“He broke down the cabin door. He knew I was in there. He’d seen the ropes on the back seat of your vehicle earlier this morning. My father has offered up a reward to get me back, and he wanted the money. I escaped, and he chased me into the woods. He caught me and held me down, and tried to...” She glanced away and swiped at her eyes. “But I managed to stab him with the poker before he could go too far.”
“He was going to rape you?”
She nodded.
Anger and jealousy burned bright inside me. I lifted my foot and kicked his heavy, cooling body. “Fucking prick.”
I was hardly innocent myself, but she wasn’t to know that.
I put out a hand to help her up. She looked at it mistrustfully for a moment and then slid her fingers across my palm. I tightened my grip and pulled her to her feet.
“Did he hurt you anywhere else?” I asked her
She shook her head. “I told you, I’m fine. But he said my father’s got people all over the country who are looking for me. It’s not going to be easy to evade them.”
I frowned down at her. “You really don’t want him to find you, do you?”
“I already told you I didn’t. I wasn’t lying.”
I considered this for a moment and then jerked my head in the direction we’d come. “Come on, let’s go back to the cabin.”
She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know how safe it is. He had a mobile phone on him, but he said he hadn’t told anyone of my location. He was going to call and say he’d found me, but I managed to convince him not to.”
“Good thinking. The cabin might still be safe then.”
“Isn’t it safer if we move?”
“Possibly, yes, but we can’t go anywhere until the courier my brother has sent shows up. We need that passport if we’re going to get you out of the country.”
It felt as though everything had swung around, and now, I was helping her. She’d got what she’d wanted. Smart girl. Yes, I was helping her, but I was also punishing her father by taking her away from him.
She took a couple of steps and winced, sucking air in over her teeth. I frowned and glanced down to see she’d left bloodied footprints behind her.
“I thought you said you were fine.” My tone was accusatory.
“I am. I just cut my foot. It’s not a problem.”
“It will be a problem if it gets infected. That’s the last thing we need.”
I wasn’t about to let her walk through the forest, barefooted and injured. Without giving her time to protest, I ducked down and scooped her up into my arms.