Page 118 of Reclaimed

Five minutes later, the car stops on the side of an old cabin.

Without a word, he exits and forces me from the passenger side. The cold muzzle presses beneath my chin. I lift my head impossibly high, desperate to dislodge the weapon, but he holds it steady.

“In,” he orders, dragging me up a set of rotted steps by my arm.

The inside smells musty. Shadows lurk in every corner. The waning sun from outside isn’t enough to light the space much through the dirty windows. We step into a weathered kitchen containing only a fridge, a fireplace, and a kitchen table. The laminate floors are cracked from years of wear and disuse.

He presses into me then. Hot, fetid breath drifts across my face as he forces me flush against the refrigerator and buries his face in my hair. “Welcome home, my Stella.” He groans into my tangled locks, ignoring the way I recoil. “We’re going to be so happy here.”

My stomach roils violently. I fight to keep my composure. “You can let me go. You don’t have to do this.” If pleading brings me back to Aiden, I’m willing to do whatever I can to stay alive.

“I do,” he snarls, yanking something from the drawer and slapping it to my wrist. The shiny black cuff fits snugly, biting into my skin. “I thought I lost you forever. I’m not letting you go now.”

“I think you’re confused. We don’t actually know each other.” I stick with facts, hoping something will break through this fog of delusion.

Ignoring me, he locks the remaining circle around my other wrist and shoves the gun into my abdomen.

“We’re going to be a family.” He brushes the gun down the side of my stomach. The muscles there hollow with alarm. “You don’t understand how bad I wanted to kill you for leaving me, but luckily for you, I’ve changed my mind.”

“Tell me.” If I’m going to die, I need to know why. I need to buy time.

He grips my bicep and hauls me around the corner into a makeshift bedroom. In lieu of living room furniture, a large bed takes up the middle of the floor. The black iron headboard has a silver chain hanging off one side, and it doesn’t take much to put two and two together.

“I was so angry that you were gone,” he mutters, shoving me onto the bed. I fall on my side, and immediately scramble back to my feet. “They said you were gone, but I couldn’t believe you left me. I went looking. There were so many women who looked just like you. I’d pay them to dance, and they’d make me hard and act like they liked me.” His lip curls. “They wereliars. They just wanted my money.”

“They didn’t know you were looking for me. They were doing their jobs,” I gasp in horror.

“So I killed them,” he goes on as if he didn’t hear me speak. And maybe he didn’t. Lost in his delusions, his world isn’t reality. Henry throws a flower printed gown, thirty years past its prime, on the bed and picks something up from a table against the wall. His sinister stroll sends the hairs on my neck standing. Thick fingers pick up my limp hand. “I strangled them. And do you know what I left them with?”

I’m frozen as he brushes the pad of his thumb over my knuckles. “What,” I whisper, my voice hoarse.

His eyes drop to my hand. With his thumbnail, he digs a straight line from the last knuckle of my thumb down toward my wrist. At the end, he crosses two lines in an X.

“Know what it is?” He stares proudly at the pink impression.

I give a minute shake of my head. “No.”

“It’s a falling star. Because I knew when I found you, it would be your end.”

Automatically, I move a step back. I don’t make it far. My knees bump into the edge of the mattress. The grip on my hand turns bruising as he jerks my arm back.

“You thought you could fool me with hair dye and a new man, and I’ll admit, at first, I was angry. So angry that I couldn’t have you right then that I found another girl. One with brown hair dressed like a slut, and I took it out on her so I wouldn’t hurt you.”

No.Does he mean the girl from Halloween night? The one Sutton said didn’t fit the profile?

The one without the calling card.

Because that was the night he decided he wasn’t going to kill me. I wasn’t a falling star to him anymore.

“I knew it was really you when I saw you dance, proudly showing off my baby.” He licks his flaky lips. “I knew I’d never let you go again.”

With more strength than I’d have guessed, he yanks my arm straight and jams a gold ring onto my ring finger. I choke on a scream and tears drip down my cheeks.

The too-small band cuts into my flesh as he forces it into place over my knuckle. The strangulation is immediate, cutting blood supply to my finger. I whimper into the cold room.

“My wife,” he says proudly. He raises his left hand, showcasing its gleaming match. “We’re going to be a family.”

“Okay.” My lips move without my permission. The agreement falls from a desperate place. One where I’m fightingto stay alive long enough for someone to find me. If that means playing into his twisted delusion, I’m willing to try anything at this point. Every minute my heart beats is a minute closer to being found.

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