1. Winter

ONE

WINTER

T he force of my terror steals my vision for several seconds. My throat closes, and the tension narrowing my windpipe makes me dizzy.

I teeter on the fragile, ragged edge of insanity.

"Adam?" I croak, unbelieving.

He accelerates the car in response, taking us from fifty miles per hour on the dark country road to well over eighty.

"Adam!" The force of the inertia causes my arms to fling out wildly, and I scramble to reach the door.

I have to get out I have to get out get out get out getoutgetoutgetOUTOUTOUTOUT?—

I scream again, a deep, guttural, ear-shattering scream, and Adam yells even louder to drown out my voice. Where mine is desperate, his is mocking.

Our voices rise to a piercing crescendo.

Get out. Get out. Get! Out!

My useless fingernails pad at the skin of his throat when I fling my body toward the back of the driver's seat, so I wrap my arm around his neck, squeezing with all my might.

I don't know what I expect to happen—but when he slams on the brakes while veering the car off the road, I'm caught off guard. My body launches over the center console, and my back hits the dashboard. The gearshift presses against my spine.

I don't have a moment to orient myself before he grabs my hair, pins cascading everywhere, and pulls me from the Tahoe headfirst. Without the protection of my wool coat, the bite of the freezing rain against my skin feels like needles.

"Stop!" I beg, my hand clawing at his wrist as he drags me out the driver's side door, and I crash into the rocky asphalt. Muddy slush paints my dress.

He kicks me in the side, and the world spins. I can't catch my breath.

The delicate straps of my shoes that looked so fashionable online snap under the strain. They hang off my ankles, useless.

He pins me face down against the hood of the car.

"God, no! Stop." Snot clogs my burning nose, making it feel impossible to breathe. I weep. Suffocating. Terrified.

I almost die when Adam presses his body into me.

He breathes in deeply, his face next to mine.

"Winter, Winter, Winter..." He breathes only a little harder than normal, and his pants warm my cheek. His straight white teeth flash in the darkness of the back road.

The headlights from the idling SUV are our only light source.

"You've been a bad girl, Winter. Are you not happy to see me? You haven't missed me?"

I turn my face away from him, not wanting to see him.

He presses further into me.

I swallow down bile.

"Why are you here, Adam? How?" Tremors wrack my body, and not just from the cold.

"Why am I here? Well, that's easy. The Commonwealth of Virginia decided I was rehabilitated enough to be in society. I've shown adequate remorse to be released and live as a free man. Except, no. I'm not free. I have nothing because of you. I get the privilege of living my life as a registered sex offender—because of you."

He presses deeper against me, and my pelvic bone screams against the hard metal of the fender.

"You wrecked my life, Winter. So I'm going to wreck yours." He kisses my cheek and then licks it from jaw to hairline.

"So that's why I'm here, Winter. You're mine to fuck with. You're mine to have whenever I want you. You're mine to ruin."

"Fuck off—" I stop talking when he grabs my throat, choking me.

" Tsk-tsk , Winter. Use sweet words, princess."

I gasp for air and retch when he decides to let my neck go several tense seconds later. I collapse against the hood.

"Adam, please, you don't have to do this." The restriction in my throat from pure terror turns my plea into a whisper.

One.

One-two-one.

One-two-three-two-one.

"Winter," he sighs, rubbing his face into mine.

"Let me go."

He tsk s.

"Oh, Winter, don't you know?" He spins me around and hauls me to his body. When he runs a hand up my ripped skirt, everything within me tenses. "I'll never let you go."

He grasps my ass cheek, clawing the flesh with no mercy. His fingers bruise me.

"No judge," he rips my skirt in two.

"No jury," he tears the spaghetti straps of my top.

"Nobody can keep me away from you. You're mine until your last breath, Winter."

He wrenches the entire dress off me. The strapless bra and thong do nothing to protect me from the elements. They do nothing to protect me from his gaze. His ownership.

"But you forgot that, didn't you, Winter?"

My sobs fall on deaf ears. "Please, just let me go."

He pretends to think about it for a minute.

"Nah," he says happily. "It's just you and me, baby." He runs the back of his hand down my twitching cheek.

"I'll forgive your sins eventually, princess," he snaps. His face morphs as quick as a lightning strike.

"W-What?" He presses his body even harder against mine, and I try to force my hands between us to cover myself. To protect myself from him.

I'm cold. I'm so, so cold.

"I'll forgive you, eventually. But you're going to have to earn it."

He shoves me to my knees. His cock is right in front of my face, pressing against the stiff fabric of his tactical pants.

"You remember how I like it. Right, Winter?"

I throw up all over his pants and shoes.

"Fuck!" he roars, and then he kicks me in the side again.

Static dances around the edge of my vision as I collapse on the ground into a puddle of half-digested champagne and canapés.

He kicks me again and again, pulls me up, and then punches me in the eye.

The socket crunches.

"Adam, please stop!" With the plea bursting through my bloodied lips, I flip onto my knees to crawl. Pebbles dig into my flesh. I place my hands in prayer in front of my chest—muscle memory from our days together.

His face morphs from maniacal rage into a soft horror.

"Oh, Winter. Beautiful Winter," he says. He grabs my face, and I flinch away. His expression hardens.

"Don't move away from me," he says with a dead voice. He brings his hand back to my face, and his fingers whisper over the swelling beneath my eye.

"You'll look ugly for days after this," he says with a sigh.

Headlights cut into the darkness. The lights are far off. So far off. Too far off.

But still, I gather all my strength and lurch toward the road.

I hear him mutter "shit" when he sees the lights too. He grabs my leg, dragging me back onto the hard asphalt.

"Why couldn't you just be good, Winter?"

With one last hot breath, I slip into unconsciousness as his fist smashes my face.