the other two pins, the process was slow and grueling. Millimeter by millimeter, it began to lift. She worked at it with her sore, bloodied fingers until it was almost free of the hole.
Her heart leapt with excitement as it balanced there in the hinge, just millimeters of cool metal separating her from freedom. Less than a second later, a sound beyond the room stopped her cold.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Oh, God. He was back.
Her breath came in ragged gasps as his tread moved closer and closer. She fought the urge to hyperventilate as her pulse kicked up. She had to stay strong; she had to get out of here. After he came in last time, she knew she didn’t have a choice—next time, he would rape her or worse.
Maya clutched the mortar as tightly as she could with her damaged fingers and stood off to the side.
The sound of the lock disengaging seemed magnified in the empty room, and she watched in a sort of slow motion as the door swung inward.
With the middle pin barely holding it in place, the door wobbled in its frame.
“What the…?”
She took advantage of the man’s surprise and shoved the door toward him as hard as possible. The remaining pin popped out of its place, dislodging the door. The heavy slab of steel toppled from its frame, and the man let out a sharp curse as it smashed into him.
Maya didn’t waste another second. She bolted through the opening, guided by the dim light beyond to a narrow set of stone steps that led up to what she assumed was the house. Ignoring the man’s furious curses behind her, she sprinted up the stairs as fast as her feet could carry her.
She paused only briefly on the landing, casting a quick look around. It took a second for her eyes to register what they were seeing. Huge wooden beams stretched high overhead, and a labyrinth of wooden stalls lay in front of her. She was wrong; it wasn’t a house. It was a barn.
The man’s footsteps pounded on the stairs behind her, and she knew she didn’t have much time.
She darted forward, frantically searching for a door.
Where the hell was it? The light was dim inside the huge barn, and everything seemed to be made of wood.
She couldn’t differentiate one wall from another.
She spun in place, looking for any avenue of escape.
Her eyes connected with a ray of sunlight spilling in through a dusty window, and she lunged toward it.
As she neared it, she realized the window was located inside an old stall.
She threw the rickety door wide in her haste to get to it, and her feet slipped on the hay-covered floor as she rounded the corner.
Pain radiated upward through her body as her hip slammed into the post, but she shoved it down and scrambled to right herself.
Spying an old bucket lying on the ground, she scooped it up, then swung as hard as she could, aiming for the window.
It sailed through the delicate glass, and the window shattered with a satisfying crash.
The bucket made a loud clang as it landed on the grass below amidst the shards of glass just as a loud growl sounded behind her.
She placed her hands on the windowsill, ignoring the bite of pain as the glass cut into her palms. The man’s fingers grabbed at her, but she evaded his grasp and launched herself through the opening.
Agony ripped through her as she landed sideways on the hard ground, but she forced herself to keep going.
Drawing on every ounce of strength she possessed, she staggered to her feet and ran as fast as she could.
She dared a single glance behind her just in time to see the man’s angry face outlined in the window.
It was a mistake.
She never should have looked behind her.
Because in the next second, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, stealing her breath and stopping her heart.