Page 59 of Wait in the Truck
“No! Leave me the fuck alone, Samuel!” I scramble, lunging for the door so I can yank it shut again, but all at once, the sick pervert clamps one hand on my bicep and unclips my seat belt. A shriek rips free from my throat as he yanks me from the cab.
It’s clear he doesn’t care that I fall to my knees. “Get up,” he growls as he roughly jerks me back to my feet.
“Stop! Get your hands off me!” It’s then that I catch a glimpse of the crazy in his wicked gaze. He continues to wrench me along with him, and I purposely don’t make it easy on him. I tug and twist, trying my best to escape his clutches. I drag in a breath before shouting, “Let me go, you psycho!” as the rain soaks us, pelting down like needles hitting my skin.
“You’re comin’ with me, girlie. I’ll make sure your pretty mouth stays shut.” It’s then, looking into his wild eyes, that it becomes clear he means to hurt me.
Motherfucker.I haven’t survived everything I have just to be taken out by the likes of this smarmy, disgusting old man. I go limp, but he half-drags me toward his truck, the skin of my knees scraping along the road, forcing me to wince.
Adrenaline kicks in, and I scream, throwing my body weight around in his hold. I claw at him, anything to make whatever this fucker has planned more difficult.
Faintly—or maybe it’s wishful thinking—I hear Kade shouting my name.
When we reach Samuel’s truck, he treats me like nothing more than a rag doll, pulling me up and ramming me into the rear door. He’s breathing hard, like a rabid animal. Ruthless intent is clear in his cold-blooded stare. Despite my efforts to get away, he overpowers me and manages to grab both of my wrists with one hand. He pins them over my head, pressing his full weight against mewhile the other closes around my neck. His palm pushes down, cutting off my airway. And even in this hellish storm, I can tell that darkness is closing in at the edges of my vision as if it’s enveloping me.
Sage, don’t give up. You can’t give up.Not when everything you want is within reach.Thoughts of Kade and the love he’s shown me flick through my mind.You deserve every bit of it. You’re a survivor. Now, fight for it!
Scared to death and unwilling to allow this piece of shit to take everything from me, I call on the last bit of my strength that remains. And as the bastard shifts back so he can laugh in my face, I slam my knee upward with as much force as I can summon until it meets his sorry excuse for a dick and his wrinkly old ball sac.
He howls like I’ve mortally wounded him. I hope I have. His grip loosens on me, and I tear away before scrambling through the sheets of rain back to my truck and climb inside, the sounds of Samuel’s outraged pain carrying to me through the storm. And then, I slam the door, shutting it out.
“Sage!”
The frantic tone of Kade’s voice cuts me to the quick. Air gusting from my lungs in heavy breaths, I manage to pant, “Kade! I’m here. I’m okay.”
“Where. Is. He?” Kade bites out.
The soaked skin of my thighs squeaks on the seat as I shift to look behind me. “He’s on the road near his truck.”
“Good. I’m coming. I think I see your headlights in the distance.”
But then, my worst fear is realized. As I watch, Samuel slowly begins to move, climbing to his feet, his hands cupped over his dick as he gets back inside his truck. “Kade. He’s coming.”
“Hold tight, Wildflower. I’m almost there. Put your seat belt on and your foot on the gas.Go. And Sage, whatever happens…wait in the fuckin’ truck.”
KADE
32
My wipers slash backand forth, their frantic rhythm losing the battle against the storm’s fury. The whole world is a blur of water and headlights, and beneath it all, Sage’s voice rips through the crackling static of the call, jagged and raw.
“Fuck, Kade. He’s gonna?—”
Lightning splits the sky, carving the dark night into a stark black-and-white horror film—two sets of headlights up ahead, one predator, one prey. Sage’s truck fishtails wildly, its tires clawing at the potholed asphalt, water spraying up like blood from an open wound. Samuel isn’t simply chasing her. He’s herding her like fucking cattle. And then, I watch helplessly as he makes impact.
“Oh god, I can’t— Fuck!”
Her screams fill my cab as she loses whatever control she had left of her Chevy. The guardrails along the BlackRiver Bridge crumple like brittle bones, snapping apart in a spray of splintered wood and twisted steel. The metal wails—a sound that doesn’t just echo but claws its way inside my chest.
Sage’s truck launches over the edge, and Samuel’s right behind her. For a moment, the world holds its breath… then it exhales in ruin.
No. No. No. No. The word pounds against my skull, a brutal drumbeat of denial. I slam the accelerator, but the truck is a lumbering beast that chokes on its lack of power.
“Fuck!”
I yank the wheel, barely keeping from careening over the same edge.
I throw the door open, taking my keys with me, in case I need the safety tool dangling from it.
