Page 82 of Hunt for You

A tiny, distant screaming voice tried to shake me awake to something in that moment, but there was no room for deeperthought. All I knew was that, at least for tonight, I wanted to survive. And I wasn’t quite sure how to do that.

My head felt numb. I was terrified in all the wrong ways—and as Ronald tipped his head and his eyes flashed warning, breathing became a struggle.

“Bridget, I said—”

“I’m not running from you, R-Ronald,” I managed, breathlessly. “You’ve read this all wrong.”

He shook his head and chuckled. “No, babe. You’re just not as smart as you think.”

His expression hardened for a blink, then suddenly those hands had me again and the world tipped and spun. I squeaked as the cement under our feet came rushing for me, curling my head into my arms to protect it, trying to tuck and roll.

But then I was on the ground, heart thundering, unable to breathe, with an immense weight over me and all I could feel was the fear.

On my back, on the ground was the way I’d always been weakest, the position from which I’d always struggled most to take back control. A tiny sob broke in my throat as I clawed at his face because he’d only managed to pin one of my arms, and for a split second I wanted to scream.

What the fuck was wrong with me? Why did it always end like this?

But just as Ronald cursed and grabbed my wrist, wrenching my shoulder with the force he used to pin that hand to the ground, suddenly the weight on my chest was gone. There was a second shadow, another muttered curse and I was scrambling backwards, crawling, crying, wheezing, pushing myself back back back back away from those figures—both of them big, strong, angry, anddominant.

My back hit a dumpster, and I coughed and almost threw up, but as one of those figures growled and the other hissedand a very heavy body flipped through the air to land with a sickening thud on the ground, I was pushing to my feet, grabbing the sticky, stinking dumpster to help me stay upright on very wobbly knees.

And then the shadowy figure on top grabbed the other one, leaned into his face and snarled,“You need to learn some fucking boundaries.”

My heart was in my throat as the lower figure slumped and then the other guy was on his feet, and his hands were gloved, and his hood was up, so I couldn’t see which of them was grabbing for me and forgot every piece of training or self-defense I’d ever learned and just screamed and ran straight for the main street, praying there would be a car or a cop orsomething.

He cursed and footsteps pounded the sidewalk behind me.

I knew to my bones that this was going to end because too many parts of me hurt, and I was fast, but not that fast.

Yet, I tried. Goddamnit, I tried—I made my hands flat and ran the way I’d been taught. But I still couldn’t breathe.

Then, midstep, I was whirled, one firm, calloused hand clapped over my mouth, and as I sucked in a breath through my nose, I blinked because that heavenly smell—faint, like he’d been wearing that cologne earlier in the day, but it had faded—washed over me.

And that scent broke through the haze of fear.

Cain. This was Cain.

Thank God.

He’d dragged me to a stop, his chest heaving from the fight, then the run. There was nothing on the street. No one. But it would only be a matter of time.

“Did he hurt you?” That rough, rasping voice snarled in my ear.

I shook my head. “Not in any way that counts,” I squeaked.

We were both still for a moment, just breathing. And Cain cupped that hand over the top of my head and just pressed his face into my hair.

It was so unexpected, sosweet,that to my horror, like the messy, weak little bitch that I was, I sank into his grip, shivering and fighting tears. And when he sighed, I turned in his arms and every muscle in my body turned to water. I sagged against him like a sack of pathetic potatoes.

He caught me with a curse.

“Bridget… what—”

The choking little sob I made was so pathetic, I hatedmyself.

But Cain just swung me into his chest, curled me up like a child in his arms, then carried me away.

29. On the Mark

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