Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ashley

“T here you are.” Julian smiled her way.

If she thought he’d given her the creeps before, it was nothing like now. He held the gun pointed at her and used it to motion for her to come toward him.

With no other choice, Ashley walked slowly toward the danger, hoping that rescue was on its way.

“That’s right. Come on now. We need to get going because if I have to wait much longer, you know what’ll happen to your friend here.”

She picked up her pace and tripped over a root, nearly falling but righting herself. “I’m coming.”

“I’d move a little faster if I were you. I’d hate to have to shoot him again. He made a good opponent. Well, until he went and fucking shot me. Suppose we’re even now.” Julian shrugged.

“What do you want?” Ashley demanded with a weak voice.

“You already know. Now, we are going to get out of here and then we’ll tie the knot. No since in waiting to get a baby in you, as the contract didn’t specify which had to come first.”

Julian took two long strides in her direction, grabbing her by the hair and pulling it tight so she was forced to look at him.

“I won’t marry you,” she swore to him.

“Yes, you will. Do you think I’ll stop with your lover? You have other family, and I don’t care what it takes. That money is mine.” He forced his lips onto hers before stepping back. “Reach in my pocket and get the cuffs, wife.”

Her hands tremored now, fear making her clumsier as she reached for the metal rings hanging from his pocket.

“Now, put them on yourself. Make sure they’re tight.” He held the gun to her temple as she did.

The cuffs clicked into place, and the cold metal against her wrists had her biting back a sob. She risked another glance at Carter to see his chest rising and falling. He was alive, and that was what mattered.

“Move.” He pushed the gun against the side of her head in the direction he wanted her to go.

She stumbled and cried out as she awkwardly stopped her fall with cuffed hands.

“Get up, bitch.” Julian yanked her by the hair to a stand and poked the gun in her back as they walked away from Carter.

She hoped someone came soon, not for her, but for Carter who lay there bleeding. At this point, her only need was for him to be okay, not caring about herself. It was her fault that Carter had been shot and something was on fire at his ranch.

They never should have come here. She should have pushed to go anywhere else, but she let her love for that man keep her from making smart decisions. And she did love him, couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t in it.

As they stepped out of the woods on the other side of the pond, Julian pulled her close to him. “If you make a single fucking sound, I’ll make sure it’s the last one you make, clear?”

She did her best to nod.

“You better be.”

They walked on into a field. Julian grabbed her hands, pulling her along behind him now as he tried to sprint to the next patch of trees. She’d never been this far and didn’t know if it would continue on or drop into another clearing.

The sirens faded the farther they walked, and she began to lose hope of Carter being found. Surely if they had found him, the sirens would be closer as the ambulance came to get him.

Her lungs burned as Julian rushed her through more woods and finally to a path. She tripped several times, Julian leading her along with a gun to her back and a hand holding her hair tight.

She cried out as she tripped again, unable to look down thanks to his hand holding her head up with her hair. He yanked her up once more.

“Shut up and quit trying to slow me down,” Julian snapped at her.

“I can’t see where I’m going,” she reminded him.

“Like I’m just going to let you go? No. Figure it the fuck out.” The gun jabbed into her back again. “Keep fucking going.”

“Just let me go,” she pleaded. “There’s no way you’ll get away with us.”

He laughed. “You keep telling yourself that. All I need to do is submit a marriage certificate and then a birth certificate and I’m golden. Don’t really care what happens to you or the brat after that.”

“They’ll find me.”

His laugh was more sinister. “Like they did this time? Keep going.”

They were at a near running pace now. She stopped asking questions because with each answer, he pushed her to go faster.

“Awfully quiet up there. Glad you finally learned your place.”

Despite everything that was happening to her, it took genuine effort to bite back the snarky reply. Provoking him wouldn’t do any good.

She wished she had some way to leave a trail, anything to drop or mark to let them know where they were headed. People would come after her; she knew that in her heart.

Carter had to be okay. She would feel it if he wasn’t, right? They’d find him, she told herself. They had to when they didn’t come back.

“That way.” He yanked her hair to the left, leading her in that direction.

Her tears blurred her already shaky vision. She considered just dropping to the ground and refusing to move, wondered what he’d do. Probably shoot her.

Another change of direction with a yank of her hair. She had no idea where they were.

The woods were getting thicker, harder to navigate without being able to see well. In some places, Julian had to turn sideways to get between trees.

They were headed somewhere far or just taking a long way. She listened and prayed for any noise to hit her ears, some indication that people were looking for her and getting close, but nothing came.

“Up there,” Julian nudged her toward something, but she didn’t see anything in front of them.

All she saw was a mountain, and her heart sank further at the thought of attempting to climb anything as she was.

He moved in front of her and pushed some brush out of the way, revealing a cave entrance. “Get in.”

Thrust forward as her scalp wept with relief of him letting go, she had to crouch but made it in. Julian pulled all the brush back over the entrance and then turned back to her.

He went to a bag and pulled out a roll of tape, ripping off a piece. Before she could react, it went over her mouth.

“Don’t make a sound or I’ll shoot whoever comes this way.” He bent down and wrapped her ankles with more tape. “We’ll be here for a bit so get comfortable.”

Like that was possible? Her hands were shackled, her legs bound, and she could barely breathe through her nose with all the crying she’d done and was still doing.

“When the sun goes down, I’ll give you something to eat. You might as well sleep.” Julian settled back across from her, leaning against the cave wall.

They were coming, she reminded herself. Someone would find her and she would be out of this mess.

Ashley stopped focusing on Julian, content that he wasn’t going to mess with her for now. She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them, keeping her eyes on the entrance.

At this point, even an animal would be a welcome sight. Julian would need to use his gun to kill it. Then people would hear that and maybe come this way.

All she could do was watch and wait for something, anything, to happen. Julian seemed to be sleeping. He hadn’t moved since he’d leaned back and his eyes were closed.

They had all underestimated him, though, and she refused to do it again. He might be pretending, waiting for her to try to move so he could hurt her again.

“Don’t think about it.”

His voice startled her, and she tried to suck in a breath against the tape, a weird feeling that didn’t work. She didn’t look at him, refused to give in to anything he might want.

“No one is coming,” he told her. “They might have found your lover by now, but they won’t abandon him to come after you. You aren’t that important.”

She didn’t react. While she agreed that she wasn’t that important, she knew people thought she was. Her family wouldn’t have hired Carter to protect her even with no direct threat against her if they didn’t think she was.

After a while, she closed her eyes and tried to think of being anywhere else, like with Carter back at the house and no threats. He would be coming in from work and she’d have dinner waiting for him.

Luke would come visit and bring the baby and they could both learn to ride horses together. Carter owed her a ride on a horse—she hadn’t gotten that yet. He’d promised her and he better be okay to live up to that promise.

She hiccupped on more tears, doing her best to be quiet.

“Shut up. I didn’t sign up for a whiny bitch. It’s enough that I was letting you go to school while I waited for you to come to your senses. You won’t do that now.”

Let her finish school? When he released her hands, she was going to slap him. She didn’t give a shit about her safety. Fuck this dude.

He had played a good game of pretending to be a hapless idiot for the months she’d known him. Not once had she suspected a violent, crazy man was lurking beneath the surface.

She had so many questions about him. How he had faked it so well, how he had managed to evade everyone for so long.

He was more devious than she had ever suspected of this fool. Now she was here because she hadn’t taken n the threats seriously. If only she had listened to Carter back at her apartment or maybe confided in him how much she didn’t like Julian, they wouldn’t be here.