Page 255 of Saving Her

“She’s dead,” I lie.

“Then shooting her isn’t going to matter, is it?”

“No, Robert, please.” I clasp my palms in prayer. “I’ll go with you. I’ll go willingly. Just leave her alone.”

He smiles, a true, genuine smile that may have had the potential to be handsome if he wasn’t a monster. “You missed me, didn’t you?”

I press my lips tight against the need to defy him, to spit in his face and wipe the smug satisfaction from his expression.

“Don’t worry.” He winks. “It’ll be just you and me before you know it.”

“Let her go,” a man yells in the distance.

Oh, God.

“No,” I scream as Robert swings me around, not pausing a beat before he shoots in the direction of the demand, hitting a man in the chest.

The shock on the stranger’s face, along with the sickening jolt of his body, shoves me straight into the horror of my past. All of it comes rushing back—the helplessness, the torture. It suffocates me. It’s impossible to breathe.

“You piece of shit.” I lash out, smacking and punching as his grip tightens in my hair. “You fucking monster.”

“There’s my pretty Penny,” he taunts. “It’s good to see you’ve still got fight left in you, because all Abi did was cry like a little bitch.”

I scream, pummeling his chest, scratching at his face until he reefs me along beside him, storming for the silver sedan behind us, the hood and windshield peppered with bullets.

People scramble to safety in the distance. Some frantically talk on their cells. Others flee the scene.

There are so many witnesses. So many potential casualties to my demise.

“Quit fighting.” Robert tugs me harder, making me stumble. “It’s time to get out of here.”

I don’t stop punching at him as he drags me toward the car and over the driver’s dead body lying on the asphalt, a gaping head wound sending bile rocketing up my throat.

I gag. Choke.

Robert doesn’t care. He continues to yank me along at his side before reaching into the driver’s side of the vehicle to pop the trunk.

Oh, God, no.

I increase my struggle, clawing and scratching like an animal. Hitting. Kicking.

People call out from their hiding places, pointlessly threatening him to stop.

“The police are on the way.”

“I’ve got a gun. Let her go or I’ll shoot.”

They won’t take him down. And the police won’t get here in time.

I’m going to die at the hands of a rapist. Just like I knew I always would.

“Get in.” He releases my hair when we reach the back of the car, and pulls the trunk open. “Hurry up. I don’t want to have to damage that pretty face any more than it already is.”

The sight before me makes me wither. I stare down at my new prison, the dirty carpeted interior seeming more of a sanctuary since it will be away from his touch. But it’s only the start. The deceptive prelude.

“Come on, pretty Penny.” He leans close, his breath making me shudder as he whispers, “It’s my turn to have you now. Didn’t I tell you you’d be mine?”

Yes, he did. And I’d believed him.

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