He touched her cheek tenderly, smiling at her reflection in the mirror as he did.
“Are you ready to eat?” he asked her.
“So ready.”
“Good. While you were asleep, I went into town and got some food. I think you’ll be pleased with the selection. Get dressed and come to the kitchen.”
Samantha was glad that he’d turned away when he did. When he’d admitted to leaving her alone, she was furious - with herself. He’d been gone long enough to go all the way into town and she’d slept right through it. She wanted to scream. Why, oh why had she let herself fall asleep like that?
Samantha hurriedly finished getting ready, splashing water on her face to hide the hot tears that flowed for a moment.
It wasn’t fair. But she’d tried her best to stay awake, and she’d ended up nearly passing out where she stood while she was searching through the bathroom for something to open the door’s lock with. She’d made a decision then, to take care of herself and give her body some time to heal. It had been the right thing to do and she was glad that she’d made the decision, even if she’d missed a prime opportunity in the process.
She dressed practically, in a loose, long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans that she wore to hike in. She pulled on her sneakers and laced them up, hoping that he liked what she was wearing. She wasn’t doing it to impress him, but if that turned out to be an unintended side-effect, she wasn’t going to complain. If there was one thing that she’d learned about shifters, it was that they didn’t like frail, wispy women. They liked their women tough and athletic, and Samantha wasn’t above playing into that. She was in survival mode, and there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do to get out of this alive.
It’s not like she could just wait around to be saved anyway. No one knew where she was, and she doubted that Mabel knew where her brother was. She didn’t even know that Samantha was missing. No, because by deciding to deal with this on her own, she’d pretty much sealed her fate. No one knew where she was going and no one knew that she was in trouble.
But, after what happened, why wouldn’t she run on her own? Just over a year ago, she’d gone through the proper motions, filing multiple police reports after each and every incident. Even then, she’d still been left vulnerable with no protection against an unknown stalker.
There were days where she couldn’t even leave her house, she was so worried that she would see her stalker on the street and not even recognize that it was him. Eventually, the stress of always feeling exposed kept her inside. The night that he broke into her home and whispered those words in her ear when he’d thought she was sleeping had been the last straw. She’d packed her things that night and moved into a hotel until she could find something better and safer.
And now here she was, exactly where she’d started. Only this time, she knew who her stalker was, and she had a plan. It might not be a very good plan, but it was all she had at the moment.
Mentally preparing herself, she walked down the hall and joined Grant at the breakfast table. The smell of food was all at once heavenly and nauseating. Grant put a plate in front of her with a flourish, clearly proud of his mad egg scrambling skills. Any other day, she would have laughed, enjoying the sweet gesture coming from someone who obviously didn’t know how to cook. But all she could muster was a weak smile.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice just above a whisper.
“Is your head still bothering you?”
“Just a little. The sound of my own voice kind of sets it off, but as long as I don’t move too quickly, I feel pretty fine.”
He reached out, gently pushing a strand of hair out of her face. His touch repulsed her. She felt legitimately ill, and struggled not to pull back in disgust.
“Hopefully, you’ll feel much better tonight. I had high hopes for our second night in our new home.”
He looked at her suggestively, but she was already reeling. No, just no. There was no way that she was going to make love to this man, even if her life was at stake. She’d rather die. She had to come up with something and fast.
“About that,” she began, still not sure what she was going to say. Then it hit her. “Well, I was hoping you’d thought to bring some supplies up here, or maybe you brought something after your trip into town.”
She put her hands on her stomach and doubled over just a bit for effect.
“Because it seems that my head isn’t the only reason I’m not feeling good and I don’t have much time before that becomes an embarrassing issue.”
Grant’s face was blank. He had no idea what she was getting at. She took a deep breath and sighed dramatically.
“If you’re not comfortable buying feminine products, I could go with. But I really don’t feel up to a trip into town.”
Grant wrinkled his nose in disgust when realization finally dawned. Suddenly, his plans for the evening had changed drastically. It was just as well. If everything went according to plan, Samantha wouldn’t be around that evening anyway.
“You don’t need to go into town,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “I can get what you need, but you have to write it down on a piece of paper or something.”
“I will. Thank you. I need more sleep. I’m already tired just from sitting here and eating this delicious meal.”
She smiled warmly at him. He handed her a small piece of paper and a pen, and she quickly wrote down what she “needed”. She hoped that the list would keep him occupied. She needed all the time she could get.
Sliding the paper across the table to him, she almost laughed when he looked at it with such disdain before putting it into his pocket.
“Thank you for taking such good care of me. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for so long,” he said, puffing his chest out with pride at her compliments. “You need a real man to take care of you. I want to protect you from the world out there. There is so much to be scared of; I just want to make sure that you’re safe.”
Samantha smiled back at him, trying to hide her excitement. He’d bought it, hook, line and sinker. She finished the last few bites of her eggs and drank her orange juice. When she stood up, she made it a point to do it slowly, exaggerating her unsteadiness and shuffling slowly for the hallway.
She turned, keeping her hand on the counter to “steady” herself, even though she was feeling even better than she had before she ate.
“Could you help me?”
“Of course,” he said. “To bed or?”
“I need to go to bed, but I’m still feeling really thirsty. Can you bring a few water bottles for me? I’m just so thirsty.”
“Of course. You run along and I’ll be there to tuck you in, in a minute.”
She continued on her slow, steady pace, running her fingers along the wall for added effect. She climbed into bed when she reached the room, rolling onto her side and watching the hallway for him.
Don’t fall asleep, she chided herself, even as her eyelids threatened to close. As promised, he appeared with water, three bottles in all. He set them on the nightstand and bent over to kiss her cheek.
“I’m leaving to go into town. Do you need anything else, besides those things?”
“I wrote everything I needed on the list. I’m a simple girl.”
“That’s what I love about you,” he said, stealing a quick kiss on the cheek before he walked out of the room and headed straight for the front door.
The loud engine of his high-powered sports car roared to life and she heard him driving off with spinning tires, gravel flung everywhere in his wake.
Samantha waited until the engine noise faded away and got out of bed. She flung open the closet door, happy to see her empty shoulder bag that had once held her toiletries shoved into the suitcase. It wouldn’t hold much, but it would do its job. She didn’t know how long she was going to be in the woods, and she wanted to give herself every advantage possible.
She shoved the bottles of water into
the bag, walking cautiously through the house. She didn’t think that he’d somehow managed to fake leaving the house, but she wasn’t willing to bet her life on it.
When she found the house empty, she stepped out onto the back porch and looked into the carport.
Grant’s car was gone, but her car sat right there, in the carport. She didn’t have to run; she could just drive away! She let out a whoop of triumph. She hurried into the carport, grabbing the driver’s door handle and giving it a yank. It didn’t budge.
Something crunched beneath her boots, and Samantha’s heart sank when she looked down. It was in a million pieces, so it was hard to recognize, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what all the tiny bits of metal and plastic used to be.
He’d destroyed her key fob, effectively rendering her car completely useless. Even if she could break the window and hotwire the engine, which was doubtful, there was still the problem with the fact that the alarm would be blaring the entire time she was driving.
She’d be a sitting duck.
Plus, she didn’t know how to hotwire a car, or how long it would take. It was a bad idea and would cost her precious minutes when she didn’t have any to spare. And if it didn’t work, then she wouldn’t have nearly as much time to run.
She was almost in tears when she turned away from the car and went back into the house, but she knew it was the right thing to do.
She was sticking to plan A.
CHAPTER 13
Samantha rummaged through the drawers in the kitchen, careful not to leave a mess but working as quickly as she could. She was elated when she found a box of granola bars and other dry foods that she could pack in the bag. She grabbed two more waters and shoved them into the bag, testing the weight before rushing towards the bedroom, making quick work of her plan.
She wrapped the blankets around the pillows so that it would appear in the low light that Samantha was asleep in the bed. With any luck, Grant would leave “Samantha” alone long enough to buy her some extra time. She was hoping that it would take him awhile to even wonder why she was still sleeping. The drive into town was plenty of time for her to get into the woods and get lost, but any more time she could spare herself could only work in her favor.
She grabbed the only jacket she’d thought to bring out of the closet and tied it around her waist. She was ready to go. Well, as ready as she would ever be.
She checked her watch. It had been less than ten minutes since Grant left. The grocery store was much further into town than the deli, so she should have at least an hour, if not more. On a good day, she might be able to cover the ground between her house and this place, and maybe even make it home before Grant was onto her. But her pace was slowed by the throbbing head wound, and the trails between there and her home were uphill. There was no way that she would make it more than halfway before he realized she was gone. He’d catch her in no time, especially if he shifted.
She couldn’t go to the road. Rarely traveled, she would likely just end up walking right into Grant. No, the only option was to head east and hope that she got to the ranger’s station and the more heavily populated areas of the woods before Grant found her.
Looking through the front window to make sure that Grant wasn’t coming back down the road or waiting out of sight of the back of the house for her to try something, Samantha was overjoyed to see that the road was empty. She was cautiously optimistic, checking the window by the back door before she stepped out of it and took off as fast as she could across the open field to the forest beyond.
She felt exposed, but there was nothing to do. She tried once to jog, but the pain in her head was excruciating by the third step. Her brisk walk ate up the distance at a maddeningly slow pace, though she knew that only a few minutes had passed.
Samantha didn’t relax until she was safely hidden among the trees. There was no clear path where she was, which made the going a little slower, but also didn’t leave obvious footprints the way the muddy trail between there and her house would.
She was breathing heavy when she stopped, turning back to check her progress. The dense trees completely obstructed her view of the open field.
Good, she thought, that will make it harder for me to be found.
Energized by the fact that she had been in the woods for almost twenty minutes and she was still free, she pushed on. She headed directly east, mentally ticking off the distance with each passing minute. At this pace, she’d be on the other side of the forest before dark.
Until then, she had to keep moving.
***
Grant pulled onto the highway, grumbling under his breath about his bad luck. Samantha had finally come to her senses and admitted their love. He’d been excited, seeing how she’d changed and blossomed under his strong care.
He had let her sleep half the day away, thinking that she would need her rest for the night ahead. When she’d dropped that bombshell, Grant had been irritated to say the least, but what was he going to do about it? Nothing of course. He’d waited for almost two years to have her, and now Grant was going to have to wait a little longer.
There was a car ahead of him, an elegant sedan that screamed money without being flashy. Grant watched as the car turned down Samantha’s old road, and he wondered briefly if it was the Locke twins, going to see Samantha again, though she couldn’t have invited them. He laughed to himself, thinking with smug satisfaction that they would never find her, and wishing that he could be a fly on the wall when they first saw her house.
He pushed the thought aside as quickly as it had popped up. Samantha’s neighborhood had more than ten houses; the sedan could be going anywhere. Still, he enjoyed the thought of the pair of them coming upon Samantha’s house to find that she’d moved on without so much as a word to them.
He pulled himself back to the task at hand, groaning inwardly over what he had to do. As mad as he was about the change in plans in the bedroom, the worst was the shopping list. What kind of man went shopping for feminine products? Not real men, he thought. No, real men like Grant would never do such a thing. But what choice did he have?
He’d told her several times that her head didn’t look that bad, but the truth of the matter was, it was worse than she thought. He’d almost taken her to the hospital last night, but he couldn’t risk it. He briefly considered dropping her on the sidewalk outside the ER, but it wouldn’t take long, with all the security cameras, for them to figure out who had abandoned her there. And then he would have to explain it to the police.
That was the last thing he’d wanted.
So he’d given her something to help the pain and help her sleep, hoping that she would wake up in the morning. He knew he shouldn’t let her sleep, and that she needed medical attention immediately, but he couldn’t do it. The risk was just too great. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Samantha. It’s just that Grant loved himself so much more.
Samantha had surprised him. He expected her to fight, or at least give him the silent treatment for a few days before she came around. But she’d been compliant and exceptionally sweet since she woke up. It was a pleasant departure from his expectations. Maybe she had loved him all along and was just finally willing to admit it.
Or maybe he’d slammed her head a little too hard.
The whole thing reminded him of one of the heroines in her books. Faced with an arranged marriage that she wanted no part in, the character Franny Sutton had made a complete about face and fallen in love with her future husband. It wasn’t until he released her and she disappeared into the night that he realized she had played him and that-
Tires squealed on the payment and Grant slammed his hands on the wheel in anger.
“That stupid bitch!” he yelled, turning the wheel and flipping the car around without bothering to look for oncoming traffic.
Of course he was reminded of Franny Sutton. How could he have been such a fool? The reason that Samantha was so complacent wasn’t because she’d had a revelation. It was because she was
playing him. And he’d fallen for it like the world’s biggest fool.
He looked at the clock, trying to remember exactly what time he’d left the house and coming up dry. He didn’t know when he’d left, and he didn’t know exactly how far into his trip into to town he’d made it. He’d been so lost in thought that he’d completely lost track of time. It couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. At the most, he’d been gone forty-five minutes, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” he shrieked, so angry that spittle flew from his mouth.
Samantha was going to pay for this, and next time, he wouldn’t be fooled. He mapped the distance between her house and his in his head, trying to figure out how far south she could have gotten, even though he didn’t know the exact timeframe. Going uphill and with her injury, it should take her-
He stopped, laughing humorlessly at his train of thought. And what about her injury? Was she even hurt that bad? The gash looked awful, but maybe the injury was only superficial. The wobbly gait, the slow, pained movements that had torn at his heart, had those all been faked?
He couldn’t be sure, and that fact infuriated him more than anything. He didn’t know for certain if Samantha was even injured or if she’d been faking all along. He couldn’t trust her and from here on out, everything she said would be suspect. That was going to have to be fixed. He couldn’t live a life where he couldn’t trust his soulmate.
It suddenly all made sense; the long-sleeved shirt in a light tan color, jeans and running shoes, even though she wasn’t going anywhere. She’d sent him to the grocery store with the intention of running away.
She wasn’t even going to say goodbye. Maybe that wasn’t the worst part, but it definitely upset Grant more than he thought it should have. It was like she didn’t appreciate everything he’d done for her, and Grant couldn’t stand that in a woman.
Flooring the accelerator and pushing the car around the treacherous turns, he went over his plan in his head. First, he was going to catch her. Once that happened, she was going to be sorry for how she’d betrayed him. He would never again take anything she said at face value, and he would never let her out of his sight again. If he did, Samantha could bet that she would find herself shackled to the bed, just so he didn’t have to worry about her.
Her Tiger Twins Page 13