Page 17 of Stolen Vows

No matter how far and fast I have to run to make it happen.

9

Max

I survey the forest before me, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.Shit, shit, shit!

How could I have let her get away? I feel so fucking stupid. I should have come into the bathroom with her, kept an eye on her, but I couldn’t bring myself to invade her privacy quite so brutally. And how does she repay me? She pulls the glass from the window, climbs out through the tiny gap, and takes off into the woods like some kind of fucking idiot.

I run a hand through my hair, looking this way and that as I try to see which direction she must have taken off in. She doesn’t know this place, and she has no idea what she’s up against; these woods take a turn for the freezing in the middle of the night, and if I don’t have her back by then, she’ll be in serious trouble. Not to mention the fact she’s not dressed for the weather, and she doesn’t have any shoes on.

If I lose her, there’s going to be hell to pay. Not just for me, but for my family. She’s the one bit of leverage we have in all of this, the one promise that Leone will not come down on us withwrath. In the war against them, she’s our bargaining chip, and my family has put every faith in me to make sure she doesn’t get away. And now, she’s running through the woods to God knows where—probably to meet with one of her father’s men, if the last message he sent me was anything to go by.

My mind whirs as I plan my next move. No point following a single direction. Chances are she’ll double-back on herself and get lost, given how confusing this place is. I’m better off tracking a large circle around the cabin, keeping watch for anything that might indicate where she has headed. She’s just a spoiled mafia princess. I doubt she’ll have much in the way of survival skills, let alone the presence of mind to cover her tracks as she flees.

I dart back into the house and grab my gun and a jacket. I don’t know who I am going to encounter out there, and I’m smarter than to just let myself walk into a trap. I need her back, but getting myself killed in the process isn’t going to help.

I can practically hear Maya in my ear, telling me that she should have been the one to do this.I could have helped you! You shouldn’t have tried to leave me out of all of this...

But I can’t let that get to me, not now. Maybe she’s right. Or maybe she would have been even more of a liability, given her hot temper and sharp tongue. I can only imagine the shit that she’d have to say to me if she knew that I had dropped the ball this badly, but, God willing, she’ll never find out.

I grab my phone and quickly pick out the path I’m going to take through the trees. I have explored this place extensively in the run-up to the execution of this plan, and I know it about as well as anyone can. Even still, the trees start to look the same after a while, and it’s too easy to get turned around and lose your way.

Or your prey.

I head out into the forest, and start my route around the cabin. The air is cold, despite a few rays of sunlight poking through the canopy of leaves and branches above me. I pause for a moment, my ears pricked, trying to make out any noise that might give me a hint as to where she has gone, but I’ve got nothing. No instincts to run on. I just need to find her and fast.

Plotting my route around the cabin, I trace a wide arc away from my base and into the woods. There has to be something here, something that will nudge me in the direction of wherever she’s gone to. Has she spent time in places like this before? I can’t imagine that her father would have allowed her to pass the time anywhere other than that ridiculous mansion that he calls home, but perhaps he trained her for the possibility of something like this going down, I’m not sure...

I loop around towards the river that cuts through the middle of the forest, the sound of the rushing water an anchor in the chaos of everything that is going on right now. I pause by the bank, sinking my knee into the soft earth for a moment to recalibrate myself...

And that’s when I hear it. A noise from somewhere inside the woods. My head snaps up. It sounds like a twig cracking; the echo of it fills the air, the only sign that it really happened at all. My eyes slide this way and that, searching for the source of the noise, for anything that might point me in her direction.

A sudden movement draws my eye, and, as my gaze roves around to locate it, I realize it’s her. In that gray tee that I gave her, the old sweatpants that stand out like a sore thumb against the glum greens and browns of the forest surrounding us. Her hair flies out over her shoulder as she turns her back on me, andshe sprints off into the woods, not pausing to look back for a moment.

"Cara!" I roar after her. She doesn’t know what she’s dealing with out here. One wrong move, and she could take a fall that would leave her with some serious injuries. I might have been able to patch up her leg, but I couldn’t say the same for something worse. I spring to my feet, and follow her into the trees, my breath tearing from my lungs as I try to keep up with her.

Eventually, I burst out of the thicket of trees and into a small clearing. There are a few paths leading off from the main central space, and she could have taken any of them. I freeze, holding my breath, not making a noise, and it seems as though the entire forest is doing the same thing right along with me. I can’t hear so much as a bird singing right now. I’m not sure if I should take it as a sign that they’re helping me or a warning that they’re on her side.

I force myself to get my breathing under control, the panic that’s been threatening to get the better of me still coursing through my system. If there’s one thing my father has taught me over the years, it’s that emotions land you in trouble. You need to keep your shit on lock, or you will create cracks in your facade that are all too easy to exploit. She’s relying on me panicking and making mistakes, giving her just enough of a chance to get out of here, and I need to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s not just my life on the line; it could be my whole family along with it, and I am not willing to allow that to happen. We’ve come too far to fail now.

And, in that stillness, I can make out something. It sounds like the rustle of branches, not due to the wind, but to movement. My head whips around to a path that leads off behind me, and,sure enough, it looks as though there are footsteps tracking away from the clearing and amongst the trees. She doesn’t have shoes on, so she hasn’t left much in the way of solid marks behind, but I can see where the grass has flattened and the leaves have scattered to make room for her.

I follow her into the woods, keeping my pace steady. Running will cause more chaos, and I don’t want her to know that I am on to her. If I’m going to catch her, I’m going to do it by keeping my cool, because out here that’s the difference between life and death.

In the dark of the trees, I can almost sense her. The scent of her hangs in the air, that same floral fragrance that came off her in waves when I grabbed her from the wedding. I don’t know how she still smells of it so strongly. It must emerge right from her pores.

And then, I catch another flash of her hair. It seems so bright against the darkness, that blonde in the dim light, and I shoot off in her direction without a second thought. I don’t call out to her this time, don’t give her any kind of warning that I am approaching, and soon, I have closed the distance between us.

I push branches aside, ducking my head this way and that to keep my eyes on her as I follow her through the woods. She casts a look over her shoulder a few times, her eyes wide with terror, as though she can hardly believe what is happening. As though she is an animal trying to shake themselves loose from a trap, and I am the hunter, hot on her heels.

My eyes narrow, my vision closing in on the sight of her before me. Her arms are covered in scratches where the branches have snagged at her skin. The soles of her feet are nearly black from the dirt that has clung to them, and no doubt they’re shreddedfrom the uneven earth, too. I can hear her breathing, the way it seems to fall helplessly from her lungs, like she might not be able to keep going for another instant, but I don’t let it stop me. I reach out to her as I close the distance between us, and her hair snatches through my fingertips for the barest instant, not close enough for me to pull her back, but just near enough to feel like I’m getting somewhere.

She’s running like her life depends on it, like a rabbit from a trap, and, I suppose, right now, that’s exactly how she feels. She has no idea what I am going to do to her when I lay hands on her again, no idea how I am going to react to this bullshit she has tried to pull; I am too focused to be angry right now, but honestly, it’s not going to stay that way once I catch her, and she knows it.

Suddenly, her foot catches on something—a rock, a raised root, who knows—and she stumbles, sprawling forward onto the ground with a cry of anger and fear. I drop down, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her back to her feet, pinning her there against me so she can tell there is nowhere for her to go.

"What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I snarl in her ear, the rage getting the better of me. It’s more than anger, more than simple fury at what she has tried to pull off here. It’s fear. Because I know what could be on the line if she gets away from me, and that is something I am not willing to contend with, not willing to even think about right now.

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