Chapter Fifty-Nine

“What do you want?” Saffron snapped, feigning false bravado she wasn’t feeling at the moment. “Why did you follow me here? Ryder will…”

“Yes, Ryder,” Myra caught her off, the terrifying smile never leaving her face. “Someone told me you two have gotten… closer. Is that right? I hope for your sake it isn’t, because you remember what happened the last time we met, don’t you?”

Saffron swallowed a lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat, fighting the fear that threatened to swallow her whole.

Yeah, she remembered very vividly what her last encounter with Myra had been, and how she had narrowly missed death, due to Ryder’s interference.

However, she was done being the punching bag. She wasn’t going to lie down and take the punches like she had done before. No, she was going to start fighting back.

Realistically, she knew that she was no match for Myra, but she also knew that if she let Myra get ahold of her then all bets were off. So, she had to distract her enough to make sure that she had the upper hand.

“Whoever told you that must be mistaken. Why would someone like him go for someone like me?”

“Why, indeed?” Myra mused, her expression turning contemplative as she tilted her head to the side, sniffing the air, as if the answer to Saffron’s question laid in the very air they were breathing.

“Ryder has been known to have questionable tastes, especially when it comes to humans,” Myra stated, her gaze hardening, as she spat the word ‘human’. “He has a certain empathy for the help.”

Humans. There was that word again. What the hell was wrong with these people that they referred to the slaves as humans, when they also were humans too?

“Why do you always refer to us as humans?” Saffron asked, the question leaving her mouth before she had the chance to think about it. “Aren’t you one yourself?”

She watched as Myra stiffened at her question, her gaze darting between the tree covers, and the amount of space that separated her from them. She knew that if she made a run for it, she could make it to Ryder’s cabin and hopefully have him save her, before Myra had the chance to kill or maim her.

But, she also thought, was she always going to rely on Ryder to be her savior? What if one day she was in danger and he wasn’t there to protect her, what then? What was going to happen? Would she die, because she was incapable of saving herself?

No! That wouldn’t do.

“That is none of your business, you filthy little…” Myra’s rant was cut short, by the sound of a piercing howl which seemed to have come from the trees behind them.

Saffron saw the moment the sneer had wiped off of Myra’s face, fear appearing in its stead, before she ran off, taking the opposite path from where she had come from.

Saffron contemplated also taking a run for it, because whatever was coming, if the sound of it was enough to scare Myra off, then it had to be dangerous.

Saffron was not going to be fodder for whatever animal it was, out there. But, she was also gravely exposed.

There were only two paths that led away from the hot spring; the one Myra had run off to, and the other, where the animal was coming from. Neither paths were safe for her, but it was better the devil she knew than the one she didn’t.

She was going to take her chances with Myra, and hope to hell that she was strong enough to fight her off, should it come to blows between them. One thing was for sure though, she was not going doing without a fight.

Just as she had turned and began to run towards the other trail, she heard Ryder’s voice coming from the other side, stopping her in her tracks.

The relief that washed over in that moment when she heard his voice was indescribable. A deep breath escaped her in a rush, making her body sag down a bit.

“Hey, did something happen to you? Are you okay?” he asked, his words tumbling over each other, as he made his way to her. “Did someone hurt you?”

“No.”

“No? No, you’re not okay?”

“No, nothing happened to me.”

A lie. She had no idea why she was lying to him again, or why she was hiding the fact that Myra had accosted her once again.

Or, maybe she did. Maybe, it was because she knew that he was going to go on a revenge rampage for her. But, the revenge was hers to carry out. She didn’t want Ryder to avenge her. She was going to deal with Myra on her own, when she was ready, just like the other men on her list.

This island had tried to make her forget about her revenge list but no, she hadn’t forgotten about it at all. It was hard to, anyway, when every single moment she still lived and worked as a slave, she was reminded of why she was there in the first place.

“I thought I heard a bear or something,” she replied, waving his concern away. “I was going to hide out, and wait for you.”

Another lie, but what he didn’t know wasn’t going to kill him. Besides, they were both there now, and that was all that mattered.

“If you say so,” he replied. His tone, and the way he glanced at the trail she was about to take, told her that he knew more than he was letting on, but had decided to let it go. It was as if he knew that Myra had been there with her, but, how? He wasn’t a seer.

But, at this point, she wasn’t even going to disregard it. Who knew, maybe he was.

“Come,” he took her hand in his, and steered her towards the opening that led into the hot spring, his stride confident and hopeful, as he turned around to gaze at her with a soft smile, before returning his gaze forward.

That smile, it did a lot of things to her insides, making her weak-kneed, as she followed him like the lovesick idiot that she was.