But as I stood there sobbing, something happened. With everything stripped away from me, every hope gone, I found something deep inside me, something I’d never known I had. All those months of being yelled at in the call center had worn down the rest of me, but there was something right at my core, something tiny, that had hardened, instead. Hardened until it was like diamond.
I wasn’t going to let him have me. And once I decided that, there was only one way out.
I opened the window wide and looked down. Three floors onto paving stones. A quick death. Better than being his slave.
I stepped up onto the sill.
Ralavich banged on the door. “What are you doing in there?”
I took a long, deep breath—
And then, in that last moment of calm, I saw another way. I jumped down off the sill and slid under the bed.
I heard the door fly open and crash against the wall. I closed my eyes tight, trying to keep perfectly still. I imagined his gaze sweeping the room, then locking on the wide-open window. Please—
He raced to the window, his footsteps shaking the floor, and cursed in Russian. Then he ran back to the door and bellowed. “Alik!”
Feet pounded up the stairs. Alik. That must be the bodyguard I’d seen downstairs. I lay motionless, barely daring to breathe. I saw Alik’s feet run to the window and there was a hurried conversation in Russian. I could guess at the content, just from the amazement in Alik’s voice. She jumped?! And she survived? He ran off, Ralavich close behind him. There was shouting downstairs and an alarm started to wail.
I slowly let out my breath and slid from under the bed. I could hear shouted orders, running footsteps. I crept out into the hallway and peeked down the stairs. The club members were ushered into another room, out of the way. Security guards dressed in black flooded from a doorway and ran outside. In just a few moments, the main hall was deserted.
I had no time to change clothes. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run in the heels so I kicked them off and crept along the hallway barefoot. As I passed bedroom doors, I could hear sounds from inside. Wailing. Sobbing. My chest contracted. There were at least nine other women here, destined for Ralavich’s brothels in Russia. Maybe many more, if the other members had all bought women, too. I can’t just leave them here!
But I couldn’t help them now. I needed to escape and bring the cops. I forced myself to keep walking. Down the stairs. Across the massive hall, the marble ice-cold on my bare feet—
Footsteps. I ducked behind the grand piano.
“Why weren’t the windows locked?!” yelled Ralavich as he stormed in.
The head of the club walked alongside him, placating and just a little patronizing. “Mr. Ralavich, please. In all the years this club has been open, do you know how many escapes we’ve had? Zero. She probably broke both her legs in the fall and she’s crawled under some bush somewhere. It’s over a mile to the edge of the property and then she’d have to climb a ten-foot fence. We’ll have her back here in a few minutes.”
They passed into the next room. I crept over to the door and peeked outside. I could see flashlight beams sweeping back and forth as men searched the grounds. None of them were looking towards the mansion.
For now. Sooner or later, they’d figure out I wasn’t out there. Then someone would think to search the house and it would all be over.
Several cars were parked in the driveway. Keys. I needed keys. Heart thumping, I hurried to the room the security guards had run out of and peeked around the door. Empty. My stomach knotted when I saw a rack of guns: shotguns, rifles, handguns, all secured behind wire mesh. They were prepared for this. They’d kill me if they had to. Then I saw the little cupboard on the wall. Please don’t be locked—
It wasn’t. And it was full of chunky black keyfobs. I grabbed one at random and hurried back through the hall. I pressed the button on the keyfob and one of the cars outside flashed its lights. A few of the guards turned to look. I raced across the gravel driveway to the car, stones cutting into my bare feet, wrenched open the door, and threw myself into the driver’s seat.
A shout went up. Shit! I groped for the start button and the car came to life. But now guards were running across the gravel towards me. I stared frantically at the unfamiliar controls and tried to figure out how to shift into drive.
A guard wrenched the driver’s door open.
I shifted, stamped on the gas, and the car shot forward. I sped down the twisting driveway with the door still open and swinging wildly. Then the gates were looming up ahead of me, much bigger and sturdier than I remembered them. I suddenly remembered I wasn’t wearing a safety belt and yanked it into place.
I closed my eyes as I hit the gates. There was a sickening crunch and a jolt that rattled up through every vertebra of my spine, but then I was through and speeding along the road. Some weird sounds were coming from under the hood but for now, I was still going.
I reached the next junction and slowed to a stop, leaning forward over the steering wheel, panting in fear. Which way? Left led back to the highway and civilization...but it was late at night and there was nowhere to hide on the empty road. They’d run me down in minutes.
I looked the other way, into the blackness. The woods.
Headlights behind me: they were coming. I turned right and sped into the ocean of black. I took each turn I came to, driving down smaller and smaller roads until I was thoroughly lost, deep in the forest. But the headlights behind me kept creeping closer.
I rounded a corner and eyes gleamed in the darkness ahead of me. Before my brain had even fully registered deer, I’d wrenched the wheel to the side. Enormous pine trees loomed up to meet me.
This time, it wasn’t a crunch. It was a bang as the car slammed into a tree and stopped dead.
I must have blacked out for a second because the next thing I remember is lifting my face from the soft pillow of the airbag and hearing a car pulling up behind me.
I pushed open the driver’s door and ran into the woods, gasping as the chill night air breezed straight through my thin dress. Twigs and stones dug into my bare feet. Branches scratched at my arms. There was no path to follow. This was wild land, littered with fallen trees and loose branches, and the only light was from the moon.
I stumbled, went down, and scrambled to my feet, fear lending me speed. I ran until the air in my lungs felt like liquid fire, until my muscles screamed. But it was no good. I could hear the men crashing through the trees behind me, gaining fast.
They were going to catch me.
And way out here, there was no one to help me.
5
Cal
WE WERE maybe ten miles from home. We’d been hunting for the last couple of days, sleeping under the stars at night, and I was just thinking about finally heading back.
I should have been pleased. We’d done well on this trip, getting plenty of meat we could smoke and store. We wouldn’t starve, this winter.
But I had a gnawing, empty feeling inside: something was missing.
Stupid. I had everything I could need: food, a roof over my head, a dog for company.
But she slid into my mind, the memory seductive and irresistible. A lock of hair, soft as silk, brushing my chin. Big hazel eyes, a soft valley of pale cleavage peeking from beneath a cranberry sweater—
Goddammit! Every day. Every. Damn. Day. And even worse, every night, those pale curves haunting me until I was hard and frustrated as a teenager.
I’d lived out here a long time. This was my life, now, all I deserved. So why couldn’t I get her out of my head, when I knew damn well I couldn’t have her? I’d been doing fine until—
Until I realized what I was missing.
Don’t think that way!
And the truth was, I hadn’t been doing fine. Sure, being out here, away from people, helped keep the memories buried. But they were finding new ways of surfacing. The nightmares were back, and getting worse.
Rufus was snuffling in the grass, fluffy tail swishin
g. Suddenly, he went stock still and lifted his head to stare at the trees.
“What?” I asked. I followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything.
Rufus cocked his head to the side and sniffed the air, then gave a sudden, sharp woof!
“What? What is it?” I walked over to him and put a gentle hand on his back. He’d got the scent of something. A deer?
He inhaled noisily, nose twitching, and then suddenly he bolted. I lurched forward to grab him but he was gone, moving as fast as I’d ever seen him go. “Rufus!” I yelled. “Get back here!”
But he plunged into the trees. Goddammit! What was the matter with him? He knew better than to run off after a rabbit or a squirrel. “Rufus!”
He didn’t stop. I could hear him crashing through the undergrowth, going flat out. What the hell had he smelled?
I cursed and sprinted after him.
6
Bethany
I STAGGERED into a clearing and looked around wildly as I heaved for air. Everything looked the same! I couldn’t tell if I was following a straight line or running in circles and where was I going, anyway? I was deep in the woods, far from any roads, and even if I did find one, the chances of seeing a car I could flag down was practically zero.
A noise behind me made me spin around. Flashlight beams swept and lanced between the trees. I ran for the far side of the clearing but before I reached it, my legs finally buckled from exhaustion and I stumbled and went down. I clawed at the ground, fingers sinking into soft soil, and managed to get to my knees and crawl. But then I heard someone burst out of the trees behind me and suddenly I was pinned by a flashlight beam. I gave a choking, desperate sob and turned around. Three guards were running across the clearing towards me.
I slumped, panting. It was over.
Something sprang out of the trees behind me, charged across the clearing and stopped between the guards and me. And then it gave an almighty bark.
What?!
The flashlight beam found it. I caught a glimpse of black and tan fur and a powerful body. A dog. A German Shepherd, like Rufus—
Then I saw the faint scars on its legs. That is Rufus!
The guards started toward me. Rufus lowered his head, hackles rising. I’d never seen him in guard mode before. He bared his teeth, showing off just how long they were. His muscles coiled, ready to spring, and a noise came from his throat that I wouldn’t have believed he was capable of making, a growl that was like a knife being drawn slowly over the teeth of a chainsaw.
The guards cursed and stopped moving.
How is this possible? What was Rufus doing, all the way out here?
The guards were muttering to each other, discussing what to do. “Just shoot the fucking thing,” one of them said at last. Another reached for his gun.
I lurched forward, frantic, and threw my arms around Rufus. “No! Don’t hurt him!” My mind was still spinning, trying to catch up. How could Rufus be here?
Unless…
A voice filled the clearing. A voice heavy and rough as rock and filled with such raw, protective fury that the three guards froze instantly.
“Get the hell away from her!” growled Cal as he stepped from the trees.
7
Bethany
HE MARCHED across the clearing, unafraid and unhurried, each big stride taking him closer to the guards. As he passed me, he glanced down and the concern in his eyes made me catch my breath.
Then he looked at the guards and his jaw tightened. He kept marching towards them, putting himself between them and Rufus and me.
The flashlight beam moved to Cal and I saw the guards size him up. They looked at his plaid shirt and muddy jeans and I saw them roll their eyes. A local. Sure, he was big and he had a rifle, but it was slung on his back, and it was one against three. “This is nothing to do with you,” said one of the guards. His city accent sounded out of place, here.
“Get away from her,” Cal repeated, as if the guard hadn’t spoken. His voice was low, but it had an authority the guard could only dream of. He kept walking.
“You don’t want to get involved in this,” the guard told him. He sounded nervous, now. Cal wasn’t stopping and the closer he got, the more intimidating his size was. “So just turn around and wa—”
“Get away from her,” snapped Cal, cutting him off. “That’s three times I’ve told you.” He finally stopped, no more than ten feet from the guards, and just stood there in the flashlight beam. He was outnumbered three to one and yet while the guards shifted nervously from foot to foot, he stood there like a rock.
“You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know who we work for,” the guard told him.
“Don’t especially care,” rumbled Cal.
And then the guard made a mistake: he reached towards his holster.
It was like a magic trick. One second, Cal was just standing there, hands by his sides. The next, his rifle was up to his shoulder, leveled right at the guard’s head. The blood drained from the guard’s face. I gaped. Where did he learn to do that?
“Guns at my feet,” Cal said quietly. The barrel of his rifle didn’t waver even a millimeter as he spoke.
The guards looked at one another. Then, one by one, they pulled out their handguns and tossed them towards Cal’s feet.
“Take your boots off and walk back the way you came,” Cal told them.
The three guards pulled off their boots and backed up into the trees. “You got no idea what you’ve started,” said one of them. “The people we work for, they’ll come for her.”
Cal’s voice was like iron. “You give them a message. These are my woods and she’s under my protection. Anyone comes here and tries to take her, they’ll regret it.”
He kept the rifle pointed at them until they’d retreated into the darkness...and then he slowly lowered it and turned to me.
8
Bethany
HE SLUNG his rifle over his shoulder and squatted down so that he was almost at my eye level. “You okay?”
That voice again. Words you could cling to, like huge, heavy rocks. And then he extended his hand, and I slipped my freezing fingers around his big, warm ones and was hoisted up, just like the first time. And I felt it: that feeling I’d gotten just a hint of when I first met him, like something solid under my feet after hours of treading water. I felt safe, and it felt so good I almost cried. I nodded. “Thank you,” I said.
He looked away as if embarrassed and gave a quick, dismissive shake of his head. As if it was nothing, as if he would have done it for anyone. But when he met my eyes again, there was a protective heat there that warmed my entire body. “What happened?” he asked. “Why were they after you?”
I swallowed. “They were holding me. I escaped. This guy was going to—” My throat closed up and I couldn’t say it. “I need to call the cops. Can I use your phone?”
He shook his head. “Don’t have one. No signal out here, anyhow.”
I blinked at him. Who doesn’t have a phone? “Is there one around here I can use?”
He considered. “Nearest phone’s at Tucker’s Gas Station. But that’s about five hours’ hike.”
“How can we be five hours from a phone?!”
“This is the deep woods. Nothing out here but wild forest.”
I thought of the vast blackness I’d seen from the limo and my stomach flipped over. Rufus butted up against my legs, comforting and warm, and I stroked his head. “What are you two doing out here?”
“We live here.”
In the wilderness? Why would anyone choose to live here? “And the nearest phone is five hours’ walk?”
Cal nodded. “It’s that or go back to the road, but….”
I followed his gaze towards where the guards had disappeared. But that’s where they are. ‘Where are we?” I asked. “What state is this?”
He moved closer, looming over me, his eyes widening with concern. “You don’t know which state you’re in?!” He stared at me and his voice became gen
tle. “Idaho. You’re in Idaho.”
Idaho. My head spun. The limo had taken me east, not south. This was a part of the country I’d never been to. The few times I’d left Seattle, it had been to visit other cities. I looked around, turning a slow circle, and my brain went numb. It was just forest in every direction. There were no signs, no buildings arranged in neat, sensible grids. Even if I knew which direction to head, if I veered off course even a little, I could wander out here for days or weeks. I could actually starve to death out here.
I wasn’t in my world, anymore. I was in his.
I turned back to Cal. “Could you please...show me the way?”
9
Cal
I STARED at her, unable to speak. Then I looked away: at the trees, at the ground, anywhere except those big brown eyes. A war was going on in my mind.
It’s fate. If she hadn’t saved Rufus in Seattle, he’d never have recognized her scent.
Bullshit. I didn’t believe in fate. And the last thing I wanted was for her to think I was some sort of hero.
I had no choice, though. I couldn’t leave her out here. But, dammit, why did it have to be her? I’d spent years putting myself as far from people as I could and now I’d have to spend five solid hours with a woman I already couldn’t stop thinking about.
A woman I could never have.
I opened my eyes. Goddamn, she was beautiful. The moonlight was lighting up her dress, making it almost glow. It was like something a medieval princess would wear, all gauzy, thin enough that when the breeze flattened it against her legs, I could make out the lush curves of her thighs and ass. And up top, it had a square neckline that made me hold my breath every time I looked at it. The upper slopes of her breasts were revealed almost down to the nipples, the soft flesh pressed together and lifted as if I was cupping them in my hands….
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