Page 18 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
My phone rang, knocking me out of thoughts of CJ blinking up at me and asking if I couldn’t spare her a little time. It was the head of my home security, and I shoved aside the stupid mental meanderings to answer.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, turning my car on. To hell with surveillance. I should be at home.
“It might be nothing, sir,” he said, clearly nervous about something.
“Just tell me,” I snapped.
“Well, we picked up Mrs. Fokin on one of the cameras. She was, um, climbing over the back fence.”
I covered the phone as I laughed. There was nothing funny, except how far off I’d been about CJ’s feelings. They hadn’t changed at all, and she wasn’t just not going to come to me; she was actively attempting to escape.
“Keep someone close, but don’t let him be seen,” I said. “I’m on my way home, and I’ll take care of it from there. Only intercept her if it looks like she’s in danger.”
He understood and hung up. By the time I got home, he had a map ready to send to my phone, complete with the trail CJ was taking and approximately where she was in real time, still being tailed by one of his men.
When I bought the house, it came with a couple of electric ATVs since the property was so large, and I headed out on one of them to follow my wife. She had gotten quite a ways past the back fence, and I pushed the quiet little vehicle to its limit to catch up to her. It was past midnight, and as much as any of these native Californians told me that coyotes were more scared of us than we were of them, I didn’t want CJ to end up as some wild mutt’s dinner.
I passed the security guard, stumping along about two hundred yards behind her, keeping his flashlight covered so the only light came from the bright sliver of moon overhead. It was almost pitch black, but I could see a flash of CJ’s white t-shirt as she not-so-stealthily made her way across the terrain.
She was tenacious and fearless, but a chill ran through my blood from everything that could have happened to her out here at night, even with the guard trailing her. She really was no good at escaping, if that’s what this was about, and it was actually pretty adorable. I didn’t trust her, but that wasn’t the reason I needed to keep her close. She was mine.
Whatever spell she had on me made me send the guard home and follow her on foot for a little while, giving her the illusion that her plan was working. Hell, it was a pleasant night, why not take a stroll in the moonlight with my wife.
Chapter 13 - CJ
Once the idea of escaping took hold, I couldn’t shake it. Sleep was impossible, and feeling like I had a fever from excitement, I snuck out of the house in the middle of the night. No one stirred, and no alarms went off. I got to the end of the property and over the fence, and still, nothing.
It looked like I was free, except I didn’t know what lay in the direction behind Mat’s house. It would have been quicker to double back along the property line and get to the road leading out to a more inhabited area, but what if I tripped some sort of sensor or something? Mat had a guard at the gate, so he might have them around the front perimeter as well.
It seemed safer to risk being out in the brushy wilderness. It wasn’t pitch dark since there was a quarter moon, but I was still making quite a racket until I found a wide path that looked like it was used by tractors at one time or another.
There was a breeze that ruffled the leaves in the trees, and an occasional rustle in the growth alongside the path that made me walk a little faster, but overall, it was peaceful. My only plan was to follow the path, which had to lead to some other house or another road eventually, hopefully before daybreak. It wasn’t like I could research my escape once the idea came to me, and it wasn’t something that was offered as an elective in college.
A few times, I thought I heard something and stopped dead, twisting carefully to look in all directions while remaining perfectly still. I wasn’t afraid of the local wildlife, but I had recently acquired a healthy fear of other people.
Something about the glow of my phone made the surrounding area seem desolate and creepy, so I traveled only bythe light of the moon, but after what seemed like hours, I risked a glance at the time.
12:40. My heart sank. I had only been out for less than an hour, and only crossed the fence about half an hour ago. I broke into a jog, but it was so dark I instantly stumbled over a root growing across the path, and went back to my methodical plod. Did it really matter how slowly I went? Unless he had a helicopter, there was little chance of Mat finding me before morning, and surely, I’d be out on a main road by then. After that, I didn’t know what would happen, but the thought of getting my life back kept me going.
This was happening. I had saved myself. I was going to be free.
Then I heard a distinct throat clearing behind me. Close behind me. Whirling around, Mat stood only six feet away. Even in the darkness, I could make out his broad shoulders and his wide stance. I couldn’t really see it until he came closer, but I imagined he didn’t look happy.
Nope. That was one of the worst scowls I’d seen on him. I squared my own shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. Then he laughed.
“I’ve enjoyed this little stroll long enough,” he said. “It’s time to go back to the house.”
I made the mistake of glancing behind me, the brief notion of making a break for it into the darkness flitting across my mind. He covered the distance between us in two strides, gripping my arm.
“CJ, you haven’t even left my property yet. If you keep following this path, it will lead you back to the house, but you’ll cross about another fifty acres before that happens.”
“But the fence,” I said.
“It’s supposed to keep coyotes from getting too close to the house.”
“How long have you been following me?” I asked, my cheeks flaming as I recalled those noises I dismissed as my imagination.
“I’ve had a guard keeping an eye on you since you scaled the fence. I’ve been here for about ten minutes or so, but now I’m getting tired.”
