She stuck her tongue out at him, and Matthew bent over, catching her mouth in a kiss before she could pull it back. Grinning, he pulled away.

“That’s better.” He grinned, giving her a sexy wink, which relieved most of her fear.

She was unable to take her eyes off his sexy stride as he walked away toward her trailer. Looking around on the ground for a stick to use to roast the marshmallows with, she saw a couple, but that would have involved her getting up, which she had promised Matthew she wouldn’t do.

She brought her eyes back to the firepit when her cell phone buzzed, showing she had a text message. She opened the phone and went to her text messages, and her blood turned cold when she read it.

Run, bitch. I’m counting to ten, and then I’m coming for you.

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Alanna jumped up from the chair, staring down at her phone. She was given to the count of ten to hide.

The silly childhood game had been turned into a nightmarish match of wits between her and Kate. If she won, the night was spent cowering in fear of being caught until the sun rose in the morning. If Kate won, she would drag her to Owen’s room to let him abuse her while she played look-out for their foster parents.

When Kate had started forcing her to play the game, she had invariably lost until one night she tried to climb out her bedroom window, uncaring if she would be hurt if she fell. Truthfully, she had reached the point of not caring if she survived. Anything was better than Owen hurting her the way he got a sick pleasure out of doing to her.

She climbed out of the window and was partially out when she heard the wind tell her to go back in.

Staring down at the concrete patio below, she pushed herself out farther, determined not to let Kate find her. Her time was running out, and she was just imagining the voice … until she heard it again.

I’ll help you hide. Leave the window open.

Climbing back inside like the wind told her to, she snuck downstairs and hid under Mrs. Fields’s piano. She had never tried to hide downstairs.

She made it through the night unscathed. That was the first time she had won against Kate. She didn’t always win. Sometimes, Kate cheated by not counting when she didn’t do something Kate wanted done, but she was winning more than she had lost, especially when she started leaving a window open in her room.