Page 1 of Daddy's Little Survivor

CHAPTER ONE

MONROE

Monroe looked once again in her rearview mirror to see if anyone was following her. It had been three days since she’d escaped.

Three long and hard days, but she wanted to put as much distance between herself and him as she could. Monroe hadn’t slept a lot the past three days; she’d been too scared.

She had been on the road for a total of twenty-six hours since her last stop for gas and a nap. Monroe could only manage to sleep a couple of hours without starting to panic. The thought of him closing the distance between them scared her.

Stopping several times hadn’t been part of her plan, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Exhaustion weighed down on her bones as she sat for hours driving down highways. She had almost fallen asleep a couple of times but had managed to push through it. She’d had no choice.

Any time she stopped somewhere, she made sure to keep her sweatshirt hood up to hide her skin. Her once smooth and silky skin was now marred with bruises, cuts, scars, and scabs. Monroe had made the mistake of not putting her hood up the first time she’d stopped to get gas and had seen several people staring and whispering.

She had quickly left after that, afraid someone would call the cops, and he would find her.

A shiver ran through her body at that thought. She prayed he wouldn’t easily find her, but couldn’t know for sure. Monroe had paid attention to him talking about his work, trying to pick up good information–he had apparently hidden several people he knew–so when she left, she used the techniques she had learned to hide herself so he couldn’t find her. Or she hoped he couldn’t.

She just hoped it paid off. When she’d first left, she had bought new clothes and dumped her old ones. She hoped he hadn’t placed any trackers in her car, and had looked once she’d gotten to the first motel, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for.

She had never heard him talking about tracking people before like that, but she knew he was good at what he did. It was his specialty, placing tracking devices everywhere and them being undetected. Monroe hadn’t used her car in over five, almost six, years, right before she moved in with him, and had never seen him touch her car.

She could only hope he hadn’t bothered to place one on her car. The idea of him tracking her through her car made her stomach churn. She couldn’t think about that because her mind could go into a dark place fast and she was driving right now.

She didn’t have enough money to get rid of her car and buy another one. No one would give her enough money for her car. It was old and soon to be unreliable.

Blinking, Monroe rubbed her eyes quickly and looked at the exit. She needed to stop soon for gas and figure out where she was. If she even had enough money to get gas.

She had been saving for a year in hopes she would have enough to leave. She barely had enough but she was making it last as long as she could. Maybe she could stop in this town and get a job if they had any available.Monroe didn’t have a college degree and only had her GED.

Sighing, she pulled down a road and continued to drive. Monroe didn’t know where she was. All she had was a map for Ohio, but that didn’t do her any good because she wasn’t in Ohio anymore. She knew that for sure.

All she had was a burner phone and she hoped it still had a battery that worked. Maybe she could look up where she was, but she didn’t know if that was possible. It wasn’t anything fancy and she didn’t know if it had a GPS signal to track where she was.

Monroe wasn’t good with technology. When she’d bought the phone, she had asked the clerk for a prepaid phone that couldn’t be tracked and the person had given her this flip phone, something she was familiar with.

Pulling over, Monroe put the car in park and grabbed the burner phone. Crap. It was dead. Just her luck. Nothing was going in her favor right now.

She searched the small bag that held the charger cord, pulled it out to inspect it, and realized she didn’t have the plug to put it in her car and charge it.

Monroe sighed and leaned her head against the steering wheel. Everything in her body ached as she leaned forward. The last time she’d stopped at a gas station, she’d looked at pain meds, but couldn’t afford them.

What was she going to do now? She didn’t have a lot of gas left in her car and she didn’t think she had enough money to get more.

Maybe she could stop at a convenience store and ask if there were any places hiring so she could earn some money. She needed to keep moving but Monroe knew it would take a while to earn enough money to do that.

Not many places hired when a GED was all the person had, and they didn’t pay well, either. Maybe she could get a job at a diner and they could pay her cash under the table. It would probably be a sketchy diner, but she would do it if it meant getting paid.

Monroe didn’t know how long she would have to run and stay hidden. Would she have to do this for the rest of her life? She didn’t know if she could do that.

Pulling her hood down, she let out a sigh. It was hot in the car but she didn’t want to turn it back on for the AC. It would waste gas she would need once she decided to do next.

All Monroe wanted to do now was find a safe place where she could rest and not have to worry about anything, but it didn’t seem like she was ever going to be able to do that. It had only been three days, yet it felt like it had been three years.

Exhaustion weighed her body down and she tried to relax in her car. Stomach growling, she wrapped her arm gently around her stomach to stop it. She hadn’t eaten in a while, and she didn’t know when she was going to eat next.

Did she have enough money to get food and gas?

No.

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