Page 56 of Mara

He wasn’t listening to me. I fought him when he shucked off his jacket and leaned down to grab my hand.

“No,” I yelled again.

The smile on his face and his next words made my entire body freeze. The cold, calculating humor playing in his eyes mocked me until he flipped his visor down over his eyes, and I watched myself in the dirt, scooting away from him.

“That’s okay. Go ahead and fight me, Nirvana. We both know by the end of the night you’re going to be watching your reflection in my visor as I break that beautiful body over and over again.”

I screamed, not knowing why it both terrified and excited me.

This was wrong…more wrong than anything I had ever done.

Gianna was missing.

I could not do this.

No.

I had to run.

I pushed away from him, got to my feet, and took off running into the tree line. In the quiet of the night, his voice echoed to me, and I had to strain my ears to hear him.

“I love hide and seek. I’ll give you to the count of ten before I come after you.”

Did he really just say what I think he said?

My heart pounded in my chest in time with the shouting in the distance. I picked up on each echo in the air.

“One.”

This was insane.

This man drove me out here to chase me?

What kind of animal kidnapped someone to chase them in the woods?

“Two.”

This was too much like the masked man. Was this some sick game he wanted to play to torment me about my past?

“Three.”

I couldn’t let him catch me. I didn’t know what would happen if he did.

“Four.”

There was nowhere to hide—just trees and more trees with no real end in sight.

“Five.”

I kept running, my lungs burned with each slam of my feet on the grass.

“Six.”

Fuck me, I had to find somewhere to hide. He was insane. I couldn’t let him get me. I was better than this.

“Seven.”

This was pointless. I needed to be looking for Gianna, not running half-naked in the woods from her boyfriend.