“Sadie, you’ve gotta come with me,” I say, looking at her. But she has crumbled in on herself. She hardly looks strong enough to stand on her own two feet, let alone stand up to this man.
Ray tosses my bag out the apartment door, and my hands are fists, ready to pounce. “I’ll call the goddamn cops,” he says. He pulls out his phone and punches in 911. He speaks in a cool, calculated voice, daring me to stop him. “Yep, there’s an intruder in my home. We need backup. Now.”
My eyes shake with incredulity. “You’re seriously demented,” I hiss, stepping as close as I can to his personal space. “Sadie deserves a hell of a lot better than you.”
“Like you’re one to talk, Sadie told me all about you,” he growls. He pushes me against the wall, not backing down. “She told me how you got kicked out of home after home,” he mocks. “How no one wanted you. How you’re nothing but a little skank.”
Ray is the kind of monster I know all too well. Sadie is his plaything and I hate it. I hate it so fucking bad. Sweet, kind, Sadie—she deserves more than the life she’s got.
More than a life with Ray.
The fire inside me rages, and I push back. Hard. My hands against his chest, refusing to let him win. Sadie screams as Ray is flung across the room, a loud crack from his neck as he hits the wall. I possess a strength I’ve never felt before—I just pushed a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound man across a room. With the force of my hands alone.
Ray slides down the wall, crashing into a lamp, and the apartment shakes as he slumps to the ground.
Ray doesn’t make a sound. No gasping for breath. No shouts of fury. The floor of the apartment shakes as I step toward him, Sadie and I silently taking in what just happened. The pictures on the walls fall to the floor glass shattering, and dishes clanking as I step to Ray, leaning closer—terrified that what just happened was permanent.
“You killed him,” she whispers.
With shaky hands, I check his pulse, terrified that her words are true. He may be a horrible man… but death?
“Oh my god, he’s really dead…” Sadie is on her knees, her hands on his face, trying to check for signs life.
There are none.
I killed him.
I just fucking killed a man. With my bare hands.
The anger that had fueled me has left me drained.
No. No. No.
I may be many things—but a killer?
“Rem, what are we going to do?” she asks, pulling my face toward hers, fear flaming in her eyes. Tears stream down her cheeks and I know she is on the verge of falling apart.
“Listen, Sadie, it’s okay.”
“It’s not… he’s gone… the cops are coming and…” She has her hands on Ray’s cheeks, trying to process the fact that he is gone. “I thought I loved him… but he was so cruel.”
“I know, Sadie,” I say looking down at my hands. “I don’t know how I did that. It was like I was possessed.”
“You always did take care of me.”
“And now I need to go in order to protect you.”
“Where? Sadie’s eyes meet mine. “Rem, you have no one else.”
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her, but I’m scared. Scared of staying around and getting charged with murder. Trying not to hyperventilate, I nod, returning to survival mode once more. Hell, it’s the place I know the best. “I’ll keep running,” I tell her. “I don’t need you to lie for me. Say whatever you need to say to protect yourself, okay?”
“Rem, I won’t tell the cops anything.”
I know it is sweet to think so, to believe she can say some stranger crept into her home and killed her lover, but police will look at the evidence. They will trace me to her home. They will pin this murder on me.
“Do you have a tent?” I ask Sadie as I grab my backpack from the front steps. She nods a yes, already moving to the hall closet. “And I’m going to need that spaghetti dinner to go.”
A few minutes later, I have what I need and am saying goodbye. “You are going to be okay, Sadie,” I say, so badly wanting to console her. “I’m just sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she says, wiping the tears from her face. “You were always so much stronger than me…”
“I’m not stronger. Just stupider.”
“You are not stupid, Remedy. You’re the bravest person I know.”
Chapter 3
Remedy
This is not my first rodeo—I’ve spent plenty of nights with less than a tent over my head. So really, I’m doing pretty good for myself.
I mean, if you gloss over the whole I-just-killed-a-man part.
Sitting cross-legged on my sleeping bag, inside a two-person tent, I pull out the Tupperware of spaghetti. Sadie scooped some up for me, gave me a Ziploc with the garlic bread, and kissed me on the cheek as she handed me a flashlight.
I ran with the tent under my arm and the backpack strapped to my back, into the trees behind the apartment complex.
Deep into the woods.
Where else could I go?
I guess if I’m going to be living on the run, Alaska is a pretty good place to disappear. And hell, I don’t need the conveniences of modern living. Just fresh spring water and a place to rest my head. Though a knife, or say, a gun, would help my not-starving-to-death plan. Because this serving of spaghetti is only gonna last one night.
As I pull out the fork Sadie shoved into my backpack, I smirk. Guess my only weapon is a four-pronged metal object.
Eating, with the flashlight propped up to light the tent; I can’t help reeling from what went down tonight. Not only am I now a fugitive, I also ruined Sadie’s life. Not that she had much of one. Looks like she followed in her mother’s footsteps. It breaks my heart, Sadie being with a man like Ray. She deserves better—everyone deserves better than that.
Part of me is glad I killed him—got him out of her life for good—but the other part of me wonders what snapped inside of me tonight. How did my hands control a man twice my size? How was I physically able to suppress him? The fury inside me was so intense it literally killed a man.
I close my eyes, savoring the taste of red sauce doused with fake parm. This might be my last meal for a while, so I’m going to enjoy it.
But outside the tent, the crack of a branch forces my eyes open. And as they open, I see shadows playing on the tent’s walls. I flick my flashlight toward the shadow and instead of retreating, it only grows.
Uncertainty courses through my veins. It’s been a helluva night, and I am not about to get mauled. I know a thing about survival—and the first lesson is to avoid wild creatures—humans, animals or otherwise— when you’re unarmed.
A low growl tells me what’s coming to get me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I don’t want to just sit here waiting to be someone’s supper. I need to get out of this tent, now. With tense fingers I crawl forward, peeling back the front flap of the tent. My heart pounds, terrified to see what’s waiting for me.