Page 82 of Shattered Dreams

“She has something that belongs to me.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Zarah

My boots slide in the snow as I run, my jacket slapping at my legs. If Gage and his father get hurt because of me, I’ll never forgive myself. I need to let them know I messed up. I need to let them know Jerricka and Dr. Pederson are framing Stephen Mallory for Ingrid’s death.

Running down the long driveway, I pant, my breath coming out in white puffs. I’m only a quarter of a mile down the drive and sweat starts trickling down my back. I’m not in the best physical shape, and once this is all over, I’ll ask Gage to train me, run with me. I want to learn how to defend myself, so women like Jerricka can’t kick my ass. I’m weak, in every way, and if I’m going to survive, I need to be better.

I finally reach the end of the driveway and skid to a stop at the highway. Left or right? At this point I don’t know which way is north or south, east or west. I was never a Girl Scout, and I can’t tell by the position of the sun. I’ve never been in this part of the state before, and I have no idea where in the hell I am.

I’m four hours away from King’s Crossing, and I’m lost.

No normal person can say that about the city they grew up in.

I take a chance and go left. There are woods on one side—the side where Jerricka’s house sits near the lake—and across the highway, fields covered in snow as far as my eyes can see. Not a cabin, not a house, not anything but blue sky and white horizon.

Jerricka didn’t lie to scare me. She told me the absolute truth. We are alone out here, and I have no idea how long I’ll have to walk to find someone. If I last that long. If Jerricka and Dr. Pederson made it to bed, maybe I have an hour or so, but on foot, that won’t be enough time.

I should have been smarter, waited until they started screwing and looked for a cell phone or a laptop. A tablet. Her house doesn’t have a landline—there are no telephone poles out here. Even setting her house on fire would have been better than this.

But still, it’s freedom, and the cool wind kisses my face and the sun shines in my eyes. It’s a small thing. Something I haven’t been able to enjoy in many years. I’ll never take it for granted again.

I lose track of how much time goes by. My fingertips tingle and I button my jacket and push my hands into my pockets. This is as warm as I’m going to get. I wonder if Dr. Pederson and Jerricka are playing with me, letting me think I’ve gotten away. There’s no way they don’t know I’m gone by now. They’ll let me run until I’m tired and hungry, then they’ll drag me back warning me that the next time I try to escape they’ll let me die of hypothermia.

The road is empty and the only sounds out here are the birds singing and branches rustling together in the wind. If I concentrate, I can almost imagine Gage and I are in the woods by the house where we would sit on that log and make out while the dogs played. His warm lips on mine, his hands tangled in myhair. The scratch of his beard under my fingers, the low timbre of his voice when he told me he loves me.

All the times he said it, and I never believed it. Not deep down, not at the bottom of my heart where fear and doubt lived.

I miss him, and his face wavers, his features smearing like a melting clay sculpture. The medication is starting to work, and suddenly Gage feels like a person I met years ago. A glimmer of a memory. A touch, a smile.

I’m losing him.

Maybe he was never mine.

An engine’s low growl rumbles across the field, and a vehicle approaches me, a black SUV, its tires crunching over the snow.

The truck is too shiny, too clean, for it to belong to a farmer heading home or a fisherman looking for a spot at the lake to ice-fish. The glass is tinted and I can’t see the passengers in the vehicle, but my heart speeds up as it slows down.

The back window slides open, and I say the first thing that pops into my head as his eyes meet mine. “Max.”

“Almost, but not quite, my dear. Zarah Maddox, heiress to the Maddox fortune, King’s Crossing’s princess reduced to faded memories and not one person who cares whether she lives or dies. How the mighty have fallen.”

I stare at him and claw through the fear. “Senator Cook.”

He opens the door and climbs out, his face twisting in anger. “Get into the truck, Miss Maddox. I’ll bring you back where you belong.”

He doesn’t mean to the city. “You’re working with Jerricka and Dr. Pederson.”

“I am, yes. I have a vested interest in the drug they’re perfecting. Of course, they need you to finish the trials, but Dr. Solis assures me things are going quite well on that front. Another day and we’ll have the results we need. Now get into the truck.”

“No.” I back away, my boots slipping in the snow. I don’t wait another second, and I take off down the road. If he’s going to haul me back to hell, he’s going to have to work for it.

“Fuck.”

Quickly, he gains on me.

I look over my shoulder to see how close he is, and that was a mistake. My foot snags in a pothole and I trip, landing on my hands and knees, allowing him to catch me that much easier.

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