Page 1 of Before Eve

PROLOGUE

Fear is an interesting thing.It makes weak people strong, strong people weak, frail people into just a shell of themselves, and numerous other scenarios. It’s how you finally emerge from the fear and take action that decides so much about your life.

CHAPTER 1

A shadow movesacross the peephole in my door. I imagine Grayson’s eyeball there, watching. I fight to control the shudder that wants to roll through me. Dread, fear, and anticipation swell inside when he opens the door.

The room shrinks as he glides inside. From my window seat, I stand, and with my hands folded gently in front of me, I submissively focus on the wood floor beneath my sandals.

He moves in close, and with a sigh, he runs a long-fingered hand over his salt and pepper, slicked-back hair. “Are you still mad at me about last week?”

I almost laugh. When has he ever cared if I’m mad? “No,” I whisper.

“You understand why it had to be done, right?”

I nod, recalling the pelvic exam he made me have.

Grayson reaches forward and tenderly takes both of my hands. “Look at me.”

The tenderness in his touch throws me off.

Slowly, I lift my eyes the length of his business suit, past our joined hands, across his smooth jaw, and up into his hazel gaze. In just a few hours, I’ll never have to look into his face again.

With an affectionate smile, he runs a manicured thumb over my knuckles. “You’re such a good girl, Laura. It pleases me that you’re willingly doing this.”

Willingly?

He presses a kiss to my cheek. “Tomorrow’s a big day. Get some rest. Noah Riley will be here first thing in the morning.”

I lie in my bed, every sense tuned as I stare at my bedside clock. 10:58. Grayson will turn the light out at 11:00, after one last check on me.

His footsteps pad down the hardwood floor of the hallway outside my room, and I fake the sleep he expects me to be in by now.

My door creaks open, and I inhale a deep restful breath, before letting it out slowly. He does not move from my doorway as he watches me, and I repeat the long breath in and again out slowly, praying that he’ll buy it.

“Sleep well,” he finally whispers.

My heartbeat rages as the door clicks closed, and I become certain it’s thrumming so loudly that he might hear it, too. I stare at the light glowing under my door, waiting, waiting,waitingfor it to go out.

Finally, it does.

By now my best friend, Brynn, is waiting for me on the other side of the woods in the exact direction Grayson hopefully won’t think I’ll run.

11:06.

It’s time.

I roll out of bed, and before I slide my window open and set off the silent alarm, I double-check the exterior cameramounted over my window that I moved a careful inch away. Good, it’s still in the position I put it in.

Two stories below, bushes will—with any luck—pad my landing. I hope I don’t break anything. It doesn’t matter. Even if I do, I’m still going to run.

I take a deep breath, and before I give myself any more time to think, I flip the lock on my window, slide it up, and jump. With a soft grunt, I land butt first in the bushes. My bare feet hit the wet grass, and I take off running, using only the limited moonlight to see by.

Behind me, the silent alarm switches to a loud buzz and all the exterior lights flick on. Adrenaline kicks in and I tear into the woods. Branches whip across my skin as I thrash my way to freedom. In the distance, Grayson yells and the sound of his anger propels me to what feels like light speed.

A quarter mile later and gasping for breath, I leap over a downed tree and burst from the woods onto the gravel back road. Brynn’s car sits idling, her lights off and the back door already open and waiting. I dive in, and without a word, she drives off.

A few miles down the road, she turns her lights on. “No one’s following us.”