River
Howlers MC
Book 3
She hummed as she went about her morning routine of washing her face, dressing in something warm and comfortable before making a modest breakfast of bacon and eggs. Sometimes she added toast, but not this time. She stood at the sink and drank hot coffee as snow began falling outside her window. This was perfect, everything she’d always wanted and it was all hers.
She let out a breath and decided to stack some of her firewood on the little front porch so she wouldn’t have to trudge through the snow for it later. She looked at her heavy boots that stood by the door and then down at her thin-soled slippers. She should pull the boots on, but she wasn’t going far.
She shrugged and pulled open her heavy door, it was just made of rough wood, but it had charm and it was sturdy. She didn’t care for fine things anymore, never really had, she liked simple best.
She stepped out onto her porch and froze. There he sat, in her favorite split bottomed rocker.
Benjamin Rockton.
The man that had haunted her dreams for twelve years. The man that had been her task master, her torturer, her husband.
He was dressed in a perfectly pressed suit that she knew had cost more than most people made in a year. His hair was styled perfectly to hide the slight thinning along the crown of his head and his face was tanned just enough to look handsome without looking like he’d actually had any fun.
He was the picture of elegant business man and he was the devil himself.
She shook with fear as he stood.
Ben wasn’t a large man, smaller than average in every way, but it wasn’t his size that made him dangerous. It was the size of his bank accounts.
“Well, look what I’ve found. Seven months, three weeks, and two days. That is how long you have inconvenienced me. That is how long you have disappointed me and even embarrassed me.” He shook his head in disappointment. “Hello Dara.”
She couldn’t speak. She wanted to argue that Dara wasn’t her name, but she couldn’t remember what it really was anymore. She wanted to scream, fight, but she knew he would hurt her if she got too close, she knew the ways he would hurt her.
She took a step back, but caught movement out of the corner of her eye. He’d brought his guards with him, his dogs. The men who had watched, laughed, cheered him on as he’d tortured her. The men who had stood guard as he’d loaned her out, used her and hurt her more than any person should endure.
She’d seen the lust in their eyes. She knew that in a way, Ben protected her from them. He’d always told her so and she believed him. He’d always told her that he would allow them to hunt her if she ran away, but that had been a lie.
She’d gotten away from him and she’d been so careful, but he’d found her.
Ben reached for her and she shrunk away. She would never go back, never.
She saw him look away and took that second to run. She jumped over the railing of the porch, slipped between two of his guards and into the dense forest. They would track her, she knew it, but it would take time. The cold worked in her favor as did the snow that now fell in heavy sheets.
She heard cursing and heavy footsteps, but she knew he wouldn’t allow them to chase her in the fur. He didn’t trust them not to kill her.
She ran until her feet ached and cursed herself for not slipping on the heavy boots.
“Always trust yourself.” She whispered as she felt a rock cut deep into her foot.
She didn’t dare stop to look at the damage and prayed the blood wouldn’t soak through to leave a trail.
She knew where a deep ravine was, knew that if she could reach it she would throw herself over the edge rather than go back to the hell she had lived for too long.
Nothing mattered.
Time fell away as she ran for her life, ran from the monsters that had filled her life for too long.
The days were shorter, if she could last until dark…
If she could just last until dark.