Page 67 of Unchained

Roots and rocks cut into the soles of her feet. Her lungs ached. But she couldn’t stop running to catch her breath. The beam of a flashlight hit a tree trunk in front of her.

She dodged to the side. A steep ravine met her. She let out a squeak as she tumbled down the decline. Her legs collided with rocks as she bounced down the hill. She stopped in the center of the ravine, and dizziness assailed her. The tree branches above and leaves at her feet spun like the drum of a washing machine as she pushed herself onto her knees. She sucked in a breath of mossy air and began scaling the other side, her naked feet giving her traction. She couldn’t stop moving.

A blast of yellow light lit the ground beneath her fingers. “There she is!”

A glance over her shoulder revealed three men charging into the ravine. Her heart shot to her throat. She clawed her way up the side and grabbed a tree root to haul herself over the edge. A rough hand snagged her ankle.

She screamed and kicked her foot. The guard’s fingers bit into her flesh. No. They’d caught her. The image of the hospital bed flashed through her mind and stark terror seized her. She reached for the scalpel in her back pocket and slashed it across the man’s neck. His eyes widened. Blood gurgled over his fingers, a river of dark, inky liquid pouring out by the second. The knife fell from her weak extremeties. She’d sliced his throat. Oh, god. His hold went slack. He slumped to the ground and slid down the ravine. Two men raced after her.

“Shit! Send backup!” one of them called.

She leaped to the top of the ravine and darted between the tree trunks. Air squeezed through her lungs. Her toe snagged a tree root, and she went down knees first. She shot out her arms, but her face smacked into the earth first. White specs appeared in her vision. Scrambling, she clawed forward.

“Got her!” A body jumped on the small of her back, pinning her to the ground.

She cried out, and the sound echoed. A hand clapped over her mouth, and the man hauled her to her feet. She swung her fists into any part of him she could reach, but his hold didn’t loosen. She jabbed her palm into his nose, but he grabbed it and held fast, twisting her arm until her knees buckled.

“Bitch,” he spat. He seized both her wrists with one hand. A light clicked on. She blinked in the glow of the penlight between his teeth. With his free hand, he pulled out a zip tie.

She jerked away—if he took her back now, Leonetti wouldn’t waste a second making her pay for escaping. His grip chomped into her tendons so hard she cried out. After fastening the zip tie, he caught her hips and lifted her over his shoulder.

His booted feet stomped through the forest, every step pulling her farther away from safety.

She’d failed. And she wouldn’t get another chance to escape.

* * *

“It’s up here, half a mile or so,” Dare said curtly as he cut his headlights and pulled to the side of the road.

Brooks flung off his seatbelt, and the metal piece struck the door with a sharp clank. A hand chomped down on his forearm. He dropped his gaze to the fingers and followed the arm up to its owner.

Nash’s face pinched into a scowl. “We’ll go in on foot. I say we split into twos—that way they won’t know there’s more of us.”

Brooks shook his head. “I’m going alone.” He broke contact with his brother-in-law and grabbed the door handle.

Three hands grabbed his shoulder and arm.

“No way.”

“The fuck you are.”

“Hell no.”

As much as he loved having people who cared, that meant caring for them. And he couldn’t put these guys in danger. “I can’t let you do that. This is my problem.” He took a breath. He needed them for one thing. “Just get Cam out of here.”

Nash yanked off his seatbelt and leaned forward, until he was within inches of Brooks’s face. “I’m going with you. If something happens to you, that affects Lexi—which makes it my problem.”

Brooks huffed. “These men are—”

“I can fucking handle it. I promise you, I’ve dealt with worse than a few rent-a-cops and a power-tripping doctor.”

Irritation sizzled through him. Nash was right, dammit. If something happened to Brooks, Lexi would suffer and Nash would probably blame himself. “Fine—”

“I’m coming too.” Cole opened the door and slid out. “Nash is my brother and if something happens to him . . . blah, blah, blah. Whatever bullshit Nash said.”

Brooks rolled his eyes. Had anxiety not been chomping at his ass, he’d have laughed. He didn’t have time to argue. All he could do was hope to god they had the sense to get Cam out and not worry about him.

He drew his weapon from the space at the small of his back, and his hand closed around the metal. Staying one step ahead of the brothers, he walked toward the dirt road that disappeared into the forest.

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