Chapters (43)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Readers Guide
- QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Andra opened her mouth to scream, and every tendon inside her locked, the air in her lungs hardening into stone in an instant.
Nineteen
Andra’s vision flashed between her ceiling and the web-strewn ceiling of a rental house far away. She couldn’t leave this place. Couldn’t move, could never leave. Fingernails raked down the insides of her lungs, ripping delicate tissue and leaving fire in their wake. On top of her, LJ froze.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the ceiling, but in her peripheral vision, she saw his head lift as if to see her expression. As soon as he did, he pulled out. “Andra. Andie-girl, stay with me, now.”
His hands cupped her face, and they were every bit as warm as they had been seconds ago, but nothing could touch her now. Terror roared through her, and her body revolted. Every beat of her heart stretched it to bursting, and it couldn’t hold out.
“Look at me,” LJ demanded, tilting her face away from the ceiling and toward his face. Brown eyes waited for her, held hers. “You’re all right,” he promised. “I am never going to hurt you, girl. Not ever.”
She believed him. She knew she was in her cottage now, not that old rented house where Gavin had chained her down like an animal. But it didn’t change anything, because her body was broken, and it was suffocating her. LJ was going to watch her die.
She could still feel the cuffs on her wrists, the burn of worn flesh against uncaring metal. She couldn’t get away. Couldn’t breathe. Her vision started to gray around the edges, and Andra knew it was about to happen.
She couldn’t die here.
She exploded off the bed, hitting the floor. Her chin burned where it scraped the carpet, but she didn’t care. She flung herself across the room and landed in a heap at the base of the window. She watched her hands clawing at the windowsill before she remembered the latch was up higher.
“Andra, what are you doing? Where are you going? I’m leaving,” he said, his voice receding. “I’m all the way out in the hallway now, okay? You don’t have to run from me. I’m going.”
Her arm was so heavy, but she couldn’t die here. Couldn’t make him watch. She shoved her arm up high enough to get the latch, pushing it open and then throwing the window up.
Air poured in, and her hands gripped the sill. She was free. She was out. She choked down one breath, then two. Outside, it was twilight, wind riffling through the open grass. There was no pavement. No street. No silent doors waiting in judgment of her. She sagged, her forehead hitting the cool paint of the sill.