Page 29 of Cruel Romeo

As I look behind my shoulder, I spot movement near the house. My heart skips a beat when I realize who it is.

Shit times two.

Petyr is looking around, searching for something. If I don’t make myself scarce in the next five seconds, he’s gonna notice me. And then?—

Chains. Bedpost. Babies.

Lots and lots of stubble-covered, Playboy-ripped, glow-in-the-dark-eyed babies.

Nuh-uh. No fucking way.

I start climbing faster, but it’s the wrong thing to do. My foot slips again, scraping against something sharp, and this time, the fall isn’t gentle. I hit the ground hard, knock my teeth, jar my knees.

Shit, shit, shit!

Pain explodes in my legs. In my everything, really. The scrape on my foot is shallow, but do I really want to risk tetanus and lockjaw?

I glance back. This time, Petyr and I lock eyes.

And then he’s coming.

I throw myself at the gate again, heedless of whatever infectious diseases this iron trap might hold. If it gets me out of here, I’m more than willing to blow the rest of my savings on an ER trip and a bus ticket to nowhere.

I get a little higher than before, but then my gaze darts past my shoulder again, and that’s when my grip closes around empty air. I slam back down, breath knocked right out of my lungs.

He’s in the car now. The headlights jolt awake, the engine roars to life. If that’s how he’s coming for me, five seconds won’t be enough.

I leap up one last time, desperate. My palms scrape against the metal as I scramble up, legs kicking for purchase. But this time, I’m climbing,finally, one rung after the other, the moon suddenly closer than the ground.

Just one more step.I strengthen my hold on the bars, squint up at the last black rung that’ll seal my way to freedom.One more?—

And then Petyr’s hands grip me around the ankles.

I lose my footing. Permanently. I fall backwards, and this time, I know that the ground isn’t going to be kind to me, that I’m going to break something. Everything, most likely.

Until I feel strong arms catching me around the waist.

I only get one short moment of relief for that before I remember what just happened.Whocaught me.

And who dragged me down in the first place.

“Let me go!” I scream, thrashing in Petyr’s grip.

He sets me down. The second he does, I spin and bolt again. But he catches me just as fast, hauls me up like I weigh nothing, and doesn’t give me the courtesy of answering my pleas this time.

Instead, he throws me over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

“Help!” I start yelling, though I realize the chances of being heard are slim-to-none. “Somebody help me! I’ve been kidnapped! Somebody?—”

“Will you just shut the fuck up?” Petyr growls into my ear.

When I keep squirming, he delivers a sharp smack to my backside. The shock freezes me for a second, my breath catching. A strange tingle spreads across the offended cheek, something warm and quiet and almost… not painful.

He takes advantage of my distraction to chuck me into the passenger seat. By the time I’m back to thrashing and screaming, it’s pointless.

I’m caught.

The car door shuts with a heavythud.I stare straight ahead as he rounds the hood and gets behind the wheel, fury and humiliation burning hot behind my eyelids.