Unbroken

“You kill me, and you don’t get shit—”

“Who says I’m here foryou?”

Leo didn’t respond for a moment. I stared at him, holding my breath, telling myself he had to make things better. This was Leo. He had control of everything around him—he could get us out of this.Please. Please.

In hindsight, I’d stared at Leo as my sole hope without realizing that Hunter was there, quiet, assessing the situation. Hunter, a giant savage among them, and they had completely overlooked him.

As had I.

“Tell me how this will go,” Leo said quietly now.

“We’re going to take the girl,” the man continued, and as he spoke, the thin man that had taken me out here closed in on me. My body stiffened as he drew near, his gun held loose at his side. “Then we are going to send you instructions—”

“What are you going to do to her?”

The big man’s head turned to look at me. “The whore will be looked after.”

Leo was fighting to restrain himself. “You don’t touch her—”

“I’ll fucking do whatever the fuck I want, so that should incentivize you to hurry the fuck along—”

Hunter’s form suddenly moved. His movements were so quick, I barely had time to notice what he was doing—

His giant form rose and ran to the man as he spoke. Hunter’s frame slammed into his front with such force, the man fell suddenly on his back, and among the sudden chaos as shouts erupted, Hunter’s scream tore through the air.

“SKYE, RUN!”

Something in his voice, his desperation, his firm demand—it shot straight through me, tearing through my hysteria, my numbness.

I stared up at the thin man as he turned to look down at me, his grip around the gun tightening. I didn’t give him a chance to catch me. I spun around and bolted into the forest.

“RUN!” Hunter’s voice continued to rock the earth. “RUN!”

I disappeared in the forest just as bullets tore into the night sky. I jumped, crying out, half-expecting the bullets to tear through my back, but nothing hit me, so I ran faster, my bare feet cutting into spiked branches.

Hunter’s agonized shouts mixed with Leo’s hysteria. I nearly spun around and went back, but adrenaline prompted me forward, into the heavy bush.

Into the darkness.