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LIA

I grunted when the man carelessly threw me on the hardwood floor of the cabin.

Everything ached. My body felt like it was one big bruise, from my twisted ankle to my wrists, when the big fucker tackled me on the ground, to my face from when he slapped me.

I pushed to a sitting position and watched the two men stand nearby, leering down at me. They had turned on the lights when we arrived at the cabin, offering a full view of their faces for the first time. There were no masks, no trying to hide from me. I could only think of one reason for that—they didn’t plan on letting me go.

“What do you want?” I asked.

They looked at each other, laughed, and turned back to me. I had never been more afraid of a laugh than I was then.

“Nothing, girl,” the bald one answered. “We just want to have some fun.”

I shook my head. “Why are you doing this?”

“Do we need a reason?” he asked, smiling wide and showing his teeth.

No, they didn’t need a reason, but why didn’t this feel random?

They had the keys to the cabin. No one was supposed to know I was here, and yet it felt like they did know. That they had come all the way out here for me, like…

I couldn’t even bring myself to think about that.

“Leave me alone,” I said when they took a step closer to me, then another, closer still.

I kicked my legs out, catching the other man on his knee. Not that it looked like it had done any good.

He smiled like he was enjoying the fight. I was going to be sick.

The bald one knelt down and grabbed my ankles. I struggled harder, but it was no use. He pulled me toward him as the other one grabbed my wrists and pressed them down onto the hard floor, enough that it hurt.

I cried out as one of them got on top of me. I didn’t know which one at that point and didn’t care to know. He let his body weight down.

“Fuck!” I screamed out.

One of them laughed. “Go ahead and scream and fight, girl. We like it when they do.”

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I turned my face to the side when I felt his hot breath close to my skin, his lips pressed against my cheek, moving down and biting my neck hard.

I flexed my arms, trying to get out of the man's grasp, struggling to get away.

I didn’t know what to do.

What could I do?

I bit the inside of my cheek. I wasn’t going to give them any satisfaction by screaming out again or, worse, begging.

They were right. There wasn't anyone around to hear me scream, no one around to help me, and I would rather die than beg them.

My body convulsed in disgust when I felt large hands pawing at my breasts, then my shirt.

His hands moved underneath, pressing down on my bare skin.

There was no escaping this.

I shut my eyes tight and hoped for it to end quickly. Or for something—anything—to happen, for me to be knocked out cold so I wouldn’t have the memory of what was about to occur.

Just…

Shouts echoed in my mind. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t happening inside my thoughts but outside.

And as if by magic, the weight seemed to have been lifted off me.

I took in a huge gasp of air and sat up, looking around and trying to make sense of what was happening.

It didn’t work. My mind was in a jumble, and I obviously got my wish granted. I was dreaming. Perhaps one of them got too rough with me and knocked me out cold, and now I was dreaming about Mael being here.

Mael was fighting off the men.

Mael had always seemed larger than life and capable, but this?

I didn’t react when Mael punched the bald guy in the face, knocking him down. He wasn’t out cold from the punch, but it was hard enough for him to stay on the ground, giving Mael enough time to deal with the other guy.

Mael easily dodged the man’s arms, twisting around and kicking him on the side. The man stumbled back and hit the wall with a loud thud.

What was going on?

He recovered quickly and came at Mael, his fist raised. But Mael had been expecting that and obviously knew what he was doing because despite the man being bigger than him, he was slower and not as skilled.

Mael hit him on the side of his face, wrapping his arms around the man’s waist and pushing him back against the wall before he could recover. The man tried to throw Mael off by punching down his back, and even though I could hear the force of each hit, it didn’t seem to have any effect on Mael. He continued to corner the guy, hitting him over and over again until he was too tired to do anything.

Mael grabbed a fistful of the man’s hair, pulling back and banging his head against the wall. Blood gushed out from behind him, and I didn’t know how the man had bled, only that he had.

The man blinked slowly before he slid to the floor. That was when I noticed a nail protruding out of the wall, which was why Mael had pushed him toward it. Did Mael just…

Did Mael just kill the man?

The bald man had taken that time to recover, now sneaking up on Mael with a knife. And that was what pulled me out of my reverie.

“Mael!” I screamed just as the bald man rushed forward. Mael turned around in time and managed to knock the knife out of his hands.

The man grunted when Mael tackled him to the floor, crawling on top of his body and grabbing the knife, pointing it straight at the man’s nose.

The bald man froze, holding his hand up.

Mael looked over at me, his blue eyes glowing dark.

They seemed to assess me, his expression getting darker and darker over every injury he could see.

He moved the knife down and pressed it against the man’s cheek, causing him to squeal just as blood dripped down from the side of his face.

I flinched, trying to keep the nausea at bay as Mael tsked. “You know, my baby didn’t even make this much sound while you and your friend were holding her down.”

His baby?

Me. He was talking about me. I shook my head and tried to back away from the scene unfolding in front of me… trying to back away from Mael.

My eyes moved over to the prone body against the wall. There had been no hesitation in Mael’s movements. No regret. He knew what he was doing.

Mael wasn’t just a stalker.

He was a killer.

What had I gotten myself into?

I backed away even more, no longer wanting to see how Mael dealt with the man. I didn’t care that they had hurt me and that they might even deserve it. I didn’t care about anything except just getting away from there.

I stood up on shaky legs when my back hit the wall. I turned slowly and walked toward the bedroom, going faster when the man’s screams got louder, and faster still until I was in the room, and the door was closed and locked behind me. The man’s screams continued. Tears streamed down my face. My legs gave out, and I fell to the floor, my back against the door as I closed my eyes and pressed my hands against my ears, hoping that would block everything out.

It didn’t work.

The scream reached its peak before it was swiftly cut off.

I flinched from the sudden silence, more tears running down my cheeks. I didn’t know which was worse: the scream in agony or the pure, unadulterated silence that followed, cutting through the air like a sharp knife.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, knowing there was nothing I could do.

I tried to focus on my breathing.

Just breathe. It’s okay.

It’s okay.

It’s okay.

It’s not okay.

Footsteps sounded over the hardwood floor, approaching the door to the room I was currently in. The doorknob turned gently, but I had already locked it. I didn’t think it would stop Mael… I knew it wouldn’t.

He didn’t try to break in.

“Lia.”

I shook my head at the sound of his voice.

“Open the door for me.”

“S-So you can k-kill me too?” I asked.

A small thud hit against the wooden door. He didn’t say anything for a long second. Then, “Do you really believe I could do that? That I would even be capable of it?”

I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

For a brief moment, when I realized Mael was here and that those two men wouldn’t be able to hurt me again, I was relieved. But this?

Was this the price that needed to be paid for him to save me?

Two lives?

Besides my mom, I had never seen someone die before.

I had never seen someone be killed.

“I couldn’t hurt you,” he breathed out, but I didn’t know if I believed him. Because watching him with those men? I knew it wasn’t the fact that he killed them, but that I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t do the same thing to me… someone he had held in his arms so softly before.

“Just leave me alone,” I begged. “Leave me alone.”

I raised my fists and pounded them against the floor.

“Okay,” he finally responded. “I’ll leave you alone… for now.”

I strained my ears when I thought I heard him walk away.

I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. I knew from everything he had said to me before, as both Mael and my stalker, that he wouldn’t let me go. He proved it by showing up at this cabin, even if it was obvious I had been trying to run away from him.

I lay down with my cheek pressed against the floor and looked out through the bottom crack of the door.

I saw Mael’s black boots walking around in a strange pattern.

He was far away from the door, so at least that was something.

Until I realized why he was walking around like that, when one of the bodies came into view, and Mael effortlessly dragged it away.

I felt my heart stop as nausea worked its way up my throat.

I was going to be sick.

I took a deep breath, hoping to keep the feeling at bay.

Then an arm suddenly fell down in my view.

Nope.

I got up. Luckily, there was an en suite bathroom built inside the room, and I got there just in time to expel what little dinner I had a few hours before. Tears stung my eyes, and I felt so goddamn miserable and hopeless, I didn’t know what to do anymore.

There was no way out. No more. Mael wasn’t careless, and he wouldn’t let me run away from him a second time.

And I was now trapped inside this house with him.