Page 138 of Merry Fake Bride

My shoulder hurts.

My face hurts.

My arm hurts.

And my leg…

It’s not until I try to roll over that I realize I’m moving.

Opening my eyes, the blurry night sky fades in and out of focus through the branches of dead trees stretching high above me.

The freezing cold against my back doesn’t fade.

In fact, it grows worse as each movement drags my shirt up my back and exposes my bare back to the icy chill of the frozen dirt beneath me.

Dead leaves and frozen sticks catch on my numb fingers.

They scratch my back, pull at my clothes, and catch in my hair.

“Fuck—” A soft thump rises in front of me and my suspended leg falls to the ground.

Pain radiates through my hip.

I close my eyes, fighting to clear the sluggishness from my mind.

We crashed.

Axel was so desperate for the phone that he took his hands off the wheel and his eyes off the road.

We crashed.

Wecrashed.

I’m awake and alert now, rolling onto my stomach just as Axel tries to grab my leg again.

As I climb onto my knees, he lands on top of me and forces me back down into the dirt.

I scream, clawing at the dirt while he grips my hair and yanks my head upward.

“You’re not going anywhere, bitch, unless it’s with me!”

He shoves my head back down, silencing my scream in a mouthful of leaves and dirt.

I can’t breathe.

He pins me down, and the ground is too cold and unforgiving against my nails to offer me any help.

I’m going to die here.

“Familiar?” His voice is venom in my ear, his hands like manacles around my wrists and his weight sickeningly familiar.

“Please,” I gasp, choking on the leaves stabbing at my tongue.

“You’ll get up and walk?”

“Yes!”

“Swear it.”