Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I shake my head.
Am I getting a crush on him?
Or is it just feelings that have always been there, coming back to life?
A car door slams as I’m walking up the front path, and Slater calls out my name. I turn, staring at him. When he reaches me, he turns me around with a gentle push to my shoulder, and lifts up my hair. His hands come in front of me, and he drops the necklace around my neck, fastening it at the back. And I tingle all over. Every touch makes my body come alive. Like it knows, even if I don’t.
“This is yours,” he murmurs.
I wait for him to step back, but he doesn’t, for a moment, he just stands there, and then his fingers run along the back of my neck. And I remember. It hits me like a hurricane. I was so caught up in the moment, I forgot about the scarring against the back of my neck. There’s one large scar that runs up onto my scalp, from when he slashed me with a knife the first time I tried to escape. I’ll never forget it.
Not until the day I die.
I’m running, I’m so damned close to the front door. I can’t believe I got this far. My plan worked, it truly worked. I never thought it would but it did. He fell for it. The oldest trick in the book. I acted like I was passed out, and I was truly run down enough to have passed out. He shook me a few times, rolled me over, and that’s when I used the small piece of rusted metal that took me two weeks to get off the base of the bed. I cut my fingers up on more than one occasion, but I managed to break a piece off.
I stabbed him with it. Straight into his throat.
Then I got up and ran.
I got out of the unlocked door and up through the empty church.
So close, I’m so damned close.
I can taste the freedom.
I don’t know where I’ll go from here. I only know where I used to live, and that’s it. But that’s enough. If I can get back there, I’ll find my way. I’ll find something. But at least I won’t be trapped here any longer, trapped living day in, day out as his slave, as his personal punching bag, as his sick and twisted little game.
Someone grabs me by my hair and a burning pain shoots through the back of my neck. I scream and claw at the air, but I’m being dragged backwards. I lose my footing, but he keeps dragging me, through the empty halls and back down to the bottomless pit below the building that I’m going to spend the rest of my damned life.
He throws me, and my hands go out to brace my fall. I hit the ground so hard my wrist twists and I scream out in pain. It’s only then I see the blood dripping from my neck, big droplets splashing against the concrete floor.
“You ever try something like that again, and I’ll make you wish you were never born,” His voice is cool, and calm, and always collected. “Don’t try me, Raven. I won’t kill you, that would be too kind, I’ll torment you every day for the rest of your life. That’s a punishment worse than death.”
Then, he turns and walks out, slamming the door.
My fingers go up to the back of my neck, and I hiss as they graze over a gaping wound.
He stabbed me. Or cut me. Or something.
Whatever it is, it’s deep.
I hang my head and watch the blood trickle out onto the floor.
And then I cry.
I was so close.
I snap out of the memory when Slater growls, “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make that man feel the pain of a thousand fuckin’ cuts, Ellie. Mark my words, everything he did to you, I’ll do to him times ten.”
I blink back the burning tears threatening to escape, and step away, letting my hair drop. I turn and face Slater, tipping my head and looking up at him. If I’m open with myself, I can see why I loved him, and I’m sure I did love him. There is something safe about him. Something strong, and incredibly beautiful. Even now, I want to curl myself into him and never let go, just so I don’t have to be scared ever again.
“Thank you for bringing me home,” I whisper.
He nods, and stares down at me, so intensely I’m forced to pull my eyes away and turn. “Goodnight,” I murmur.
“Goodnight, darlin’.”
His words penetrate deep.
And I make a vow in that moment to try harder to remember.
To do anything I can.
Because suddenly, I really want to know what Slater Knight meant to me.