Page 24 of Silver Secrets

Her uninjured hand slid up her chest until it landed on her necklace. If her phone hadn’t died, she would have been able to call Gage and ask him to locate her through the tracker hidden inside it. She was religious about charging it. Unlike her damn phone. Sloane glanced at her watch. Enough time had passed since the girls left that she felt confident all her friends would be at Dolly’s, enjoying the post-race party. Would they notice she never showed up? Her stomach soured as she realized they would probably think she wasn’t feeling social and just headed home.

Think. Think, Sloane. You’ve done this before. You can get yourself home again.

She knew the sun traveled east to west during the day, so she had a rough notion of which way was North based on the sun’s location in the sky. She could trudge along that path for as long as possible. It was bound to lead her back to the trail, or into town via a road at some point. Hoisting herself up off the ground, her leg and wrist throbbed as she moved to get her hike underway. She ground down on her teeth, the pressure just one way to take her mind off the pain. At least, with her wrist, she could hold it close to her chest. But her leg was another story. Peeking down, Sloane saw blood dripping into her shoe.

She blinked, fighting the panic bubbling in her mind. Her body picked up the pace while she screamed at herself to get away. To run. To find someone for help.

A branch broke behind her, and Sloane held back a sob. He was watching her. She could feel it. But where? And how the hell was she supposed to get away with a throbbing leg full of torn flesh and debris? If she couldn’t get away, how was she supposed to find the strength to fighthim?

Her ankles and wrists throbbed from being rubbed raw where she was shackled to the wall. She couldn’t stop the shaking that tore through her entire body as she ran to get away from the place where he was watching her from. There was nothing else she could do.

He’s chasing you. Run.

He’s chasing you!

RUN!

Seven

“How far could she have gotten? This forest is fucking huge.” Gage and Stone had been walking back on the trail for at least ten minutes.

“We need to head south another kilometer. I think it’s right around there that she veered off the path.” Gage held onto his phone like it was keeping his blood circulating through his body. “I don’t know what they were thinking, leaving her out here on her own. What if she’s hurt?”

“It’s not their fault. The girls were just listening to Sloane. We’ve tracked harder targets than her through worse terrain than this. And with way less information. You’ve basically got a map right there that’s going to lead us to her.”

Gage nodded in agreement. They had. But Sloane wasn’t a target. She was their friend. The stakes felt so fucking high because of that.

They kept their heads down, both men sweeping the area with harsh gazes. If something so much as moved with the breeze, Gage was on it. But nothing turned out to be Sloane.

“Gage.” Stone’s hand slammed into his chest. He was about to grumble about it when he followed the line of sight to where Stone’s finger was pointing.

His heart jumped. Sloane was resting with her back against the trunk of a tree, her left wrist cradled gently against her body. Oh shit, her legs were bloody. Fuck shewashurt!

“Sloane!” he called out, running towards her.

Her eyes were wide, bouncing all around him unfocused, as his legs slammed into the ground next to her.

“Red? What the hell happened?”

“No. No… I’m not going back!!” She scrambled, her feet slipping out from underneath her. Fuck. Her breathing was too fast. He’d seen it before, and the way Sloane looked, the way she was reacting, he knew she wasn’t in the woods with them. She was lost to some other place. Some place where something bad had happened to her.

“Stop. You’re going to hurt yourself more.” Her feet still kicked out, trying to gain traction as Gage reached to stabilize her. His only thought was to stop the thrashing movement before she hurt herself more than she already was.

“Whoa. I’ve got you.” His hands wrapped around her upper arms and Sloane screamed.

* * *

“G-get away. Get away from me!”

She couldn’t breathe.

“You’re okay. You’re okay. Can you look at me?”

“No… No… you have to stay back. Please, please don’t touch me.”

“Okay. I won’t touch you. I’m just going to sit down here across from you, okay?” Her eyes darted around the forest. What was this? Had she found help? How long had she been walking? How far away from the cave was she? Her head felt foggy and the panic made her feel like she was going to pass out.

There were a million places hecould be hiding. He was there, watching her. Stalking her. Working through his plan to take her. Her breathing sped up as dangerous, dark circles filled her vision. He was going to take her back. She wasn’t safe.

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