Seventeen-year-old Chloe Matthews is done with guys, done with her ex, and done with the cowboys of the Grand Teton Mountains. She refuses to get hurt again.
All that matters now are the horses. Every horse Chloe helps is another piece of herself pu...
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Gabi's visit left an ugly ache in the pit of my stomach. I dragged the covers up to my neck and replayed her words in my head. Why couldn't she understand that I needed to stay safe? That I was terrified?
My fingers trailed down my arm to the cruel, raised scar on the inside of my wrist.
Gabi needed me. Penny needed me. Piper. The Sagebrush mare. I was letting them all down.
Maybe Gabi was right. Maybe Billy had already killed me. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to erase her disappointed face from my memory. Where was my will to live? My will to fight? I wanted to be as strong as Gabi wanted me to be.
Nausea hit my stomach. Billy was stronger, smarter, and more cunning than I ever hoped to be. He'd dodge any feeble attempt on my part to outsmart him.
Shame burned my cheeks. It was too risky. I couldn't do it. I'd be better off going back to sleep and hoping he'd never find me. I sank down onto my pillow and closed my burning eyes.
All I could see was Penny's broken body, lying lifeless in some dank, filthy stall. She wouldn't stand a chance if I didn't help her. Nobody else wanted to try. I'd be every bit at fault for her death as the guy who pulled the trigger. Because I'd done nothing.
I saw the Sagebrush mare's broken body beside Penny's. She had a bloody face, as if she'd been beaten with a board. Because I'd done nothing.
My chest tightened. I hated myself. I was putting my life before theirs, but my life wasn't worth anything at the moment. I couldn't let Billy take their lives away like I was letting him take mine. That I couldn't live with.
I gripped my fists. My left hand tingled and my fingers responded more than they had in months. All that mucking must've made them stronger.
I needed to be stronger, too.
There had to be something I could do other than pathetically sit around and wait for him to finish me off. I pushed the covers away. I would help Penny, Gabi, and the Sagebrush mare. I would fight Billy if he showed up.
Gabi was right. Just because Billy was heading north didn't mean he knew where I was. He might never find me. If he did find me, that didn't mean I couldn't fight to protect myself. What if I fought - and won?
Mom said that being alive was a risk. I refused to live whatever time I had left hiding in my bedroom. I swung my legs over the side of the bed.
Just getting out of my bedroom filled me with more energy than I'd felt in days. I sat down with a cup of coffee at the kitchen table and typed 'self-defense classes' into my browser. It was time to leave 'scared little Chloe' back in California. No more relying on other people to protect me. I was going to learn how to protect myself.
"Wow." Tara did a double-take when she saw me. "What did Gabi say?"
