Free Ultimate Escape by Lydia Rowan Page B

She’d go on.
    The slick, wet underbrush slapped at her calves, but she didn’t stop. She could feel the welts rising on her legs, the blood dripping from them, but still she didn’t stop, tried to stay calm and ignore the heat, the exhaustion, the thirst. She’d spent countless hours in the woods as a child, and that was what she was doing now, a simple stroll in the woods, she said to herself, ignoring the fact that the North Carolina woods were not the jungles of Vietnam.
    Ha! I’m going to get eaten by lemurs, and they’ll never find my body.
    The thought slipped in before she could stop it, but rather than scaring her, it made her laugh. She imagined it now, the whispered conversations about how poor Nola had gotten herself eaten by lemurs. They’d talk about how she shouldn’t have been there in the first place, use her as a story to scare the little kids who dared think beyond the world of Thornehill.
    And then any humor faded as she tried to imagine how sad her friends and family, people that she’d taken for granted, would be if she didn’t make it out of here. How Cruz’s sacrifice would have been for nothing…
    Resolve filled her and guided her steps. She was going to make it out of here. Somehow she’d find a way.
    A sharp pain in her ankle brought her back to the present, and she finally stopped, the insistent jab leaving her no other choice. She crouched down and rubbed her ankle. Ignoring the blood that coated her fingers, she glanced around, trying to get a sense of where she was. Darkness had fallen completely now, and she could barely see anything at all. But the roughness of the terrain told her that she was moving higher. The sun had been behind her, and though she didn’t want to risk turning back, she decided it was her only option. There was a real chance that she’d run into the people who’d been chasing them, but if she stayed in the jungle for too much longer, her death was an inevitability. Making it to civilization was her only shot.
    So, unspoken prayer replaying in her mind, she turned, and then began the arduous process of fighting her way back through the bush.
    When she heard a twig snap, she jumped. Animal calls, the shifting of trees, an entire symphony of sounds had buzzed around her incessantly and more intensely as night fell upon her. But this sound stood out, rang as loud as the gunfire had earlier, and her heart, which had somehow gone back to normal, sped again.
    She stopped, listening intently, and almost shrieked when she heard it again. Her pounding heart had drowned out almost everything, but that snap and the shifting leaves that followed it was crystal clear. For once, Nola didn’t question her instincts and set off to run.
    She didn’t make it two steps before an arm clamped around her waist and a huge hand covered her mouth.
    ••••
    “Nola,” Cruz whispered.
    She struggled against him, and Cruz knew she hadn’t heard him.
    “It’s me, Nola,” he whispered against her ear, pulling her body close and willing her to understand.
    She stopped thrashing, but she still gripped his wrist tight.
    “I’m going to take my hand away. Please don’t scream. Can you do that?”
    She nodded, and he slowly lowered his hand. They’d handled the guys in the truck, but Cruz knew that someone would come looking for them eventually.
    Nola shifted and Cruz relaxed his hold. He could barely make out her face in the dark, but there was no mistaking the fierce intensity of her embrace when she threw her arms around him, the urgency with which she held him. As she clung to him, a relief unlike any he’d ever experienced filled him. He hadn’t allowed himself a moment of doubt, but feeling her in his arms, real and alive, was a reminder of how close he’d come to losing her.
    In those moments at the side of the road, he’d made peace with the end of his life, with the fact that he’d never see her again, and with each second that had passed, he pictured her getting