A sick feeling ballooned in my stomach.
He was delusional. Beyond delusional.
He said he loved me, but what he was doing wasn’t love.
Love was accepting me for who I was, flaws and all.
Love was believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.
Love was quiet moments and soft kisses, breathless exhilaration and rough hands all rolled into one.
Love was what Christian gave me.
He’d crossed boundaries and kept secrets, but he would never do this. He would never drug me or intentionally hurt me.
I knew I should play along until I could escape, but even the thought of pretending to want to be with Julian made me want to vomit.
“Julian…” I looked him in the eye.
He smiled, his face bright with sick anticipation.
“I would rather die than be with you.”
I headbutted him as hard as I could.
His howl of pain ricocheted through the cabin.
Lights washed across my vision at the force of the impact, but I didn’t have time to waste. I slammed my wrists down as hard as I could behind me until the frayed rope snapped against the protrusion.
Luckily, Julian hadn’t tied my legs, and I stumbled to the door. I almost made it before strong hands yanked me back.
I hit the floor with a thud.
Julian pinned me to the ground and manacled my wrists above my head.
“Let go of me!” I struggled against his hold.
“You’re mine,” he said calmly, like we were at a picnic in the park and he wasn’t holding me hostage. “It’ll be so much easier if you give in, Stella. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I couldn’t keep struggling forever. My energy was already fading, my muscles sore and my thoughts jumbled with panic.
I turned my head a fraction to the right, and my breath hitched when I saw my purse lying a few feet away.
My taser.
I always kept it on me. If I could only reach it…
Julian followed my gaze and chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry about your taser. I took the batteries out. I—” His sentence cut off with another, more animalistic howl when I took advantage of his distraction, sank my teeth into his neck, and tore.
The wet, sickening sound of flesh tearing ripped through the air.
His grip slackened. I shoved him off to crawl toward the entrance.
I didn’t look behind me. My stomach turned at the metallic blood in my mouth, but I didn’t have time to dwell on my disgust.
I reached for the doorknob and used it to pull myself up…
A scream of frustration scraped up my throat when Julian dragged me back again. He slammed me face-first into the wall next to the door.
Pain exploded in my head. My vision crackled and fizzed like the static on an old TV.
“You disappoint me, Stella.” Menace twisted Julian’s grunt into something dark and sinister. The blood from his neck wound dripped onto my skin and burned like acid. “I was trying to be nice. I thought you understood. If I can’t have you…” The press of his gun against the underside of my chin sent an icy splash of fear down my spine. “No one can.”
I let out a small cry when he wrenched my head back. The gun was cold, but his breaths were hot and sinister against my neck.
“Maybe you’re beyond saving. You’ve been ruined. But that’s okay. We can be together in our next life.” He kissed my neck. A shiver of disgust rippled down my spine. “We’re soulmates. Soulmates always find their way back to each other.”
He cocked the gun.
Pain and terror dissolved into numbness. I closed my eyes, not wanting this cabin to be the last thing I saw before I died.
My breaths slowed as I mentally retreated to my safest place.
Whiskey eyes. Warm murmurs. Leather and spice.
Silent tears dripped my cheeks.
Time slowed as snippets of my life passed through my mind. Dressing up as Bratz dolls with my friends for Halloween, assembling puzzles with Maura, family vacations to the beach, posting my first blog post, calls with Brady and afternoons in cafes and photoshoots by the water…and Christian.
Of all the people I’d miss most, he took the top spot.
I love you.
A loud gunshot rattled my eardrums.
I flinched and waited for the burst of pain, but it never came.
Instead, I heard the slam of a door, followed by shouts and a violent rush of air as Julian’s body was yanked off mine.
My eyes flew open, and I watched, stunned, as half a dozen men poured into the cabin with guns in hand.
One of them subdued Julian easily while the others swept the space.
Everything happened so quickly I was still standing by the door when a warm, familiar presence touched the side of my neck.
It can’t be.