Slowly, he moves his rough hand across to my cheek.

“Why the fuck did you run?” He growls. “Did you really think I wasn’t going to chase you? Hunting things down and catching them is just way too much fun.”

“Please don’t hurt me.” I beg, gasping for breath as tears start streaming down my cheeks.

“Of course that’s the first thing out of your fuckin’ mouth.”

“Tyler…please.”

His finger continues to strokes across my cheek and it sends shivers of terror down my spine. “You’re the first woman to say my name in a very long time.”

“Just let me go.” I push back against him and kick my legs up, trying to throw him off me but he’s too big and muscular for me to even budge him.

“No. You might want to stop squirming, though, ‘cuz I haven’t had a woman under me in a long time either.”

“Please…” My heart pounds in fear but I try to reel myself in so I can attempt to get some control over the situation. I already know he’s mentally damaged. But I also know that this is Tor’s brother, and somewhere in him must be the happy-go-lucky, caring, talented person that we once knew.

“You know who I am, right, Ty?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm.

“Yup. Little Kenzi Valentine all grown up.” He rolls his hips against my ass and I suck in a shuddering breath, praying he doesn’t touch me anymore and hoping he’s just trying to scare me in some sick demented way.

“I’m still close to Toren, he’s going to be mad if he finds out about this.”

He lets out a maniacal laugh. “I’m not afraid of Tor. Sorry.”

“What do you want?”

“I’ve been waiting to get you alone for awhile. You leave gifts for me. Why?”

I gulp some air. “I don’t know…to be nice. I thought it would make you smile.”

Another crazy hyena laugh erupts from him. “You think I need to smile?”

“Yes.” I reply simply, because I believe it.

“You feel fuckin’ sorry for me?”

I shake my head, my cheek pressing into the dirt. “No. I don’t. I just think everyone deserves to have someone treat them nice.”

“Even a monster like me?”

“Even you.”

“I didn’t take that girl,” He says, his voice softening just a little. “And I didn’t hurt her.”

“I know that.” And I did know that. When Tyler was found with a local girl that had been kidnapped years ago, everyone in this small town assumed he was the one who had held her captive for all those years. He was found standing over the body of a man dressed in an oxford shirt, with dark slacks and loafers who appeared to be a nice, normal man, while the girl stood by and wept, not saying a word. And there was Tyler, with wild long dirty blonde hair, tattoos covering most of his body which were actually hiding scars from years before, wearing old dirty motorcycle boots, ripped up jeans and a faded t-shirt stretched over muscles that had just been used as a weapon to take the life of someone. But in fact, Ty was the hero who saved her; he killed her real captor with his bare hands after he attacked Ty for accidentally stumbling upon the kidnapped girl hidden in a hole deep in the woods. Sadly, the press had already had their field day with the story before they knew the facts, and Tyler was crucified, pushing him even further into seclusion.

Leaning down close to my face, he pushes my hair to the side, and presses his lips against the spot just behind my ear and whispers in an evil, suggestive tone.

“It does make me smile.”

He lifts himself off my back and pulls me up so we’re both sitting in the dirt driveway.

“You hurt?” He asks.

I brush my clothes off and shake my head. “No, I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t have run. And you shouldn’t be out here in the fuckin’ dark, either. You got any brains in that pretty head of yours?”

“My car died and my phone doesn’t work. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Evil lurks in the dark, waiting for girls like you. I could have just raped the shit out of you. Or worse. Don’t think it didn’t fuckin’ cross my mind.”

I blink at him, frozen with fear. I’m alone in the dark with a lunatic who just admitted he thought about raping me.

“You should’ve stayed in your car.”

“You’re right.” I peek over at him in the dark, grateful the moon is bright enough to throw off enough light for me to be able to see him and attempt to gauge his actions. “I thought you didn’t talk anymore.” On television the victims try to make small talk to calm the psycho down, so maybe I should try that, too.

He turns to face me and I catch a hint of his blue eyes under the moonlight and the jagged scars that run down the side of his face. “I don’t.”