Make Me Say It Read Free Page B

He glanced down and froze. Having one arm in the T-shirt had pulled the cloth in a diagonal direction across her chest. One small, perfectly shaped breast was left exposed while the other was covered.
    “Jake?” she whispered, and he saw she was trying to lift her other hand, but her nerves still weren’t cooperating. He realized he’d been gawking at her stupidly and rushed to help her. Once the T-shirt was pulled down over her hips, she seemed fortified. Her misery had been replaced with determination by the time he helped her to stand.
    “What do we now?” she whispered. “Where are we going?”
    “I’m going to get you out of here.”
    “Where’s that man? Your uncle?” she frowned when she said
uncle
. Jake had never been more ashamed of his kinship to Emmitt Tharp.
    “I hope he’s dead,” Jake said, holding up the jeans for her to put on. “But I think he’s just asleep, like the dogs.”
    “He’ll come after us, won’t he?” she asked as she scuttled into the jeans. He noticed that she had to pull hard to close the fly. Her hips were rounder than his . . . fuller. His little boy jeans almost didn’t fit her.
    “He’ll come,” Jake replied grimly, jerking his gaze off the vision of her uncooperative fingers clumsily moving over the fly. That was one task he didn’t dare help her with.
    “Where will we go?” she whispered, grabbing a sock when he offered it to her.
    “There’s no time to explain.” She reached out for him instinctively when she tried to lift her foot to put on the sock. Jake braced her by grabbing her upper arm.
    “But—”
    “We have to get out of here and into the woods, or you may never see your parents again. Do you understand?”
    She stared up at him, her jaw going slack, her eyes wide. He’d been sharp.
    “You said you’d do what I say. We have to go. Now. I don’t know how the dog tranquilizers work on a man. Emmitt might wake up at any minute. And there might be other men arriving at any second to take you. Emmitt wouldn’t wait long for payment.”
    Her face went blank with shock.
    “I can keep you safe, Harper. But you have to hurry.”
    She shoved her other foot hastily into a sock. Maybe his entire meaning hadn’t sunk in. But the hint of the foulness of Emmitt Tharp’s plans for her had penetrated.
    “No shoes, I guess?” she whispered.
    “I’ve got shoes for you. They’re in your pack. You can put them on, but later. Emmitt’s a good tracker. One of the best in these mountains.” He knew she didn’t understand him from her blank expression, but there wasn’t time to explain.
    “Time to go.” He put out a hand, and she took it, stepping toward him. For a second, they looked at each other somberly. They were almost exactly the same height.
    “Why are you doing this?” she whispered.
    “I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “But I can get you back to your parents.”
    There was a chance he could, anyway. Jake was good at math, and he instinctively understood odds. Their chances of coming out of this unscathed were maybe fifty-fifty. They had the element of surprise on their side. And Emmitt didn’t know about Jake’s secret cave. Plus, he’d learned a lot about living, tracking, and evading in the woods in the past few years. Emmitt was a better hunter though, and what’s more, he could move in the forest faster than Harper and him due to nearly inhuman strength and stamina.
    But Jake had worked with animals his whole life. He understood that mastering his fear and showing Harper confidence would go a long way in gaining her cooperation. If they had any chance of getting through this, he couldn’t have her panicking at every turn.
    “Trust me,” he said, holding her stare.
    “I do.”
    He was a little stunned by her lack of hesitation, but took pains to hide it. For some reason, her unquestioned trust allowed him to make a decision he’d been dreading.
    “Here. This pack is yours,” he said, handing her a worn army