Page 34 of Depraved

A relieved sob heaves from my chest when I find the front door.

Chill air kisses my flushed cheeks, and I sprint away from the manor.

The silver sports car is parked in the driveway, but I don’t have the key. I don’t dare go back to grab it from Rand’s jeans pocket.

I have to escape before he recovers from the blow to his head.

There has to be another house not too far away. The estate looks deserted except for the sheep that dot the green hills, but I can’t be more than a few miles away from another person.

I hope.

My sharp breaths saw in and out of my lungs, but I don’t slow my sprint. I’m grateful for the years of running that have conditioned me to survive this madness.

Open fields stretch to the horizon to my left, but a thick patch of ancient forest waits to my right. I decide to conceal myself amongst the trees as I make my way farther from the manor, farther from the monster who tried to take me captive.

“Karolina!” He bellows from the direction of the house.

My heart hammers against my ribcage. He’s coming for me.

I put on an impossible burst of speed and dart past the tree line.

As I duck branches and race through the woods, it’s a sick perversion of the night I indulged in the kinky hunt. This time, it’s not a game. If he catches me, I won’t have a hope of escape. He’s too strong.

And I have no idea what he might to do me. I hurt him. I made him bleed.

He’s sworn to protect me from other men who threaten me.

But who will protect me from him?

Me. There’s only me.

I’ll do whatever it takes to save myself.

I crash through the brush, not daring to slow down even though I know he can probably track me with every cracking branch beneath my feet. No to mention the nauseating tracker he injected beneath my skin. I’ll have to cut it out at the first opportunity, but for now, my priority is getting to another person who will help me.

I’m making so much noise that I don’t hear him closing in.

Just like on the night of the hunt, he’s managed to outrun me. He’s far too quick and far too quiet.

He barrels into me, and a scream tears from my chest.

My fingers curve into claws. I blindly rake at his face as his weight takes me down.

He ignores the sting of my nails on his cheek, turning our bodies so that his takes the brunt of the impact with the forest floor.

Then he flips us, and he’s pinning me with his naked body. His big hands encircle my wrists, trapping them above my head.

“Get off me!”

I writhe and curse at him, but he doesn’t relent.

“Calm down,” he growls. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

I bark a maddened laugh. “You’re hurting me!”

“No, I’m not.” He refuses to see sense.

I snap my head forward in an attempt to smash my skull against his nose. He reels back just in time.