Page 53 of Suspicion

What if this forest—with its endless cruel trees and suffocating beauty—was the last place she ever saw?

That couldn’t be her fate, could it?

Sitting there, she sobbed, surprised at how many tears there still were to cry. Even though she knew wasting her time made no sense, even though Tucker could arrive at any moment and seize her, all she could do was empty what remained of her emotions.

When quiet finally fell over her, her head throbbed with despondency. There’d been no solace in the tears. She was empty now. That was all.

Get up.

Lifting her chin, she blinked into the shards of light that managed to penetrate the cover of leaves. It was still daylight. Tucker hadn’t found her. She had to move.

That was when she heard it—the distant sound of water rushing at speed.

A river?

A rush of excitement flooded her body. A river! And if she could hear the water, then however far away it was, it couldn’t be too far away. Rivers led somewhere, and whether that meant to a town or the sea, somewhere was better than the nowhere she found herself in.

Gulping back on the nasty taste in her dry mouth, she strained to listen harder. Which direction was the water noise coming from? It took a few seconds before she could be sure, but the more she listened, the more she leaned toward the idea that the river ran somewhere to her left.

With one final glimpse behind her, confirming her pursuer hadn’t yet caught up with her, she headed toward the sound of running water.

Chapter Two

Showdown

Tucker

Boots pounding the ground, Tucker sprinted from one tree to the next.

Where is she?

He tried to quell the rising paranoia ballooning in his chest, dismissing the negative self-talk as nothing, but it lingered regardless.

This was his fault. He’d been the one who’d secured her ropes over the branch. He’d been the one who’d judged the branch to be strong enough to hold her and the woman suspended from the tree to be too weak to even try. And he’d got it wrong. On every count.

Shit.

Cold dread unfolded as his lungs struggled to oxygenate his muscles. He was fit enough to run for some time, and his senses were heightened by his military training, but so far, whichever way he sprinted, he couldn’t find any trace of his collateral.

Ella.

His hands balled as he ran on, his anger directed at himself just as much as it was at her. On a rudimentary level, he couldn’t blame her. Ella had seen her chance to flee from his clutches, and she’d taken it. It proved that while she was fragile, she was no one’s fool. But the acknowledgment did nothing to help him.

He was still scurrying through the forest in a panic instead of getting to know his new guest in the confines of the cabin. He was still worrying about where she was and what would become of her.

It wasn’t that he thought she could truly get away. In truth, they were miles from so-called civilization. There was nowhere for her ‘to go.’ Yes, she could run—she’d demonstrated that—but she didn’t know where to go or how to get there. She was a lost soul, loose in a ruthless terrain.

The forest was littered with dangers far worse than the distended tree roots that threatened to trip her. There were bears living there, along with the occasional lone wolf. A little rich girl wouldn’t stand a chance against predators like that. Hell, she didn’t even have a means of shelter.

Whatever happened, he had to find her. For her own sake.

“I’ll find her…” he growled the promise as he dashed on, pausing to scan the area.

Tucker knew these woods like the back of his hand. After years of living within it, he understood the essence of the forest, but looking around, nothing seemed out of place. There were no obvious tracks, the fresh carpet of leaves delivered by the early autumn breeze making it impossible to tell if anyone had come this way. A lively squirrel leaping from one majestic tree to another caught his attention. He watched as it scuttled away to safety, convincing a woodpecker to disappear into the home it had made in the trunk.

He would find her, but standing there and catching his breath, he wasn’t immediately sure how.

“Fuck.”

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