Savage Cinderella

Savage Cinderella-Prologue and Chapter One-Catch Me If You Can

 Winded by the hike into the hills, he decided he had come far enough. He shone the flashlight around the clearing in the dense stand of pines and dropped the body into a small depression in the ground. A small groan escaped the girl’s lips.

 He stared down at the motionless form, the girl’s long black hair obscuring the lily-white face and sharp blue eyes that often held a mutinous rage—a look that screamed that there was a part of her that he could never have. He wiped the rain and sweat from his brow, and zipped his jacket up under his chin, surveying the small clearing to ensure he’d left no evidence of his presence. The ground was soft and thick with wet pine needles and decaying leaves. She wouldn’t last long in this weather. The elements or the animals would finish her off.

He took one last look at the bruised and battered body and grumbled. Kicking dirt and leaves over her, he turned his back on the small mound. He headed back down the mountain, already planning his next abduction and relishing the thought. It was May. The kids would be out of school in a few weeks and the parks would be teeming with fresh young faces. Shrugging off the image of wide blue eyes and long dark hair, he reminded himself that he didn’t need her. There were others.

 His clothes were soaked through by the time he reached the road. He could always count on the rain up in Georgia's Northwest High Country. His trail would fade before morning light and the body of the girl he had taken would disappear from the world forever.

Chapter 1

Catch Me If You Can

Eight Years Later

Icy water lapped at Brinn's legs. She sat on her heels, motionless in the shallow stream as the current tickled along her skin. She watched and waited. Trout moved slower at the edge of the creek. Some days, they hovered between her hands as if offering themselves up for her dinner. Today was not one of those days. She had been here all afternoon, and her stomach growled and cramped from hunger.

 "Be patient," she chided herself as the current shifted and flowed around her calves, the icy water filling her boots. Her feet and hands had long since gone numb from the cold, and she was about to give up when she saw a fat trout shimmer in the afternoon sunlight only two feet away.

 Her fingers drifted over the sandy bottom of the pool, a worm-like lure for the unsuspecting fish. She waited for it to take the bait. The trout settled along the bottom of the creek bed, nibbled gently on her fingertips, and then, with one swift movement, Brinn raked the fish up in her hands and tossed it onto the bank. She grinned with pride and satisfaction as the fish flopped helplessly on dry land.

"You will make a fine meal, Mr. Fish."

She lifted the squirming trout by the tail and set it on a stone. She drew her knife, about to cut off its head and gut her catch, when a sound snapped her to attention. Brinn whirled around and tipped her nose into the air, catching a familiar scent.