Page 15 of Oathbreaker

Hunter, please find me. Please help me.

One.

One-two-one.

One-two-three-two-one.

I catalog my injuries. My face, I’m sure, is all busted. I try to move my jaw from side to side in millimeters of movement and nearly scream at the pain. It hurts like hell, but I’m not convinced my jaw is actually broken. Looking down at the rest of my body, I hold in a gasp when I see my chest and side are one massive bruise. Testing a deeper breath, I stifle a groan. My knees are bloody, as are my feet. Dirt covers my skin.

Hunter.

All at once, the slow realization that I’ll have to escape Adam’s clutches somehow locks into my consciousness. Alongside that thought is that Hunter doesn’t know where I am. No one does. And while people most likely know I’m missing by now, how will they find me?

Will they find me in time?

I’m unsure if we’ve driven north or south, east or west. All I know is we’ve been driving for some time for the sun to have risen. We could be anywhere.

We begin to decelerate and then take a right turn. Tall leafless trees whip past the side window. I count the seconds in time with my heartbeat. Ten. Fifty. One hundred. Six hundred. Then the car curves and treks over bumpy terrain. Gravel.

We stop.

I still my body, imagining forcing the cells in my muscles to slow. When he opens the door, whipping frigid air into the already cold space, I pretend I’m dead.

“Wake up, princess,” he says. He slaps me on my ass and unbinds my hands and feet. I let out a low, slow groan as I open my uninjured eye and look at him.

My head pounds and I feel like it could crack open any minute. Moving inch by inch as to not upset my wrecked, fractured bones, I sit up under the open tailgate of the Tahoe. I look past him. The trunks of thick, overcrowded trees surround our spot.

I don’t see an opening within the tree line, even without foliage.

A sharp, icy wind blows through, disturbing the rotting leaves on the forest floor with a dry crackle against the frozen branches.

“Where are we?” I ask. My voice is hoarse and my teeth chatter against the frigid air. Forming words with my cracked lips feels terrible.

He smiles at me and doesn’t respond.

“Come, princess,” he says, stretching his arms to me. I fight my body to still instead of recoil—I don’t want him to hit me again. Another blow might just kill me.

But when he wraps his arms around my body, carrying me out of the car wedding style, I want to throw up again.

The warmth radiating off him is salvation for my naked, abused, chilled body. I want nothing more than to flee from it.

“Welcome home, beautiful Winter.” He rounds the car and presents a small hunting cabin that’s seen better days. The uneven porch lists to one side, and part of the railing hangs off at the far end of the house. Piles of snow cover parts of the roof and the amount of it makes me wonder if the ceiling will cave in.

Still, he stomps up the small staircase and pushes through the threshold with flair.

The cabin is one big room. On the far wall is a wood fireplace that’s covered in cobwebs. To the left is a small kitchenette with a sink, hot plate, and a fridge that looks like one in a hotel room. Off to the side is a narrow opening, and half of a chipped clawfoot tub and a toilet peek through the open doorway.

The uncontrollable tremors redouble, and my teeth vibrating together sends a renewed bolt of agony through me.

On the right side of the cabin, there’s a mattress on the floor. The quilted blanket on the thin bed looks like a small animal chewed on it.

He drops me on the bed, and I scramble to sit up. My back hits the cold wooden wall.

“Adam,” I say. “Please...” I don’t know what I’m asking him for. Please let me go? Please don’t hurt me anymore? Please call this whole thing off and bring me home?

Please kill me now so I can avoid what’s coming next?

“I love how you say my name, princess.” He smiles, and his face transforms. Many women would consider Adam to be a handsome man. His skin is smooth and creamy, like ebony varnish on soft pine. He has naturally straight teeth, and his face structure is strong and angular. He’s tall, and he’s always been muscular and lithe from playing basketball in high school. Now, his muscles are larger and more menacing from spending the last fifteen years in the penitentiary.

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