Page 35 of Sinner's Ransom: Taken
“Hey! Stop!”
Montgomery ran across the brown grass of the backyard and toward the river they’d visited before. If he could get in the thick underbrush, he could hide somewhere and they wouldn’t find him.
“Monty, stop!”
Montgomery’s chest heaved in harsh breaths. He bit back cries of agony as rocks dug into his bare feet. Desperation made every step important, and he pushed himself to concentrate on getting as far away from Stone as he could. He needed somewhere to hide.
Stone’s footsteps were heavy behind him and forced Montgomery to move quicker.
“Monty, stop, I mean it. You’ll regret it if you don’t stop. You have nowhere to go. The next neighbor isn’t for at least fifty miles, and you won’t survive the walk.”
Fuck. He could deal with that, if only he got away from Stone. If he stayed here, they’d kill him.
He pushed into the underbrush, small shrubs scattering the ground. The sound of the river reached his ears, and the sun felt hot against his back. The morning heat was always the worst, and he could already feel sweat beading on his back and forehead, but that could have been because of the nerves as well.
His foot hit a fallen branch and he stumbled into another large tree trunk, his forehead smashing against the bark. A piece broke his skin and he could already feel the blood welling. His vision spun for a short moment, and he shot a look over his shoulder. He couldn’t see Stone.
Shoving himself away from the trunk, he stumbled into some particularly tall bushes and fell to the ground on his stomach. He curled in on himself, holding his breath. If Stone had been behind him, he wasn’t anymore, because only silence met his ears.
He could wait here until night and then head out again. Maybe he would get lucky and meet someone on the abandoned highway.
Letting his head fall onto the back of his hands, he sighed quietly. He was going to kill Richard when he got home.
“Monty?” Stone’s voice made his blood run cold, and he glanced above him.
Stone’s furious face appeared. He grabbed him by the back of his neck, hauling him to his feet.
Montgomery struggled against Stone’s hold, aiming punches at him. One of them managed to clip Stone across the jaw and he growled. He pulled a knife out of his pants pocket and pressed it against Montgomery’s neck.
The cold chill of the blade made him freeze. It bit into his skin, and an electric shock of pleasure shot through him, making his nerves jolt.
“Didn’t I tell you not to try and escape?” Stone whispered angrily into his ear. This was the first time he’d heard pure fury in his voice, an uncontrollable anger bordering on lust that made Montgomery’s skin tingle. Stone’s breath felt hot against his ear, his voice deep and ravaged with hard breaths from running.
“I’m not going to die for something my dad did,” he bit out between his own rapid breathing. “It’s not fair.”
“I’ll show you what’s fair.” Stone gripped the back of his neck tighter and hauled him forward. Between his grip and the blade pressed against his neck, he didn’t dare do anything other than let Stone lead him back to the house.
The sun grew hotter and the stones beneath his feet hurt even worse than they had when he ran away. Maybe he was more aware of them now, because he was aware of every sensation running through his body. The fear of what was to come made his heart clatter against his ribs, but the excitement also made his stomach jump and his toes curl. It was a weird feeling, and he couldn’t make sense of his thoughts. Did he want this? Had he run just to feel Stone’s dominating hands on him?
No. Yes. He had no idea.
Stone kicked open the screen door with his boot and shoved him inside. They took the steps quickly, the quiet of the house especially terrifying now that Montgomery could hear his own heart thump in his chest.
He expected Stone to lead him back to his room, but they strode straight past it and to the door at the end of the hallway. He opened it and shoved Montgomery inside.
Montgomery stumbled, the soles of his feet stinging, and glanced around. It looked like a real bedroom, with a queen-size bed and a wardrobe and everything. The walls were painted an olive green and a few photos hung on them, unlike the bare walls in the other parts of the house. The wardrobe and the bed were mismatched woods, with the bed frame being a dark brown. The sheets on the bed were nearly the same green as the walls.
The two photos hanging on the walls were housed in silver frames, and each one had a picture of the same family. They were taken at different times, with the two young kids looking older in one of the pictures, like they were teenagers instead of their late childhood. The parents looked older too, with the father’s hair grayer and his beard longer than in the earlier picture. The young boy in the photo was clearly Stone. He had the same face and eyes, even the familiar smile flashed from the photo.
The door slamming made Montgomery shoot around to look at the man in question.
“Why did you run?” Stone’s eyes narrowed, his arms crossed over his chest. Now the anger was finally obvious, he looked terrifying. His eyes burned with rage, his teeth bared like a wild animal. The muscles in his arms flexed, and would probably squeeze Montgomery’s head clean off if Stone managed to get him in a headlock.
Montgomery swallowed and straightened, but it wasn’t very effective. His feet stung and he could barely stand, so he fell backward to sit on the bed. “I told you, I’m not going to die because of Richard.”
Stone slid a key into the lock of the door and twisted it, the lock engaging. It sounded like the end of Montgomery’s life, the final chapter. Stone undid the chain on his neck and slid the key onto it.
At least he knew what the key was for now.
