Page 103 of Saving Her

“Luca,please.”

He slips from my grip, falling to the tile, his head hitting with a reverberating thwack.

“Oh, God,no.” I collapse beside him, smothering his wound, trying to stem the blood even though it gushes through my fingers. “Don’t leave me.”

He stares at me. Gurgles. Chokes.

“No.” I beg. “Don’t do this. Stay with me.”

“There’s no use.”

I freeze at the familiar voice coming from the other side of the room. The icy chill of horror slithers through my veins. I don’t want to raise my eyes, but there he is, standing before the French doors.

Robert—the man I was promised to like an object, and now he’s here to claim me.

But it can’t be real.

He’s meant to be dead.

I scamper to my feet, blood dripping from my fingers, bile rising up my throat. “No.”

“Penny.” He starts toward me, one slow step after another, his voice getting louder and louder. “Penny.”

“No.” I prepare to run toward him. To kill him with my bare hands for taking Luca from me. But my legs won’t move. “You should’ve shot me,” I scream. “Why didn’t you shoot me?”

He smirks, chilling my veins. “Penny.”

I startle and shoot upright in bed. I gasp for breath, as I cling to the soft sheets, my body coated in a sticky layer of sweat.

Every night, it’s the same. One nightmare after another. One death that follows the next.

It’s either my brother, Sebastian, my protector, Luca, my parents, or one of the many women I lost while living beneath the roof of a sex traffickers’ mansion.

I’ve witnessed everyone I care about being taken from me. Always by the same man. The same ghost.

Yet, I’m never the one to die.

I know why, too.

It’s because I don’t fear death. If anything, I continue to crave it.

What frightens me is the loss of those I care about. That’s the true taunt of the nightly demons. I’m constantly reminded I still have so much to lose. That this freedom is only a mirage.

I shudder out a shaky breath and wipe my hands down my face.

I hate this.

Every day starts with horror, and every night begins with dread. There’s no escape.

I’ve been safe for days now, cocooned in the protection of Luca’s inner suburban home in Portland.

I suck in a deep breath, forcing calm, and let it out slowly. Sunlight bathes the room, letting me know it’s morning and I no longer need to battle for rest.

Because that’s all I’ve been doing. Battling.

I fight to pretend I’m doing okay. I scramble to create some kind of normalcy in a world entirely unfamiliar to me. It’s like I’ve been thrown into a melee of mental torment. My thoughts are my shackles now. This head of mine is a prison.

I never imagined freedom would be like this.

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