Page 21 of Nowhere to Hide

The next thing I knew there were muffled voices near the door and hands on me as they pushed me back. Checking my blood pressure and then the soft darkness swirled up again.

My breathing evened and I watched the officer step out of the way before I retreated back to sleep.

To safety.

To the softness. I floated there for a while. I wasn’t sure how long, but it was peaceful and warm.

Until those eyes stared down at me.

The black eyes of the man who’d done this to me. The smile, sinister and stretched wide with teeth so white it made me shiver. Was I dreaming?

I frowned at the dark cord in his hands.

“Your pretty neck was so much better with my rope.”

I tried to shift away.

Not a dream. I tried to shake off the blackness. He leaned over me, lifting my head to slip the cord around me. “This will have to do.”

“No.”

The words were little more than a whisper. Adrenaline pushing back the drugs they’d given me. “No!”

His dark eyes were different this time. Not black this time.I pushed at him with all my might, but the leather of his glovesprotected him from my nails. I pushed him back enough to get a scream out.

The cord tightened and he just smiled. That twisted pleasure made me fight harder. The crash of something behind him had him let me free.

I gasped, my fingers pulling at the cord around my neck. My scream rending the air as the man swung around and pushed my tray at him, then grabbed my IV pole, wrenching the IV out of my arm as blood spurted across my sheets.

The man swung the pole at the cop’s head, and he crashed to the ground. The man looked back at me for a hot second, his face an ugly mask of hate before he disappeared into my bathroom.

I fumbled for my call button, but nurses crowded in a moment later.

The cord tangled in whatever knot he’d done, and I couldn’t get it off. I struggled against the hands from the nurses and the chaos faded as a needle sunk into my arm and I slumped back. The last thing I saw was the cop trying to struggle to his feet.

The man was gone.

My fingers clawed at my neck.

Then nothing.

CHAPTER 5

LOCKE

I was so stupid.

As if I needed to be back at this hospital.

I should have been in the middle of the Atlantic by now. Maine was calling.

The water was calling.

Liar. This is where you’re supposed to be.

I paced the hallway in front of the elevator of the ICU floor, ignoring the annoying voice.

It hadn’t shut up through the night. In fact, Milligan had been loud as fuck all night. Dreams of his blood between my fingers. Her blood overflowing and running even thicker.