Page 45 of Brutal Savage

732. That’s a New Jersey area code. Is that where she’s from? Who the hell is DK?

Slipping my cell out again, I snap a photo of the info and return the paper back in the frame, placing it how it originally stood.

As I intend to head upstairs to her bedroom, soft footsteps pound across the ground before keys clink together.

Seems like she cut her run a little short today.

A smirk spreads across my face as I return to the kitchen and settle onto a stool, waiting for her to find me.

I think it’s time we had a little discussion about how it isn’t nice to keep someone waiting.

I want an answer about my job offer. And I want it today.

ELARA

A chill creeps up the back of my neck, even as sweat beads across my forehead. I take in gasping breaths, but it isn’t from the run. It’s from something else entirely.

A car behind me slows.

A black sedan with no plates. The windows tinted.

My breaths rush out of me as I start to run faster, the engine roaring to life right before the vehicle speeds up.

Closer.

It gets closer.

Chasing me down the empty road.

Tynan was right. You never know who might find you here.

And this time, it isn’t him.

My body prickles, the wheels burning across the concrete as the driver toys with me.

Is it Jerry? His father? One of their men?

No. I can’t die. I can’t give up.

Run.

Keep running.

But I’m no match.

It gains on me.

Faster.

Faster.

The horn beeps, but I keep going, my lungs burning like they’re on fire.

Only a few yards remain between us. And as it comes up right behind me, I veer into the woods, rushing past the branches crunching beneath my feet, one slicing across my arm through my thin, hooded zip-up jacket.

I wince, yet keep running through the pain, unsure if the driver is still following me.

I can’t look back. I must keep going. I know the way back home from here.

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