Page 31 of Reclaiming Adelaide

I covered my mouth, my scream snagging in my throat like ice shards clawing their way up. I shook my head as microscopic black pins flooded my vision, my pulse pounding in my head.

Who? What… The stationary buses drew in closer as Jake took long strides toward me.

Run.

The door wasn’t far.

I spun on my heel and raced toward the lit covered waiting area.

Arms wrapped around me the moment my foot hit the sidewalk, and I screamed, my fear ricocheting off the brick building.

My hip burned in agony as his hand hit my bruise, bringing me close to my knees. Jake slipped his hand over my mouth, muffling my cries, and spun us into the darkness away from the prying eyes of a passenger exiting the bathroom.

“Stop fucking moving,” he growled, and I chilled. “It’s me, sweets.”

I didn’t care if it was the Pope himself. I couldn’t trust him, even if he saved my life back there. I kicked out, my feet coming up into the air as I drove my elbow back, nailing him in the ribs.

He grunted, bringing a satisfied smile beneath his hand.

“Stop fighting me, or I won’t hesitate to put you back in the trunk.”

His hand slipped up, stifling the air I sucked in through my nose, causing my lungs to burn for oxygen.

I pulled at his hand and wrist, prying his palm away from my mouth by his two fingers, allowing me to gulp in mouthfuls of air with a gasp.

“Relax,” he purred. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Not going to hurt me? How could he say that when he already had? How could he expect me to comply after all of this? His contradictory statements didn’t bring me peace. They confused me until my world spun on its axis, and fear chilled me to the bone.

I couldn’t trust him, could I? I nodded, showing him I’d comply.

Jake pulled his hands from my body, leaving my mind to pirouette with rejection. “We need to get out of here.”

His bleeding brow left a crimson watery trail down his cheek and throat, and what looked to be a forming bruise on his cheekbone. An errant tear trickled down my face, mimicking the blood on his.

“I’m sorry, Jake.” I gripped his shirt in both of my hands. “Don’t let them kill me. Please? I didn’t know.” I shook my head, my cheeks now stained.

Jake wrapped his arm around my bruised shoulder and pulled me against him, causing me to wince.

“Did they hurt you?”

“No.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “My car is over here,” he said, pointing through the station.

“Did you kill them?”

He sighed. “Adelaide, if I killed them, I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to get out of here.” He tossed my bag into my chest and grabbed my elbow as I flung it over my shoulder. “Now, let’s go.”

“I can’t leave with you,” I said, stopping in my tracks. “They’ll kill me… us.”

“If you don’t move, they won’t get the chance.” He gripped my arm harder and led me through the station, with a few eyes following us. When we got to his car, he opened the passenger door and shoved me inside—my ass sitting on something hard and long.

He did it again, threatening to end my life as though he were ordering breakfast. It’d be the last time he sliced my heart open as if I were some science project in a lab where he could look at me with disdain and apathy.

I dug into my pocket as he rounded the car and pulled out the switchblade I’d forgotten about as he sat down in the driver’s seat.

“Sorry.” I flicked it open and pointed the sharp end in his direction. “I really am, but don’t make me use this on you.” Opening the car door, I slipped out. “I can’t have you involved. These people are dangerous.”And it’d kill me if anything happened to you, no matter how cruel you are to me—no matter how much youhateme.

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