Page 48 of The Cruelty of Thorns

It was the snap of a branch that pulled me back to reality.

“Well, isn’t this sweet?”

I broke away from Rosetta and looked around. Franco and Giovanni were standing behind us, the burly coachman armed with a stiff riding crop. He grinned when he saw my reaction.

“Imagine our surprise when Tomasso told us he spotted you two running away from the house.”

Tomasso. I should have strangled him at the table that day. I stood up, ready to fight them if need be, and stepped in front of Rosetta.

“Let us go. We have no beef with you.”

“Now you see, that’s not the way this works. You belong to my mistress, and she doesn’t like losing property.”

I balled up my fists, ready to take them both on, but Rosetta stood behind me and placed her hand on my arm, the defeat in her voice nearly breaking my heart when she said, “It’s over, Julianus.”

I glanced down at her. “No. I promised to take you away from here.”

“I’d listen to the maid, if I were you,” Giovanni warned. “You’re coming back with us. It’s up to you if you do so willingly, but know this, if you fight me, Franco will take it out on your girlfriend. He’s got a sweet spot for the ladies, and he’s had his eye on this one for a while now.”

I glanced at the gatekeeper, who was openly leering at Rosetta. “Me and you could have some fun, girlie.”

Could I take them both before Franco touched Rosetta? I was unarmed and outnumbered, but I still had the element of surprise, since they wouldn’t be expecting me to fight them. On the one hand, I couldn’t risk losing and having them take my resistance out on Rosetta, but I knew both our fates were already decided if we went back.

No, I had to try. I couldn’t let them take us back and throw us in the cellar. I’d rather die fighting than starve to death in a cage. I glanced between the two men and, deciding Giovanni was the bigger threat, took a deep breath and rushed him.

I didn’t even see him move. He raised the riding crop and brought the base down across my forehead, knocking me off my feet. Rosetta screamed and lunged toward me, but Franco grabbed her and held her back as Giovanni raised the crop again and delivered another crushing blow across the side of my head. I wanted to fight, to tell Franco to get his filthy hands off Rosetta, but everything got blurry, the world fading to black. I tried to shake it off, to stay conscious, but all my efforts were in vain.

CHAPTER 22

MYRA

A new threat

THE PLAN FOR Saturday morning’s trip to the lake was for everyone to meet up in the parking lot at 8:30. There were eleven of us going, to be split among four vehicles. Ron had said not to worry about breakfast as we’d grab something on the way.

I got up early and dressed then waited for Kristin to do the same while checking my phone. Every day this week Ron had texted me a good morning message, but so far today there was nothing from him. I finally sent him a text to check if he was up, thinking maybe he had overslept, though that was unlikely since he seemed to be as excited about the trip as I was. When I still hadn’t heard anything by 8:25, I followed Kristin out of the dorm and headed across campus to the parking lot.

We were halfway across the quad when we spotted a group of students gathered at the edge of the parking lot, all focused on what looked like an ambulance. As we got closer, I could see two attendants loading a gurney in the back. Kristin grabbed my arm and pointed out Toby and Lisa standing by the doors.

“Come on. Let’s see what’s going on.”

Toby looked up at us as we reached them, his eyes reflecting the knot of fear I suddenly felt when I didn’t see Ron among the crowd.

“I’m sorry, Myra.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking past him at the surrounding faces. “What’s going on? Who’s in the ambulance?”

“It’s Ron. I found him this morning. I thought…” He swiped his hand through his hair while Lisa clung to his arm. “I thought he was dead.”

“Dead?” I made a move toward the ambulance, but Toby held me back as one of the attendants climbed inside while the other slammed the doors shut and rounded the vehicle to the driver’s side. There was a bleep from the horn, then the ambulance turned around and made its way out of the parking lot.

“What happened?” Kristin asked.

“I don’t know,” Toby replied. “I woke up this morning to Ron’s alarm going off. He usually shuts it off right away, but when he didn’t wake up, I shook him, figuring he must’ve just been sleeping deep. But when he still didn’t wake up, I looked at him more closely. He looked really pale and was barely breathing, and…” He hesitated, glancing at me. “There was blood on his neck.”

“Blood?” Kristin asked.

“Yeah.”

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