Page 49 of Bound to a Killer

Her words spur heat in my veins, and I have to bite my tongue so I won’t lash out and burn the small bridge between us. As misguided as they are, they aren’t intent on hurting me, and I want to keep it that way.

She bites the inside of her cheek for a moment, her eyes glazing over like she’s being transported somewhere far away. “My father was a cop.”

I hold a breath inside my lung as she speaks.

“You aren’t the only one who’s been hurt.” She turns away, her head twisted down to look at the stained wood. My insides clench. “Except, unlike you, I did go to the police. They turned me away. Buried my case.”

I stay quiet, my mind racing.Why would they do that?

“My rapist was my father.”

Shock spreads through me as my mouth parts in a silent gasp. My eyes freeze on her as the weight of that reveal sinks in, echoing endlessly in my head.

Her own dad. A police officer. Rapist.

Suddenly, the anger I’ve harbored toward her dissipates and I reach a certain kind of understanding. This isn’t about me.

Nothing I can say now will change her mind. That resignation sealed her in place. And I get it now. She’s far too wounded to see it any differently.

The abrupt ring of her phone cleaves through the silence, and we both flinch. She fumbles for her phone, her cheeks still drained of color from what was said.

She answers, holding the speaker to her ear. “Ledger?”

Ledger.

My heart lurches at the name. If Tanner’s the blonde, then that means…he’s Ledger.

“Slow down, what happened?” Her brows knit as the pause stretches, only Frankie hearing the other side of the call.

A rush of anxiety scatters across my chest. I watch her eyes spin a story. The fear is masked, but it’s there. I catch it in every flicker of her lashes, every slight widening of her eyes.

Something’s gone wrong. The weight of what’s unspoken presses me down in a suffocating death grip as I wait.

She hangs up, her fingers trembling as she lifts her gaze to me.

“We need to leave.”

15

ARIA

Igaze at Frankie, taking in her frantic movements as she paces the length of the cabin. Her brows are furrowed as she scans the place again. She’s already put out the fire, but she seems stuck in a loop, searching for something I’m not privy to. The soles of her shoes plod across the wood as her head swoops while she murmurs to herself.

It doesn’t matter what she’s looking for, because this moment is perfect. She’s no longer paying attention to me, which means now is my chance to try and loosen the knot around my hands. I did it once before. I can do it again.

Keeping my eyes ahead, I watch her as she scurries around the vicinity in yet another lap, and I work my wrists against the rope, twisting carefully until I manage to get the tiniest bit of slack. Perfect.

She crouches near the worn leather couch. Then a sharp exhale lets me know she’s found what she’s looking for as she comes back up with a duffle bag in her grasp. As she’s unzipping it, she takes hurried steps back to the table crammed in the corner, and raises a knee to balance the bag on as she usesthe crook of her arm to shuffle the rest of the water bottles and food packets inside.

As I continued to rotate my wrists in slow, measured movements, Frankie finishes up loading the bag, then turns to look at me. My hands freeze.

“Come on, I think he’s here,” she says from across the room.

Then I hear it, the sound of tires screeching across gravel, and my heart soars to such an extreme that it’s all I hear for a minute. Seconds later, a single honk jolts us both into action, her rushing to the door with the duffle bag strapped across her chest, and me as I quickly twist the ropes taut so they won’t bring attention to themselves.

Her eyes flick back to me, eyebrows arched like she can’t believe I didn’t hear her the first time. “Hurry up, we don’t have all day.”

The static in my ears amplifies. She shoots me another look that in any other circumstance would irk me, but I decide to swing my legs off the mattress when she takes a half-step toward me, quickly deciding I don’t want her to get a close-up view of the ropes.