Chapter 3

Cam overcorrected and felt her car start to slide to the left. She thanked every god she could think of that there was no one else on the road. “Please, oh please,” she whispered brokenly. It couldn’t be him. It had to be just another driver that was fighting the crazy weather.

This time the bump was even more forceful and she fishtailed in response. She swallowed a scream and gripped the wheel. She’d have to speed up a little. Her entire body clenched as she saw the turn too late. Her car slid into a one eighty, then a three sixty turn as she pulled at the wheel.

She watched the world blur as trees and road converged into a crazy tilt-a-whirl ride. And as fast as her world spun it shuddered to a jarring stop as her door collapsed in on her as metal met tree. Her neck snapped back and her airbag blew into her face. She screamed as the car came for her from the front and the gentle but deliberate pin of her car into the rockfacing. He pushed her with the powerful engine of the Mercedes until she had nowhere to go.

The steep hillside of rock and dirt butted up against the back of her car and a massive oak on her left. And through it all her wipers clicked back and forth, keeping her vision clear of the man who would rather kill her than lose her. His deep set, dark eyes seemed even blacker. The sculpted planes of his cheekbones and jaw made dark hallows that made his patrician good looks seem menacing and the even white teeth he was so proud of were bared like an animal.

She reached for her purse and dug for her pen. She couldn’t get out of her own way with the airbag practically pinning her back. With shaking fingers she jammed her Pilot fine tip into the thick material and cried out as the powder inside burned her hands.

She heard the engine roar and Lucas backed up and she screamed as he rammed her car. He backed up again and she scrambled back but it was too late, metal crunched into metal and the bloom of pain was awesome as her legs were crunched by the dash. Plastic cracked and shards dug deep into her thighs.

Panic and fear bubbled together until all she could hear was the white noise of terror in her head with an almost surreal backdrop of “You Give Love a Bad Name,” playing on the still working radio.

She felt the hysteria building as Lucas got out of his car. She had to get out. Had to get out of the car. “Think, Cameron!” she shouted. She pushed at the wheel and flipped up the tilt so she could move a bit. And with that she realized her seat wasn’t all the way back and for the first time she was thankful she was so short. She managed to get her hand down the left side of her and released the lever and moaned as the plastic ripped down her legs. She could feel the gush of blood, but didn’t care.

Lucas was at the passenger door, but she pressed the locks. That side of the car wasn’t touched. Dammit! That was going to be her escape. She watched as he went back to his car and to the trunk. Shit! She adjusted her seatback so it was lying flat and swore as her seatbelt kept her firmly in her seat. Thankfully the buckle gave easily and she crawled to the back. A spider web of broken glass was the only thing holding her in the car. She dug into her suitcase for the heavy metal frame she’d packed so carefully and cracked the corner into the glass.

She turned around and Lucas was back, a tire iron in his hand. “Fuck!” she felt the window give just as glass shattered from her right.

“Don’t make this more difficult on yourself, Cameron. Just come home with me, where you belong.”

“Fuck you!” she screamed and snagged her purse and shimmied out the window. She felt the supposedly shatterproof glass rip at her coat and the handle of her purse as she shimmied out the window. She reached for a tree branch on the hillside and scratched through the dirt to climb out. She found roots and rocks and kicked wildly when she felt his hand wrap around her ankle.

She heard his curse as her the thick block heel of her boot caught him. She swung out again and heard his howl of outrage as she hit him square in the face. Using his body for momentum she managed her way out of the car. Rain and ice had made for an unsteady climb but she was determined to live.

There was no way this man was going to take her back to the city. She heard him call her name into the howling wind, but didn’t dare look back, only stupid women in movies looked back. She climbed and climbed until she could just make out the top of the hill.

She could see the blazing lights of a cabin along the water and headed for it. Stumbling on the exposed roots of the road she crawled her way to the path that led to the water. Her breath was coming in gasps as she fought the trees and shrubs that were once so beautiful. Right now, all they did was keep her back and she cursed the postcard loveliness of the grounds.

She slid down the gravel path, grabbing onto trees and branches as she skated down the icy incline. The only thing that she could focus on was the light ahead in the cabin. The night was silent save for the wind and the rain…had she lost him?

She finally allowed herself to turn back and the dense forest of trees and shrubs in deeper tones of shadow was all she could see. And when she heard the peel of tires in the distance she started running again. When her boots hit the rocky beach she heaved in deep breaths and the warm yellow light grew closer, expanding into the cabin she’d admired along the water.

Her legs gave out just as she hit the steps to the porch. God, no, not this close, please….you can do it Cam, just a little farther. Black dots swam before her eyes just as the light grew brighter and she saw the shadow of a man before the world went dark.