Shattered: Running with the Devil Book 7 by Jasmin Quinn

Author:Jasmin Quinn [Quinn, Jasmin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Jem Monday Publishing
Published: 2019-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 40

Rusya and Esma left the shelter as soon as the sun crept up past the crest of the trees. Rusya hoped for another clear cut, a sign that they were headed in the right direction. He’d been impatient to get going, tired, cold. His shoulder paining him. The going became more difficult than the day before, uphill, too steep in spots to climb and littered with forest debris. Esma was falling behind and Rusya slowed his pace so she could keep up. They had to climb at times, fighting for handholds and footholds, Rusya supporting Esma, who had only the one good arm.

Two hours in, Rusya stopped, looked around as he waited for Esma to catch up. Wasn’t there something about moss growing on trees, only in one direction. Was it north? He couldn’t remember. He was not a woodsman, not a survivalist. He didn’t camp, wasn’t a boy scout as a child. He fully admitted that he embraced the material things in life. The five-star hotels, the good vodka, the warm fireplaces.

Esma finally tramped up beside him. He saw the exhaustion in her face, black circles under her eyes and guilt filtered through him. She was the strongest woman he’d ever met and if she was telling the truth about her past, she was unbelievably resilient. How does a woman treated like she had been retain such a spirit?

And he’d done the same to her. Hit her, intimidated her. Tried to control her, maybe even would have succeeded. Except now, he didn’t want to. Now, he wasn’t sure what he wanted.

That’s when he heard them, the baying of the hounds. His hounds. He knew without a doubt. “Anto’s coming.”

Esma heard them too. “How do you know the dogs belong to Anto?”

“They don’t. They belong to me.” Rusya smiled, his cheeks cracking a little in the cold. “Those are my dogs and they’re coming to find me.”

Esma didn’t smile back, nodded, her eyes dull, her face sad.

Rusya couldn’t find the words to reassure her. He didn’t know if reassurances would be a truth. “Let’s go.” He turned, headed up the hill, feeling a renewal of energy. The dogs would find them. Anto was coming.

And then the bottom fell out, dropped without warning and he and Esma fell with it, crashing hard into the earth and then skidding downhill, Rusya trying to find the traction to stop the steep descent, trying to grab hold of Esma. He hit a tree suddenly, bounced off it and was stunned. But he’d stopped. He heard Esma yell, she’d gone past. He tried to get up, realized something was wrong in his leg. Dragged himself to his knees, saw her tumble off an edge and disappear. His heart stopped, the world stopped. She was gone. He struggled to his feet, fell, struggled up again, sliding, skidding to the edge, looking over, seeing her, ten feet down, her prone body, laying facedown in the snow.

“Esma!” he shouted. It was the only thing he thought to say.

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