Page 1 of Silver Secrets

One

Run.Run. RUN!

Don’t stop.

Don’t you dare stop running.

Don’t you dare give into the pain.

Don’t let the numbness stop you.

Don’t let your body shut down on you.

Branches whipped by, cutting into her face, her arms. Brambles pulled at her legs. Her feet bled over the pine needles cushioning her foot falls in the forest. She stopped, her breath sawing in and out of her lungs as she tried to hear if he was following her. Because she’d escaped. She’d gotten free. But it would all be for nothing if he caught her again.

The world spun, and her stomach lurched. Acid made its way into her throat, a stitch ripping through her side as she fought to figure out what direction she was going in. The forest was huge. Hundreds of thousands of acres and she had to hope that somewhere, somehow, she would find help. Because it was the only thing going for her.

And all while it was so dark out she could barely see her hand in front of her face. But it didn’t matter. She could hear hisfootsteps growing closer. There was no other option but to run.

The sting of metal cutting into the meaty part of her palm grounded her. The drugs were making it hard to tell if a shadow was just that, or something more sinister. Following her. She had to keep going. He was following her.

A flash of light blinded her. How long had she been running? Every bit of her body felt drained beyond exhaustion. Her muscles refused to go any further but she still made them. She fell, stumbling over one of the million roots she was trying to navigate through but it didn’t matter. Whatever that flash of light was from was getting closer. There were shouts. He wouldn’t be shouting. No. He wouldn’t want her to see him coming.

The light grew brighter, moving around with urgency. Somewhere, deep inside her exhaustion-riddled body, she knew the light meant safety. If she could reach it, the nightmare would be over.

Around and around, back and forth, the light danced in her eyes, the only beacon calling her to keep going. Her fingers clawed though the earth as she dragged her body inch by inch towards the warmth of the dancing glow.

Fingers dug into her ankle and pulled her back as a scream ripped from her lungs.

Sloane sat up in bed with a jolt, jerking the tangled fabric of her sheets away from her body as fast as possible. Her breath sawed painfully in and out of her chest at a dizzying rate as she blinked, trying to focus on where the hell she was.

Her bedroom. Light from her bathroom flooded into the space, a small reminder that she was safe in her house in Silver Springs. Two thousand miles separated her from that forest, and that nightmare she escaped over a decade ago.

Nausea overwhelmed her, cold sweat trickling down her back. Sloane lurched out of the bed and ran to her bathroom, dropping to her knees in front of the toilet as she heaved.

Shit. She’d been having more and more nightmares recently, but that was the worst one she’d had in months. Not since the days after she and her friend Lily were taken and it triggered them to start all over again…

It was fourteen years ago. She wasn’t that girl anymore. Sloane left those memories in Ashwood Falls where they belonged. The West Coast of America was so different from the small town in Texas that she now called home.

Groaning, she made her way to the sink and splashed cold water on her face. When she shuffled back to her bedroom, Sloane turned to the clock on her nightstand. Three in the morning. She wouldn’t be going back to sleep. That meant she needed to figure out how the hell to pass the time between right then and her only thing on the calendar that day: self-defense class with her friends.

The box under her bed called to her. It was filled with all the memories she wished she could erase. Filled with articles and notes about a man she would never be able to identify. A man she would never be able to find.

A man she hoped would never find her.

Instead of giving into temptation and looking over the contents she’d memorized years ago, Sloane slumped back onto her mattress. She closed her eyes and forced herself to run through the stages of language development like she had in grad school. Her job as a psychologist was something that grounded her. Gave her tangible goals to work towards and helping others overcome their past traumas helped her find the strength to continue to work through hers as well.

Her heart rate slowed, and her mind drifted in and out of sleep until she couldn’t take the tossing and turning anymore.

That’s how she found herself, disheveled and more than a tad cranky, walking into Montgomery Defense a few hours later.

“God, you look like shit.” Mae practically yelled across the gym as Sloane schlepped in with her bag barely staying up on her shoulder. The tall, perfectly athletic goddess grabbed their friend Courtney’s arm and they marched over to her.

“Thanks. You sure know how to make a lady feel good,” Sloane said as Mae pulled her in for a hug.

“Shit. Are you sick? I probably should have asked before I hugged you!”

“Nope. Not sick.”

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