Page 45 of Saving Her

He winces. “I don’t know.”

“Where. The fuck. Is she?” My brother bellows from the living room.

He knows.

He’s been told I’m alive.

I swing around, searching for another way of escape. I can’t see him. Fragility already chips away at my bones.

“Penny?” Tobias tugs my blouse. “I’m scared.”

I exhale a pained breath.

Think. Think. Think.

Pounding footsteps approach, the thunder echoing inside my chest, the noise adding to the thud of my pulse.

Then everything stops as if the world was carried away on the breeze.

There’s no sound. No movement. Only the skitter of awareness at the back of my neck that tells me we’re no longer alone.

“Penny?”

This time my name isn’t spoken by Tobias.

It’shim. The man I’ve fought not to think about for months on end.

I tremble. Everywhere.

It’s hard to breathe as I turn and meet Sebastian’s stare in the doorway.

Sweet relief floods my system, drowning me in happiness.

Weakness.

I raise my chin to the threat. Square my shoulders and force myself not to break.

“Penny?” he repeats, his forehead wrinkled in anguish.

He’s older now, his bright eyes dull, his full smile non-existent. The man standing in the doorway has been hardened from the joyful young adult I remember.

I’m not sure I know this man and I’m certain he no longer knows me.

Tobias tugs my blouse again and whispers my name.

“It’s okay, Toby.” I clear the emotion from my throat but can’t stop myself from guiding him to move behind me. “There’s nothing to fear.”

It’s a lie.

I used to dream of this reunion. I’d picture how I would run to Sebastian once he’d saved me from this horror. I’d cry. He’d cry. Mom, Dad, and my older brother, Graham, would be there, too.

But those thoughts were merely fantasies when my captor made certain I would never be free.

I fear for my safety like never before. I’m scared this man will blind me to reality. That I’ll get washed up in the reunion I’ve longed for and forget that Luther has a plan for me that won’t end even though he’s dead.

“Oh, God, I can’t believe you’re alive.” Sebastian rushes forward.

I panic. Full-blown hysteria takes over.

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