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Just needing to reach the stairway before he did

Because if she could get out of this daht survive

She was only halfway down the steps, her hands braced on both sides of the ladder, when she felt his hand reach down, his fingers bunching and tangling into her hair He was bent over the opening, coe to stop her, jerking her andin ainst the ladder with enough force to knock the wind out of her

"Nice try!" he snarled, hauling her up once ined, and she fuet ahold of the wooden steps in a desperate effort to keep hi her all the way back up to the loft

After several failed atteh the rungs and she hooked it there, locking herself in place He jerked harder, and she shrieked in agony as she felt clu this so hard?" he ground out, his large hands reaching down, trying to get a better grip on her

But Violet refused to be a victim this time She’d already been rescued by Jay, by her uncle, by Sara and Rafe She hated that she hadn’t been able to save herself then

This time, howeverthis time there was only her And she refused to let Caine win

She reached up, hitting and scratching hi she could toworked He was slowed by her efforts, but so was she She kept her leg wrapped around the ladder, but each tirip falter

Finally, she lifted both of her hands and wound thehtly as she could and she anchored her legs around the steps as fir at hi hidown

down

She hadn’t realized how easily he would fall until she felt his leaden weight crash against her He was like a stone, crushing her against the wooden ladder she clung to with only her legs The splintering sound from the as bad, but Violet wasat her, clutching for the folds of her cotton nightgown She realized he’d gotten a handful when she renched doard Yet even as she heard it tear, he kept tu past her

Her tenuous hold slipped, and then she was plunging too, her ar wildly, a scream frozen in the base of her throat

The only sound she actually heard was the sickening thud he made when he collided with the holloooden floor beneath the she had no ti on her sto her fall as dust rose up, choking her andit impossible to breathe at all

Chapter 25

SUNLIGHT

Violet blinked, wondering as the last tiht on her skin It seeain and tried to take a breath She choked on atoo thick to be considered air, and she rolled her face out of the dirt

Fro sound