Page 23 of A King So Savage

I did it! I actually did it!

But there was no taking a victory lap just yet. She still needed to escape the building.

The corridor was long and dimly lit. Iron sconces like the ones in the cell adorned the stone walls, and the air was chilly and damp. It was also eerily quiet.

“Which way should I go?” Ava muttered. Neither end of the corridor looked promising as a way out. Taking a deep breath filled with adrenaline, she made a split-second decision and took off in the direction she hoped would lead to freedom.

Damn Kingston for taking her clothes. Wearing a nightgown certainly was a disadvantage when eluding pursuers.

She almost cried with relief when she rounded a corner. There was a set of stone stairs. The thick, dark grey slabs led to a small landing and a door matching the one to the cell. It had to be the way out.

The door opened easily, and the contrast between the dark, cold corridor and the room she fell into was startling.

It was a brightly lit space, old world but modernized with sleek furniture and gleaming light fixtures. It appeared to be some sort of small foyer. Maybe a mud room. Another door existed on the far side of the space, and through the glass panes, Ava could see a well-maintained lawn in the last bloom of summer. The tree line of thick hardwoods was adorned with fading green leaves. Some already carried the first blush of fall color. Rolling mountains were visible on the horizon, and Ava’s heart seized with panic.

This prison was far from the flat, sandy coastline of Georgia or her hometown of Bitter Springs in New York. But the terrain appeared similar to upstate where her family once had a summer cabin in the Adirondacks.

There was a security keypad on the wall by the door. Ava ran to it but did not bother attempting to input a code she did not know. Fumbling with the deadbolt lock, she flung the door wide open, fully expecting a siren blare of alarm.

There was only a steady, low-key beeping indicating the door had been opened. With a frantic glance behind her, Ava rushed outside.

The first thing she realized as she sprinted across the lawn was how cold it actually was. Clad only in the thin nightgown and a pair of panties, the chilly air cut straight through to her bones. But she did not care. She was free. And if she could reach a nearby road or a neighbor, she would beg for their assistance. Call the cops. Report Kingston Winter for what he’d done. Then she would disappear into anonymity.

There was no driveway or anything in this area, which would indicate a heavily used portion of the grounds. It was nothing but a wide expanse of lawn and distant trees. Curious to see just what she was escaping, Ava glanced over her shoulder to see the rear of the house.

It was a mansion. No. It was far more than that. It was literally a castle. An imposing structure of turrets and grey stones. Its massiveness made Ava dizzy. The door to freedom had opened into a side yard and, from where she stood, the full glory of the building was apparent. Multiple terraces extended away from the house, spread out to take advantage of the views and the terrain. One terrace contained an infinity-edge pool. It was so enormous it might have been lifted from an exclusive five-star hotel and plopped into the space here.

The whole of it was beautiful. Frightening. And sinister.

But nothing surpassed the horror of seeing Kingston. He leaned casually on the low stone wall of one terrace and simply waited until she saw him. Even from this distance, Ava recognized the flash of his smile in the encroaching twilight.

He found her escape attempt amusing. Or perhaps that was just the expression he affected right before torturing and killing his captives.

Ava froze in place like a deer caught nibbling in someone’s garden. For a long moment, the two of them simply stared at one another. Then Ava’s heart pounded within her chest again and the blood in her veins screamed at her.

Run!

Ava whirled away, sprinting for the trees. Once she reached that thick section of forest, she would hide and creep out later when it was safe.

If she didn’t freeze to death first.

“Little lamb,” Kingston called out, his tone mocking and laced with excitement. “There are wolves in this forest. And the biggest one is coming for you.”

Ava ran faster, chest heaving as she finally reached the trees. She crashed through the forest, weaving through elms and oaks. The undergrowth was not too thick but still cut at her feet, the rock-studded terrain forcing her to slow down occasionally. It seemed she ran forever before, eventually, she came to a halt in a little clearing and leaned her shoulder against a slender elm.

Gulping in huge breaths of air, she rested. Sweat dotted her brow despite the cool air. She listened carefully for any signs of pursuit, but there was only her own labored breathing and the trilling of sparrows settling into their nests for the night.

Ava glanced down at herself. Low branches had ripped several holes in the gown she wore, and one capped shoulder was torn until it hung off her arm. There was also a cut on her knee, courtesy of a tumble over a half-hidden rock ledge. The fall jarred her injured wrist, and she knew once the adrenaline wore off, it would be very painful.

She should keep running, although she had no idea which way led to safety. The density of the woods was foreboding. Glancing up at the darkening sky, a frisson of fear tingled throughout her body. She would soon be alone in this cold forest. In the dark. With no compass to point a way out.

“Have you had enough excitement for one afternoon?”

Kingston’s voice rumbled from behind her.

With a shriek, Ava spun around. He stood at the edge of the clearing. Not a single strand of his dark hair was out of place. His clothing was crisply pristine and bore no evidence of a mad dash through the forest. It seemed he had materialized out of thin air. Or maybe straight from the pages of a GQ magazine.

The one thing striking Ava the hardest, however, was the gleam in his sapphire blue eyes. He looked both hungry and triumphant. The waning daylight glinted off the steri-strips closing the cut on his upper cheekbone.

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