Lexi Hill stared at the killer, speechless.
Did he expect her to believe a single word he said?
Lexi kept hoping this was some kind of nightmare she could wake up from but she knew it wasn’t. The pain was real enough. The coarse ropes Ted and Buddy used to restrain her started to cut into her wrists and ankles.
She gritted her teeth, ignored the pain because she had a bigger problem at hand.
The psychotic stranger simply watched her, not saying anything else. He scared her shitless.
He must be six-foot-seven and every inch of him was made up of solid muscle.
Under different circumstances, Lexi would’ve called him handsome, but in a rough kind of way.
He wore a flannel shirt, worn jeans, and boots. Lexi couldn’t tell what color his shirt originally was because there were dark crimson spots over it. She shivered involuntarily.
Blood covered him from head to toe, even his face, his beard, and his dark hair.
His forest green eyes glittered oddly under the moonlight. They appeared almost black. The expression on his face was hard to read.
She never thought a human could move that inhumanly fast or act so brutally. Well, that wasn’t completely true.
Just hours ago, she’d lost faith in her brother, in humanity. She still had on the cheap white dress her brother made her wear for the exchange. Lying there with her cheek pressed against the dirt, Lexi thought tonight was her last one on earth.
Hell, she even prayed for a quick death. Lexi silently hoped Ted and Buddy would get tired of her quickly. The odds were stacked against her and yet she was still breathing.
Lexi was still in one piece.
“Who are you?” She asked.
She flinched when he pulled out his hunting knife but he only used it to cut off the ropes binding her limbs.
“Ryder,” he said.
Ryder still hadn’t taken his gaze off her and it was a little unnerving.
“I’m Lexi,” she whispered.
Lexi slowly stretched her limbs and sat up. She knew Ryder watching her. She told herself not to look at the dead body but she couldn’t help it.
She glanced at the mangled mess that was Ted’s corpse and stifled a scream. Ted no longer resembled a human being.
“W-what happened to Buddy?” She had to ask.
Fear settled in the pit of her belly. This man was capable of monstrous deeds. What rattled her, even more, was the second emotion took root in her insides.
Petty satisfaction.
No one ever came to her defense before. Ryder was the first one. Lexi had been picked on her entire life for her size and for being dirt poor. Over the years, she learned to ignore the taunts and the insults people slung at her.
What was this feeling suffusing her abused limbs and her tired body?
Gratefulness?
Lexi never thought Prince Charming would come for her—except it was wrong to think of Ryder as her savior.
Ted and Buddy deserved what they got. They thought they could drag her out here and get away with anything.
Lexi knew men like Ted and Buddy. She worked at a seedy bar before. Assholes like them only saw a nobody like her as a disposable toy.
Ted and Buddy were loaded, well connected. Those were the two adjectives her brother Cal used to describe them.
“Dead. Wished I killed him slower,” Ryder said.
Ryder wiped the blood off his knife using the hem of his shirt. He sounded so matter-of-fact like killing didn’t matter to him.
“You mean it,” she whispered.
Ryder sheathed his blade.
Relief washed over her. She was beginning to think he was going to use that knife on her next.
He wasn’t going to hurt her. Irrational logic.
Still, why would Ryder go through the trouble of saving her if he wanted her dead?
Did he want to keep her alive for another sinister purpose? A shiver crept down her spine.
“You liked it when I was working on him,” Ryder said.
He tipped her chin using his bloodstained fingers. The smell of copper nauseated her slightly, reminded her this was a man she couldn’t lie to. Lexi had a feeling Ryder would be able to see right through her.
“Admit it, Lexi,” he said softly.
Lexi clenched her fists on her lap. Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She didn’t know why she was crying, why she allowed this stranger to see her at her most vulnerable.
Lexi hadn’t cried since she was 12. That had been ten years ago.
It was too much. To keep her sanity intact, she held all her emotions in—her brother’s awful betrayal, Buddy, and Ted’s abuse.
All three men stopped seeing her as a human being and treated her like a disposable object. Lexi bleakly had to accept her fate. She tried to be strong. Lexi lied to herself that she’d be somehow able to live through this.
Then Ryder came along.
Ryder tugged her close. Lexi didn’t know what possessed her to lean against him. She felt tiny against him. Ryder wrapped his steel-hard arms around her and simply held her.
“Don’t cry,” he murmured. “I hate it when women cry.”
She rubbed at her eyes, raising her head to look at him. “You’ve been around plenty of weeping women?”
“Just my mother,” he answered in a clipped tone.
Oh, God.
What was happening?
Was she trying to flirt with him?
He took a step from her and held out her hands, exposing angry red lines where the rope had cut into the skin. What suspiciously sounded like a growl rumbled from his chest. Her heart started on a quick rhythm.
Ryder looked pissed but the anger wasn’t directed at her, she realized.
“We need to treat this.” Ryder paused, looking at her bloodied and dirtied feet. Lexi remembered she lost her sneakers somewhere in the woods. “Can you walk? If you can’t, I’ll carry you.”
Carry her?
Was that supposed to be a joke aimed at her weight?
Ryder looked dead serious though. Lexi would die of embarrassment if he had to carry her the entire way.
“I’m capable of walking on my own,” she lied.
She wanted, no needed to put up a brave front. To show this predator she wasn’t weak. Lexi had claws.
If he wanted to kill her, he would have done so already. Did he spare her for his own personal and selfish reasons?
Lexi didn’t understand it herself, but she grew certain Ryder wouldn’t hurt her. She felt safe around him. Lexi had been through hell. She was hurting, thirsty, and hungry.
Her mind must be playing tricks on her. That must be it. No other reason to explain her strange reaction to him.
She owed him her life. If Ryder hadn’t come along, it would be her corpse littering these woods. He seemed to know his way around. If Lexi ran now, she wouldn’t get very far. It took all of her strength to remain conscious.
She could play along. Let him help her. Once she got her bearings right and her senses back, Lexi would formulate an escape plan.
Escape?
Was she his captive?
Ryder hadn’t exactly spelled out what she was to him, but she didn’t think he’d let her go, not after she’d witnessed what he’d done.
He started taking off his boots while she stared at him.
Lexi couldn’t understand how Ryder could easily transform himself from a cold-hearted killer to a gentleman. He knelt in front of her. Lexi blushed by impulse.
Ryder could easily look up her torn dress. He’d be able to see exposed pussy, which started to become alarming wet for him. To his credit, Ryder kept his gaze trained on her feet.
With Ryder kneeling like this, she could pretend. He was her Prince Charming. Ryder came to rescue his missing princess in the forest.
Yeah right.
Dreams were nice but that was all they were.
He lifted her left foot and helped her into his boot. The boots were too big for her but the worn-in leather felt comfy. Ryder did her right foot next. She shivered, rubbing at the goosebumps that appeared across her arms.
Ryder noticed.
He didn’t ask her if she was cold. He mutely took off his flannel shirt and placed it over her chilled shoulders. Lexi tried her best to ignore the fact they both smelled like blood.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Ryder held out his hand to her, which she automatically took.
“What about the bodies?” She asked.
“The wolves and bears will take care of them.”
Lexi gaped at him like a fish.
“No one comes to my mountain. They wouldn’t dare. This land is mine.”
Lexi remembered passing by the dozens of ‘no trespassing’ signs while Ted and Buddy dragged her along.
Her two former captors had gotten easily lost in these woods. Ted said his private cabin was nearby but she guessed they got lost.
“Okay,” Lexi heard herself answer.
She was so tired that her vision started to sway. Lexi had a hard time trying to keep up with Ryder. She had a feeling he even slowed down to match her pace.
Lexi’s eyelids started to droop.
This was all a bad dream. That must be it.
Once she woke up, she’d be back at the shitty one-room apartment she shared with Cal. Her brother’s betrayal, Ted and Buddy, and even Ryder were merely a figment of her imagination.
“Ryder, can we slow down? I’d like to rest a little.”
Spots danced on her vision.
Lexi closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.