Page 48 of Forged in the Fire
Or maybe hide.
Whatever it was, I simply knew I had to get away.
Only there were footsteps behind me.
Heavy and hard.
The cool air coerced into brutality.
I ran beneath the trees.
Branches swishing and smacking against my flesh.
“Brinley!” The cruel, coarse voice curled around me, so harsh it could almost act as chains.
My heart thumped so frantically I couldn’t see as I raced through the underbrush in the darkness.
Only I could make out something in the distance.
Oh my God.
Up ahead, there was a fence.
A legit chain-link fence in the wall’s place where the forest was its thickest, one I doubted many new existed.
I could make it.
I had to.
I pushed myself as hard as I could go.
Boots pounding below me.
The fence three feet away.
Only one second before I made it, two massive arms curled around me.
A scream tore out of my lungs as I was getting tackled to the ground.
TEN
SILAS
This wasthe last thing I needed after a really bad day.
Chasing down a wildfire that blazed through the woods. Her energy torching every damned thing.
She was fuckin’ fast in those heeled boots. Still, it didn’t take me all that long to catch up to her.
My crew had cast me concerned glances when I’d come crashing out the main doors thirty seconds after her, no doubt wondering if they should jump in and help as she took a frantic jaunt into the woods.
I sent them all glares.
Stay the fuck where you are.
Told them she was off-limits, and I meant that in every regard.
No one was taking her down but me.
