Page 119 of Corrupting Ivy

A thunderous boom exploded from the tree line opposite me, resembling that of a branch falling from the tallest tree and crash landing on the ground.

Everyone turned their attention to the noise. Jeremiah stood and, with the flick of his wrist, pointed towards the sound. “Peter, go. Check it out.”

"It's just a tree."

"Did I ask for your opinion?"

Peter drew his pistol from his holster, mumbling under his breath. Just before he disappeared in the treeline, I jerked my arm from the Sheriff’s grasp and ran the opposite direction towards the dark looming forest before me.

A bullet whizzed by my ear and embedded itself in the tree beside me. I stumbled to my knees, landing on sharp sticks and hard rocks, then rolled, using the momentum to jump back to my feet.

“Fuck. Don’t just stand there; go get the cunt.”

I scanned everything ahead of me, putting my experience of running in the woodlands to good use. Glancing back, I watch Sheriff Dun moving through the brush, and quicker than I thought he could move.

My lungs burned. Running with my hands behind my back forced me to go slower, allowing him to gain on me. He’d kill me if he caught me, or he’d kill me running away. Either way, I was dead.

So I pushed myself faster, harder than I had before. If I fell, I’d get back up, and I’d continue to do so until I escaped. Hands grabbed me from behind and wrapped around my mouth as I cried out. My feet flew off the ground as the man dragged me backward toward the cover of a wide pine tree.

I fought him, kicking and screaming as his hand clamped down on my mouth harder, muffling my shrieks of terror. My heel connected with his shin bone, causing him to grunt and lessen his hold on me. I wiggled my way free, running back into the empty space between two trees.

Sheriff Dun crept along the darkness across from me, his gun drawn.

If that wasn’t the Sheriff who grabbed me…

A tall, dark figure slipped out from behind a tree as the Sheriff passed by. He took two silent steps forward, wrapped his hands around the Sheriff’s head and twisted. A sickening crack echoed down the trees, then his body crumpled towards the ground, the man catching him before he made a noise.

I screamed.

The man's hands wrapped around me again, muffling my cries with a gloved hand. “Shh, sweet girl.” The dark as sin voice soothed me right down to my soul. My heart shattered into a million fragments as the man I thought I’d never see again held me tight against his chest.

“I’ve got you,” he said, soothing me as I broke down and sagged against him.

Randall released my waist, then my wrists sprung free from their tight hold. I spun in his grasp to face him as he tucked his knife back into the holster attached to his military-style Kevlar vest.

It was him.

He’d covered his face with a mask that showed only his eyes. But I’d recognize the raw burning desire as he looked at me. He ripped off his mask.

There was no doubt now.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his over and over until he trapped my head between his hands, stilling me, and deepened the kiss. His tongue mated with mine, swirling with need and hunger. When his pace slowed, he pressed another quick kiss to my lips before pulling away and piercing me with his dark gaze.

“You better come out right now, or I’m gonna put a bullet in your father until you do,” Jeremiah said, yelling from the clearing and throwing me back into my damning reality.

I pulled away and looked around the pine tree in the direction I’d come from, then back to Randall.

He was going to kill my father.

Of course he was. I knew this. He had his pistol on his head, ready to pull the trigger before I took off.

And I’d left him.

Randall drew his finger to his lips. “Shh.” With his other hand, he spun his two fingers in a circle, then pointed them forward. He pushed my back against the thick pine tree. “Stay here,” he said before pulling his mask back over his face, then moved his rifle across his chest.

He was leaving me?

I grabbed him as he stepped forward, his rifle raised.

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