Pursued Read online

  Her only worry was Buck. He was old now, but still protective—he’d saved her several times when Charles had gotten a little too frisky. Not that he actually would have done that to me, Elise told herself uneasily. That would be going too far, even for Charles. He knows he couldn’t get away with it—doesn’t he?

  Unbidden, his words to her from the night before came back with frightening clarity. “That mutt won’t always be around. We’ll have our moment together—don’t worry about that, princess.” Was he really that desperate to have her—to get into her pants? For years he’d pretended what he was trying to do was some kind of a game—laughing and kidding as though it was an inside joke between the two of them. Of course, Elise didn’t find it a bit funny, and lately—ever since he’d caught her touching herself when she thought the door was locked—Charles didn’t seem to find it very funny either. It was almost as though he could see her slipping away, getting closer and closer to college and out of his reach forever. But would that really make him desperate enough to force the situation? Surely not…

  Uneasily, she pushed the unpleasant and frightening idea away and turned her thoughts back to Buck. Her mother had promised to look after him when Elise went to college, but Elise was afraid she wouldn’t keep her word very well. Her mother tended to be always busy with frivolous things—shopping and parties and playing Bridge with a circle of other ladies whose husbands were so rich they could do pretty much whatever they pleased.

  What if her mother forgot to feed her beloved pet? Or what if she let Charles ship him off to the pound? It was obvious he didn’t like Buck—he saw him as a hated roadblock—something in his way to getting what he wanted.

  But he wouldn’t really hurt Buck, would he? Elise asked herself uneasily. He wouldn’t be that cruel. He knows Buck is the only link I have left to my real dad.

  “Here you go, honey,” she remembered her father saying as he put the wriggling bundle of fur into her lap. “His name is Buck—do you like him?”

  “Oh, Daddy—he’s perfect!” She’d lifted the puppy up to get a better look at him and gasped. “His eyes!”

  “Yeah, he’s part Husky, and sometimes they have that mutation. One blue eye and one yellow. I kinda like it.”

  “I do too.” She had hugged the wiggling puppy to her, laughing as his wet little tongue caressed her cheek. “They’re beautiful.”

  Her father laughed. “I thought you’d like them. You just keep this little guy close, Elise. He’s going to grow up to be a big, strong, loyal dog—he’ll protect you, even when I’m not here.”

  Tears filled Elise’s eyes at the memory of those words. Her father had been a Marine. The fuzzy puppy, which had grown into the huge, protective Buck, was an early gift for her eighth birthday because her dad was being deployed and wasn’t going to be there for her party.

  As it turned out he never made any of her birthdays again. Two days after her party, they had gotten the news that he had been killed in the line of duty. Elise’s mother had grown cold and silent—had withdrawn emotionally just at the time Elise had needed her the most. And then there was no one but Buck. She still remembered crying out her pain into his soft, shaggy fur as he whined and licked her face, sensing her heartbreak and comforting her in the only way he knew how.

  I can’t leave him here, she thought with renewed determination. I can’t trust Mom to take care of him or Charles not to take him to the pound. I’ll find a way to take him to UF with me. I have to…

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the huge Tudor-style mansion rising before her. After Charles had swept her mother off her feet, he had promised her any kind of house she wanted, and this is what she had chosen. Elise supposed it was beautiful but the house held bad associations for her now. Too many dark corners where she’d been caught by her stepfather’s greedy hands, too many shadowy rooms where he’d whispered his dirty thoughts, making her feel filthy, unclean. Immediately the invisible weight around her neck grew heavier and she swore to herself that once she left this place for college she would never, ever return.

  “Hi, princess!”

  Her stepfather’s voice made her head jerk up and she saw he was just pulling up to the house, the mammoth tires of his ridiculously oversized SUV crunching on the gravel of the circular driveway in front.

  Elise’s heart sank. God, she’d been hoping to have the house to herself for a little while before she had to start fending off her stepfather’s advances. Now she would spend a miserable afternoon putting him off and avoiding him until her mother came home from whatever charitable organization or Bridge club meeting she was currently at. Buck would stay by her side and protect her, of course, but it was difficult to do homework with Charles staring at her and making dirty remarks.

  I should just go to Jennie’s house, she thought, thinking of her best friend. She lived two miles in the opposite direction, but at this point, Elise didn’t care. It would be worth the long walk not to be alone with Charles.

  Many times she’d thought of telling Jennie or one of her other friends exactly what was going on, but somehow she just couldn’t. It seemed so awful, somehow—a dirty secret that would taint her with its filth if she let it out. Besides, Jennie was sweet, but her biggest worry was who was going to ask her to Prom. She had no idea what it was like to live under the constant threat of being molested as Elise did.

  The same fear of being different, being thought unclean, kept her from trying to tell a teacher or her guidance counselor at school. And how did she know they would even believe her? After all, she’d tried to tell her mother what was going on, and her mom had told Elise she was imagining things. If her own mother wouldn’t believe her, why would another, unrelated adult sympathize?

  No, better to keep it buried and just try to get through the last few months until graduation, Elise told herself. But in the mean time, she’d be damned if she put up with more of Charles’s crap than she had to. I’m going to Jennie’s, she decided, lifting her chin. And I’m not coming home until I have to. In fact, I might just spend the whole weekend. Jennie can loan me some clothes—she won’t mind. Buck has plenty of food and water in his bowl and I can call Mom later and have her check on him just in case.

  She was just about to turn and head back the way she’d come when a familiar, joyous bark caught her ear.

  “Buck?” She frowned, turning to see what was going on. How had her dog gotten out into the front yard? Normally he stayed in her room or used the doggie door to get into the fenced-in back yard. Elise was very careful to keep him out of the front yard and driveway to avoid accidents. Yet, here he was, running straight for her, his mismatched eyes shining with excitement as he bounded across the trim green lawn and made for the circular driveway.

  The driveway—oh, no! Elise thought. Buck was heading straight for her, but in order to get there, he had to run directly in front of Charles’s idling SUV. “Charles,” she shouted, pointing at her dog. “Watch out for Buck!”

  “Oh, I’m watching all right, princess.” With an evil grin, her stepfather gunned the SUV’s engine.

  Elise saw what was about to happen a moment too late to do anything about it. “Buck,” she screamed. “Go back—stop! Stay!”

  The big dog paused for a moment. His head cocked to one side, he stopped right in the path of the SUV. And then, as Elise watched in horror, her stepfather gunned the engine again and the four-wheeled behemoth lurched forward.

  “Buck!” she shrieked and then the SUV’s massive front tires rolled over the big, furry body with a sickening crunch Elise could hear from where she was standing. “No!” she screamed. “Buck, no!”

  She thought she heard a faint whining from under the car and then the SUV reversed and Charles backed over her dog again, as though making sure he had finished the job. When the SUV rolled backward, she saw a limp bundle of fur and a puddle of blood slowly soaking into the gravel.

  The paralysis, which had frozen Elise in place, broke, and she ran forward, screa