by Sabrina Rue
She’d been running for almost four years and she questioned why the man continued to pursue her. He didn’t want her and there was no one left to stand for the Kassis sisters.
Why wouldn’t he let her go and forget her existence? Had she done something to cause his fury? Had she unknowingly offended him?
There was little time to question the men intent on capturing, raping, and killing her. She usually slayed them and kept running.
Above and behind, something heavy hit the roof of a building she passed in a blur.
Unfamiliar terror threatened to rise up and strangle her. She thought she heard her name, but the blood pounded too loudly in her ears to be certain.
Harmony was too tired for a distance chase and her hip hurt so fucking bad. Her only chance of survival was to put miles between herself and the hunter.
Otherwise, this time they’d catch her, beat her, and finish her rape before taking her life. Another nameless casualty in a never-ending war she did not understand.
Please. Someone help me. Please.
Crush down the fear.
Ignore the pain.
Don’t fucking think.
Just run.
CHAPTER ONE
Three days later…Lebanon, Kansas
Harmony’s stolen truck, one of more than two dozen vehicles taken and abandoned since she started running, broke down a mile from a rundown RV camping area in the middle of nowhere.
An old man and his teenage grandson towed her to the entrance and saw her settled in a secluded tent spot before tipping their hats and driving away.
She sat behind the wheel, staring through the windshield.
There was a restroom building with showers. The moment she realized what the structure was, she almost wept with happiness. It had been weeks since she’d been able to wash her entire body like a normal person.
Other than that one small slice of heaven, the site was barren. Scraggly trees, cracked parking pads for camping vehicles, a few picnic tables, and some haphazard grills were all the place offered potential customers.
“Why put a campground in a place like this?” she wondered.
Several miles outside of Lebanon, Kansas and far from any highway, there was no substantial fishing or hunting to draw outdoorsmen.
The tiny overgrown pond in the center that seemed to draw every mosquito for ten miles wasn’t even pretty.
Was she contemplating the marketing strategy of a raggedy campground?
As if she didn’t have enough to worry about without concerning herself with Bobby Joe Redneck’s bottom line.
The campground was cheap, quiet, and deserted.
No one else would be dumb enough to stay in such a location. As desperate as she was for rest, it felt like the Ritz Carlton.
With a population of 218, Lebanon’s only claim to fame was that it was the geographic center of the United States, with a monument to prove it.
It was why she and Hope chose it.
When they ran in the beginning, they stopped in Lebanon and paid the rent on a post office box five years in advance.
They couldn’t risk phones or internet, not with the power of the people chasing them. Old-fashioned snail mail was their only option and they needed a central location.
Harmony returned to the small town several times over the years to check the box. She was careful not to stay anywhere near it so she didn’t put her sister in danger. She collected a letter or two from Hope and left the ones she mailed behind for her sister.
The tiny post office she needed to visit was already closed when she broke down Saturday afternoon and was closed on Sundays.
Two nights in one place.
A dangerous proposition before the new hunter joined the chase and a lot stupider now.
She didn’t have a choice.
It had been too long since she’d been able to come this way. She needed to know if there was anything from her sister.
The three days she spent crisscrossing north, south, east, and west might have bought her enough time. She hadn’t slept in almost a week and needed food to help her body heal.
She had to make it through two nights, check the box, and get as far from the town and the post office as possible.
Her most urgent problem was getting the old truck running again. If she couldn’t, she’d have to leave it and set out on foot. The moment she had any news from Hope, she had to run. She couldn’t risk staying in such an open space for long.
It was crucial to keep moving.
Flat country made her a lot easier to track. It was dry, hot, and still. Too quiet with high visibility.
It couldn’t be helped.
She laid her forehead on the steering wheel and took several deep breaths to settle stress about situations she couldn’t do anything about.
Loneliness spread like tentacles through her chest.
As a twin, she had company before birth. Their family had always been close and their childhood was filled with laughter.
Harmony wasn’t wired to be by herself. Since she and her sister split up three years before to confuse the hunters, the overwhelming sense of isolation gradually filled her up.
She didn’t think it would ever ease.
There were only a couple of hours until sundown and she had to make them count. Sleep and something to eat wouldn’t go astray either.
Grabbing a tool bag from behind the passenger seat that belonged to the man who owned it, she popped the hood and opened the door with a heavy sigh.
By necessity, she stole older model vehicles she knew wouldn’t have alarms or satellite tracking. Unfortunately, they rarely lasted more than a few weeks at the most. This one struggled the moment she merged on the highway.
She wondered what her mom would have to say about her oldest child stealing almost thirty cars over the years but shut down that train of thought immediately.
Don’t think about it.
In her pack was a list of the vehicles, the owners listed on the insurance forms or registration she always searched for, and the cities where she took them.
She imagined people suffered when she took their cars. She knew they didn’t belong to folks who had many options.
One day, she hoped to make it right. The future intent didn’t make her feel good about stealing them in the first place.
She’d been raised better.
Stepping onto the gravel, she swallowed hard to ease the shame that curled in her gut. The early autumn air was warm but soon the temperatures would begin to drop.
She wasn’t sure what she’d do when they did. She wouldn’t make it through another winter in the open.
Trying to hole up for warmth was a good way to find yourself cornered. Almost every state had served as her temporary home since she’d started running.
Trying to stay in the warmer states the first winter had been disastrous. It was a move that was far too easy for the hunters to anticipate.
Lifting the hood completely, she felt a shiver of fear at the condition of the engine. It was worse than she realized.
Taking a roll of duct tape from the bag, she wrapped a cracked hose leading from the radiator. She taped over several frayed wires while she was at it.
Soon, she found herself sobbing at the state of the truck she was depending on to keep her going.
The tears enraged her.
“You’re fucking pathetic. Crying like a little girl. What would your father think?” She rubbed her temple when she realized she spoke aloud. “Wonderful. Pull your shit together. You don’t have time for a fucking breakdown.”
She walked around to grab another bottle of oil from a box in the bed of the truck to replace what she lost in a slow leak.
The vehicle lost fluids fast and when it started getting hot, she let it cool and added more. The old milk jug she found behind the bench seat came in handy several times. She took it with her to the restroom to fill with water.
Using the facilities, she glanced in the shower space and decid
ed it was a damn sight better than nothing. Washing her hands, she filled the jug.
The mirror above the stained sink was cracked and warped but it wasn’t the condition of the glass that made her pause.
It was her own reflection staring back at her. She’d been passably pretty once, visibly happy.
That was another life.
The person who stared back at her was someone she didn’t know. Years on the run without enough food and rest had stolen her curves and left dark circles under her eyes. Her cheeks were sunken, her lips cracked.
That she’d had no access to a shower showed in the lank and oily condition of her hair. Skin that once glowed with health and regular sunshine was greenish and splotchy.
She smelled like sweat and fear.
It seemed the more time that passed, the fewer choices she had. The reasons to keep going were getting harder to find.
As the oldest, Harmony knew she’d made mistakes. She should have protected her brother and sisters.
They were her responsibility and she’d failed them.
She ran because if she didn’t, she’d be caught, and she would die. Just as her brother died. Just as her baby sister died.
The only family she had left was the twin she abandoned in a strange city long ago. She knew her sister was still alive. Harmony would know if she wasn’t.
Hope breathed still and that meant she had to push herself to find her, to keep her safe.
Bending, she splashed water on her face and pretended the tears she washed away didn’t exist. Picking up the milk jug, she returned to the truck and got to work.
Crying and thinking about could haves and should haves didn’t do a damn bit of good.
Working her way around the engine and under the truck, she did what she could and laughed in relief when the engine finally turned over hours later.
As the truck sputtered to life, she leaned her head against the seat and listened to a song from Broken Bronco on the radio.
“No regrets, no going back, you have to believe you can make it…”
Her mind drifted, remembering. When she was a child, her mother danced and sang in their kitchen all the time.
The memory of her laughing in the brightly lit space made Harmony smile even as her heart ached. The expression felt strange on her face. Taking a deep breath, she held the sensation for as long as she could.
As the song trailed away, she cut the engine and rolled down the windows. She sat listening to the crickets until the sun disappeared over the edge of the horizon.
She felt dizzy, nauseous.
Laying across the tattered bench seat, she thought to let her stomach settle for a moment. Just a minute to be still now that she knew the truck would start.
For four years, her body gave her everything it had. Her injuries, her lack of food, her inability to rest finally caught up to her. She never would have let down her guard in a place so open and vulnerable.
Her body took the choice from her hands…and quit.
CHAPTER TWO
It had been years since Harmony knew peace. Even asleep, she re-lived her mistakes, her greatest moments of sadness.
She hadn’t seen Hope since the night they’d split up to confuse their pursuers. The hunters took them by surprise and as they ran, they realized the males were closing in too fast.
Her younger twin wasn’t fast enough to outrun them.
“We have to split up, Harmony,” Hope gasped at her side after running for more than an hour. “You’re faster than me. You can make it.”
“I’m not fucking leaving you!”
“We have a better chance if we split up and you know it. It’s harder to hide together. You know what Dad would say, what he would tell us. I know you do.”
Finally, they didn’t have a choice.
Harmony shoved her last surviving family member into a filthy dumpster, covered her most of the way with bags of garbage, and stared down into her face.
“Don’t make a sound. I’m going to lead them away.”
“Harmony…”
“Hush. I’m faster than all of them. I’ll lead them east. Stay here for an hour then run west as fast as you can. Promise me, Hope.” She nodded with tears already falling. “Send me a message in Lebanon and I’ll come for you.”
“I love you. I’m sorry I’m not fast enough.”
“You’re perfect as you are, Hope. Run and don’t look back. I love you.” Then she closed the lid.
At the end of the alley, she waited until she caught a glimpse of one of the hunters in the distance. She pretended to motion to her sister ahead of her and took off running.
For several hours, she kept the four males on the move at Hope’s pace. Repeatedly ducking through casinos and shops across Reno, she moved in the same steadily easterly direction.
The twins dressed identically from their first day on the run to confuse their pursuers and the males chasing her never realized Harmony was alone.
At the five-hour mark, she whispered to her sister, “Run far from here. Be safe.”
Then she stretched to her true speed, running at almost double the pace, and left the hunters in the dust. She put miles between them before stealing a car and driving south.
By the time they said goodbye in that alley, the sisters had been running for more than a year. Staying together, avoiding capture, and watching each other’s backs.
Harmony never should have left her twin. She knew she should have stood her ground, fought the males intent on capturing and killing them. They’d been apart too long.
It was never supposed to be like this.
In her dream, she closed the lid of that dumpster and turned to run. Behind her, a face lunged for hers, teeth bared.
Coming awake with a small gasp, she held herself still for a long time, listening. It was late, and she knew she’d slept for hours.
Hours she didn’t have.
Sitting up slowly, she inhaled carefully and looked around the campground lit only by two dim streetlights.
The open space of Kansas made her nervous. Her pursuers caught her trail easily in such places. There were few people, very little car traffic, and no heavy industrial presence to hide her. Nothing but farms and forests for miles.
Ideal conditions for the men seeking her.
Mentally considering the small post office, she knew she could get inside long enough to check her box. She needed to get back on the road tonight.
Staying here was a death sentence.
Moving to start the truck, she stared at the concrete restroom building. She needed a shower.
Being dirty wasn’t helping anything.
A small backpack on the passenger floorboard held everything she owned. It wasn’t much. She removed clean clothes she’d had a chance to wash at an all-night laundry in Indianapolis.
Taking out the little plastic bag that held her bathroom products, she slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the shower.
The spiders that inhabited the stall didn’t bother her and even though the water wasn’t very warm, it felt like heaven.
Before running for her life, she took being clean for granted. These days, standing in a dirty public bathroom and washing the oils and dirt from her long hair was a gift for which she felt sincere gratitude.
It was good to be clean again, to feel dirt slide from her body.
When she was done, Harmony didn’t turn off the water. She stood beneath the spray for a long time to think.
Nothing in her life or the lives of her siblings had gone the way it was meant to after the deaths of their parents. It was foolish to wish things were different.
Only children believed wishing accomplished anything.
As the moonlight slanted through the high windows cut in the brick, she took a rare moment to calm her mind and take stock of herself physically.
The tenderness of her breasts and the throb in her low belly alarmed her. She didn’t know how long she could ignore the symptoms or the cause.
The thought brought more tears. Crossing her arms on the rough wall, she rested her face there and allowed herself to cry brokenly until she had nothing left.
“No more crying. Enjoy the peace while you can.”
Shaking off her temporary weakness, she scrubbed herself again simply because she could, being careful around the lacerations that were clearly infected.
Despite her injuries, she felt better mentally than she had in a long time. Shutting off the water, she dried her body and placed a strong ointment and bandages over her open wounds.
It was the absolute silence that warned her.
Every animal and bug in the nearby forest seemed to hold their breath. Even the breeze had fallen silent.
Fear shot down Harmony’s spine hard and fast, but she focused on what she had to do.
Quickly dragging on her clothes, she stepped into worn trail runners. Knowing it was going to come down to another footrace, she took the time to tie them.
Glad she’d thought to leave the lights off in the restroom, she peeked through the crack in the door without moving it. Two men stood beside the truck a hundred feet away.
She had to leave it. Again, not worth her life. Hell, she was beginning to wonder what her life was actually worth. Someone obviously thought she was worth a lot more dead.
Gripping her pack tightly, she edged through the narrow space in silence. She made her way along the wall toward the side of the building that faced away from the men.
Inhaling carefully, her nostrils flared as she caught the one scent she’d been too distracted to notice.
Too late.
Her pack hit the concrete at her feet as strong fingers wrapped around her throat in a vise grip. She was pulled roughly to the chest of the man who’d been waiting for her.
A man she recognized on a cellular level though they’d never met. A massive arm pressed across her diaphragm, cutting off her ability to move or expand her lungs in a full breath.
She closed her eyes and accepted that it had all been for nothing. Not one thing she’d done or endured was going to make a damn bit of difference in the end.