Page 12 of Ghost

Mind over matter, Malyshka.

I know, Alexei.

The cold air burned her nostrils but she didn’t slow.If she lost momentum, she’d roll all the way down.

Advancing footsteps crunched behind her.Shit.

She reached the top and barreled down the other side without searching for an opening.Just missing a tree, she staggered onto a narrow path.Pine trees provided some coverage, but no other foliage shielded her.

He didn’t say a word.Didn’t shout.Didn’t shoot.He was in silent, strategic pursuit.The hunter after its prey.

For a moment she was back in the frigid Siberian Mountains.

Her toe caught a tree root and her knees hit the slope.She grunted as her face skidded against the ground and her ass went over her head.And then she rolled.Down, down, down.

She braced for impact, her muscles taut as she fought to tuck her head.Without the use of her arms—

Smack

The sickening sound of stone against her skull hit her before the pain.Her vision flickered.Heat spread across her face.She faded in and out of consciousness, the canopy of trees closing in around her.Once again she thought of the lonely darkness of those mountains sixteen years ago...

Crunch,crunch,crunch

The footsteps were slow, deliberate, maybe even angry.She couldn’t tell.Didn’t care.A figure blocked the moonlight.Her target’s red flannel jacket mixed with the red liquid leaking into her right eye.

He said nothing.

Nothing that she could process.

Hands slipped beneath her shoulders and knees and she was lifted into strong, unyielding arms.She waited for the berating, for the punishment.It didn’t come.It would.

He moved up the hill she’d just tumbled down with ease.The gray fingers of sleep clawed at her vision, wanting to pull her into an abyss.She clung to her senses.Passing out would be the most dangerous thing she could do besides tripping on that root.

She had to focus.Hang on to the present.Her captor’s—god, when did she become the target?—breathing was steady.Heat radiated from his chest.Despite the dread warping her reality, she wanted to burrow closer to his body.

Letting her cheek fall to his shoulder, she focused on inhaling and exhaling.All that did was allow his scent to overtake her awareness.Musk, cedarwood, and pine invaded her.

In a few minutes, he’d hurt her.Torture her to get what he wanted.But in these seconds, she hung in blissful purgatory.Warmth and safety for the here and now.The terrain changed.He continued to stalk through the snow without breaking stride.

She opened her eyes to study his bristly jaw.Dark hair waved away from his face, and the sides of his head were shaved.His eyes were fixated and hard.

Shivers took hold of her body, and the tremors were so violent her teeth slammed together.He curled his arms tighter around her, and for a flicker of an instant, she suspected he was trying to keep her warm.Then his arms relaxed a fraction.

The wind gusted, spilling her hair out of the pins that hadn’t already been shaken loose from her escape.The lapping of tree branches on his shoulders stopped, telling her they were out of the woods.

She closed her eyes, at war with herself.If she let the darkness pull her down, he wouldn’t be able to hurt her.She wouldn’t feel the pain.Or she’d wake up ravaged and maimed.

Neither was enticing.

Hinges groaned and the man’s boots stomped over cement.Bright fluorescent light filtered through her eyelids.He lowered her to the ground.Something crinkled beneath her.Plastic?

She opened her eyes, but as soon as the light hit her retinas, she winced and closed them again.A heavy hand rested on her head near her wound.

“You did a fucking number on yourself,” he hissed.

She kept her eyes closed, wishing that slumber would come now.It didn’t.Her senses were too heightened.He yanked his hand away and grabbed the binding at her wrists.

She groaned at the movement of her stiff, screaming arms.