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Chapter 48

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

ZAIN

I'm halfway up the stairs when I hear the door slam. It takes me a second or two to figure out what the noise is.

Fuck.

I underestimated her.

I thought watching the two recordings would break her, showing just how bad a situation she's put herself in.

I thought hearing the truth of what she did would force her to see that she deserves what I'm doing.

I thought it would be safe to leave her alone to eat, while I collected her clothes.

I thought wrong.

I enter the kitchen just in time to see her through the window, running toward the gate at the end of the yard.

There's a part of me that's impressed by the way she hasn't let the fact she's almost naked stop her from trying to escape.

But it won't help her. I'm not going to let her get away from me that easily.

And now she's just made things for herself a whole lot worse.

I don' t hurry as I follow her. She's crashing around so much, it's easy to locate her. When I call her name, she curses.

Clearly not a woman who's spent much time in the wilderness. She has no idea how to hide where she's going. It's been a long time since I've tracked anything through this forest, but the years I spent out here with Jason camping and fooling around when we were kids comes to my aid now.

I look for broken branches, half prints in the dirt, and listen for when the birds stop singing.

All clues which lead me in the same direction as her.

And then I see her. A pale flash a few yards ahead of me.

"Ashley, why are you wasting your time? You can't get away from me."

She glances back at me, and puts on a burst of speed, then disappears.

Screams echo through the trees a second later … and then silence.

I frown, tilting my head to listen.

Nothing .

When I reach the spot where she's disappeared, it takes me a minute to spot her. My eyes lock onto the still form at the bottom of the steep hill.

Oh fuck, no.

The image of her lifeless body, the fire in her eyes absent, fills my mind, and my heart skips a beat.

I shake my head, disrupting the image.

If she's dead, I'm going to end up back in prison .

I make my way down the hill carefully. Rushing isn't going to solve anything, and if I slip and break something then neither of us are getting back to the house any time soon.

When I finally reach her, she still hasn't moved. I crouch down beside her.

"Ashley?"

She doesn't respond. She's lying face down, her head toward me, her eyes closed. There's an ugly bruise forming above her right eye.

" Ashley ?" I press two fingers against the base of her throat, and ignore the surge of relief when her pulse beats strongly against them.

I don't want her dead. That's not a part of my plan.

I run my hands over her arms and legs. There are scratches, but it doesn't feel like anything is broken. Carefully, I roll her over. There's a small cut on her shoulder, but other than that she's breathing steadily.

If I had to guess, I'd say she hit her head on the way down the hill and knocked herself out.

I stand up and look around. There's no way I'm going to be able to carry her back up the hill, so I need to find another way. I check the pulse in her throat once more, then take a quick look around. It takes me a couple of minutes, but I finally find a small trail that leads back in the direction I need to go, and I make my way back to Ashley.

Her eyes are open when I reach her, and she has one hand pressed against her forehead.

When I move into view, she freezes .

"Leave me alone." Her voice comes out raspy and low.

"Can you stand?"

"Why? So you can push me down again? Didn't get to see me fall the first time, so need me to repeat it? Is that how you're planning to get your kicks now?"

I guess the fall hasn't broken her any more than forcing her to sleep in her brother's bedroom, or watching the recording of our interviews has.

"An interesting suggestion, but no." I'm not going to admit that I'm glad she's awake and fighting with me. "I thought you might like to go back to the house and get cleaned up."

"No, I don't want to go back to that house. Why the hell do you think I'm out here?"

She flattens her palms against the ground and pushes, only to fall back with a small cry.

"I think you've wrenched your shoulder."

The angry glare she sends my way makes it clear she doesn't appreciate my input.

"If it was dislocated, it'd hurt a lot more." I hold out a hand.

She scowls at me.

"You clearly can't stand up alone."

"Wouldn't you prefer to just leave me here?"

"I was the last person seen with you. Do you really think I'm going to risk being investigated for your disappearance?"

"You're risking being arrested for blackmail and kidnapping, so why not?"

"You're going to find that hard to prove when you've been seen getting into my car, and kissing me in public." I walk around until I'm on the opposite side to her injured shoulder, then bend and carefully lift her up into my arms.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Put me down!" She aims a punch at my shoulder, then lets her arm fall with another pained cry.

I set off back toward the house, concentrating on looking where I'm walking, and not on the fact she's pressed against me, or how warm her body feels.

"If you don't stop struggling, I'm going to drop you on your ass."

"I can walk."

"I don't care."

I don't. I don't care how light she is. I don't care how the little whimpers she makes if I bounce her makes me want to be more careful.

I. Don't. Care.

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