Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
She smiled and passed me a basket. I took a large slice of homemade bread.
“You want to keep Moonshine here and I’ll drive you back to your place?” Billy asked.
Glancing toward the window, I frowned. The storm had pushed on through, and now a light rain fell. “The temperature hasn’t dropped much, and I could use the quiet.”
“Suit yourself,” Billy stated as he stood. “Leftovers?”
“I’ll take a bowl, if you don’t mind.”
MaryAnne stood as well. “I don’t mind at all.”
While Billy and I cleared the table, MaryAnne fixed me up a to-go box. When she handed it to me, she winked. “I put in some extra bread. I know how much you like it.”
“Thanks, MaryAnne. And thanks for letting me stay for dinner.”
She reached up and kissed me on the cheek. “You bet. Be careful riding back.”
After saying my goodbyes and putting the leftovers in my small pack, I got up onto Moonshine and we started the trek back to my house. I’d built the house when my folks were still alive, and my mother could never understand why I’d placed it so far from the original ranch house, where Billy and MaryAnne now lived. I wanted to be closer to the working barns and cattle—and far from my parents. I wanted to distance myself from my folks, specifically to prove I could run the ranch independently. It was only a few minutes’ drive, but on horseback, it took a bit longer to get between houses, especially on a night when it had been raining so hard.
I pulled up my hood, and we started toward home. As I approached a small hill, I saw something in the distance. Squinting, I tried to see if it was a younger cow that had maybe gotten lost. The closer I got, the harder my heart started to pound. Moonshine began to get antsy.
“Holy shit,” I whispered when I realized what I was looking at, before I kicked my horse and he took off galloping.
I practically jumped off Moonshine when I finally pulled back on his reins. Once off the horse, I ran over to the body on the ground and fell to my knees. Turning the person over, my heart dropped to my stomach.
“It’s a woman,” I said aloud, glancing around to see if anyone else was nearby. When I looked back down at her, she tried to speak, but she was clearly so weak she could hardly move her lips.
“Shh. I’ve got you. It’s okay,” I said as I scooped her up and quickly carried her over to Moonshine. “We need to get you out of the weather and warmed up,” I said as I somehow managed to put her over Moonshine and then climb on his back. I pulled her up against my body to warm her. I squeezed Moonshine with my thighs ever so softly, and he began heading toward home.
CHAPTER THREE
Mallory
I couldn’t run anymore. I was exhausted and had been running for two days. Cold, tired, and hungry, I climbed over a fence and stared at the vast land before me.
“Where…am…I?” I whispered, seeing nothing but an endless pastureland for miles.
After I’d hit that monster on the head with the brick I’d wrangled free, I ran as fast as I could out the open door, his moans of pain growing more distant with each step. I’d been in a barn, I realized after I climbed the steps. I needed to get as far away from my kidnapper as possible, so I did the only thing I could do—I ran fast and hard.
Ignoring the pain in my feet and in my entire body as I ran over rocks, sticks, water, and through two storms. Two violent storms. But I couldn’t stop. For all I knew, he was right behind me, only minutes away. I climbed over fences when I couldn’t get under them. I jumped over holes when I couldn’t see how deep they were. Nothing was going to stop me.
I ran for my life, until I could no longer run at all. Collapsing, I found myself on the hard ground, praying this wasn’t how I was going to die.
Until warm arms engulfed me. My heart thundered in my chest, and I wanted to call out in protest, but I had no energy to even utter a single word. I prayed it was a savior, and not my captor.
I tried to say something but was so exhausted, I couldn’t speak.
“Shh, I’ve got you. It’s okay.” He said these things as he carried me over to a horse.
Thank you, God. It’s not him.
His words were soothing, and seconds later, I buried my face against his chest as he had his horse ride a bit faster. His deep voice woke me as I started to doze back to sleep.
“We’re almost there. Hang on.”