I yanked off the cloth that covered my face in my pursuit of freedom. I stumbled down the porch step, but it didn’t stop me from the beginning of the chase.
I took off as fast as my legs would take me. My calves burned, but I didn’t care. I refused to slow down or cower to Sergio, or any man who thought he could own me.
I was not a piece of property.
It was still dark outside, and my feet tore over the rough gravel of the thick forest.
I wished more than anything I had on my boots—something to protect the bottoms of my feet. I ran over branches and leaves, thistles, and rocks.
Everything that littered the forest floor was crunched beneath my weight as I made a beeline away from the property.
I had no idea where I was headed, only that I needed to get help.
I hadn’t so much as turned around or slowed to glance back at Sergio.
He hadn’t chased me, and during that brief moment I found it strange and almost unsettling, I couldn’t slow down.
I wasn’t going to give him time to catch up to me if he intended to put running shoes on or change clothes. I didn’t have the slightest idea why he let me run, but I wasn’t going to second guess the decision.
Sure, there were bear in the woods. Grizzlies. The meanest and most deadly creatures. Possibly wolves too. I wasn’t quite sure about all the wild beasts in the forest.
I hadn’t lived in Breckenridge that long, and I sure didn’t grow up around here.
I couldn’t think about what lay beyond the forest, sleeping, or foraging for food. The only way to survive had been to escape.
Was I free?
My chest ached with a screaming intensity that made my eyes burn and tear.
Slowing down would get me killed.
I’d felt this pain before, like my chest was being crushed. Agony.
I didn’t slow. I wasn’t dying. It wasn’t a heart attack. Sure, I had issues that made my heart quite literally skip a beat. Thanks to tachycardia and the autonomic dysfunction I was plagued with, it felt like hell.
But it wouldn’t actually kill me.
Right?
I’d made sure to take my medication twice a day. I’d been religious with the routine, never missing a dose because when I did, it would tear me down, disrupt my life even the next day.
While I’d missed a dose, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I hadn’t been in fight-or-flight mode. Running for my life wasn’t helping alleviate any of my symptoms.
Beyond anything, I wish I had my phone to call Jaxson.
Wincing, I remembered Delphine was coming into town tonight.
Shit.
Would she forgive me for not picking her up at the airport? We were finally reconnecting, and I ditched her ass.
That’s what she’d say.
I could already hear her nagging tone and a look of disapproval.
Refusing to slow, I kept running through the forest. Would I reach a road, a house, some sign of civilization?
Breckenridge may have been a small town, but I’d end up there eventually, right?