Page 50 of Not Your Hero

“Emerson, I’m giving you two minutes to fucking run,” he warns in a dark tone.

“I …”

“Sixty seconds.” I look over as my heart hammers inside me. Should I do it? Should I run? I could hide from him, right? Surely, I’m faster than him now I’m healed and healthy. I can make it, can’t I?

“Fifty,” he says now as my stomach lurches. I should take the head start. I could make it further that way. I could trick him, run one way, and then circle back. That could work, right? I’m trying to reason it out with myself, although I don’t know how well that’s working.

“Time’s ticking, Em. Forty.” My chest is heaving as I take one last look at him before I take off for the trees. I have no idea where the hell I’m going or what I’m going to do.

I just run. I run through the trees, shoving branches out of my way as I go before kicking off the heels. I can’t run in this shit.

Branches bite the bottom of my feet just like before when I had to run, but this time, it’s different.

I keep going, circling back toward the building, thinking he will think I kept going. He’ll run further into the trees, and I can sneak back out and get the hell out of here.

I slow down and creep back toward the edge of the tree line and listen intently. I can’t hear shit except for the faint sounds ofthe music coming from the building. I take slow, deep breaths, trying to even out my breathing so he can’t hear me huffing for breath.

Just when I think the coast is clear, I peek out once more. I don’t see anyone or hear anything. He has to be further in looking for me. I take one step when a hand wraps around my waist and one around my mouth. I scream even though no one can hear me.

My body is jerked back into his as he lifts me and moves further into the woods. He’s walking so quickly, and I have no idea where the hell he’s taking me as I kick and try to fight him.

When he stops, he tosses me like a ragdoll to the ground where I roll. Shoving up onto my hands and knees, I debate running again when he steps in front of me.

“Do you have any idea how long my father would make us hunt, Em? How long we’d stay in the woods? Once, it was nearly a week. A fucking week without food and only one bottle of water, so if you’re thinking about running again, I’d think twice. I have all the time in the world.” His words send a cold chill down my spine. His father did that to him? He left him as a child out in the woods for a week? What kind of parent does that? And why the hell do I feel sorry for him?

I start to shove myself up once more when he places his foot on my back and forces me back to the ground. I lay on my stomach as Gannix climbs over me, sitting down on the back of my legs. His hands roam up my back before he rips the fabric of the dress, exposing my skin.

“I’m sick, Em. I’m so fucking sick,” he says as his fingers move over the scars on my back.

“You don’t need me,” I tell him.

“But I do. More than I thought I would.”

“You could let me go,” I suggest as a tear runs down my cheek.

“Would you really want that?” Why wouldn’t I? The rational part of me says yes, I would but the irrational part of me says no because I want to know what Gannix has to offer. I want to know why he went so far for me. What he actually sees in me because I’ve never seen anything in myself.

When I don’t answer, he must take that as my answer. He stands up, grabs me under my arms, and pulls me off the ground, standing me to my feet.

“When we get home, I’m going to make you pay for that,” he warns.

“For what?”

“Running.”

Chapter 27

Gannix

Tears run down her cheeks as I raise the paddle in my hand and slap it against her ass once more. She’s chained to the wall in my room, her naked body on full display for me. Her ass glows red from the paddle, and my cock is as hard as a rock, but I know I can’t take her without drugging her, even though I want to.

“Plan on running again, Em?” I ask before swatting her once more. I know she’s had enough, and that was the last one. I drop the paddle and walk closer, spinning her around to face me while keeping her arms above her head in the chains.

“You want to answer me?” I ask her. She shakes her head, and I smile.

“Fuck you,” she hisses at me.

“I could drug you and fuck you.”

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