Lost (Captive Heart #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

are too cool to go to sleep away camp.
    This had been a boys cabin; one Tucker had stayed in a couple of summers. It had always been loud and rowdy within these four walls whenever I’d passed by on the walking path. Now it was eerily silent. As it was on the rest of the grounds.
    Mr. and Mrs. Marsh must have just closed down for the winter months. That’s why Tucker chose to bring us here. It would be desolate for at least five to six months. Not another soul in site.
    Five to six months. He couldn’t actually keep me here that long. Could he?
    Listening for any sounds or noises, I stand, the laminate floor cold and hard beneath my bare feet. I creep to the front door, the mesh screen giving me the ability to see out.
    I don’t see Tucker anywhere, not even when I twist my head as far as it will go to either side to see if I can glimpse him in my periphery. Cautiously, and with as little noise as I can possibly make with this ages-old door, I step out onto the front porch.
    It’s a beautiful day, the sun already high in the sky, confirming my guess that I’ve slept well past noon. I guess that’s what happens when a grown woman sobs herself to sleep. The sockets of my eyes are sore and feel empty. Dry.
    The other cabins dot the grounds, everything set up in a semi-circle with the big quad in the middle of it all. The grass is still green and slopes down the hill to meet Lake Marsh at the bottom of it all. It’s not the biggest lake in the Pocono Mountain range, but for a summer camp, it’s pretty big. I remember paddling boats out over its surface, the large mountains rising up behind it.
    To the left of cabin four is the mess hall, and to the right of that stands the game center and then the recreation building. The canteen, or snack hut, is across the quad, directly opposite from the porch I now stand on. And behind all of these buildings stand more cabins, the places that house over two hundred campers each summer.
    I know that somewhere in the woods, along the walking trails, that there is still a barn for the horses, an archery range, and even an obstacles course. I’d loved my summers here. It was the one place I could go to escape my mother. For one week, I was free to be whoever I wanted.
    A gurgling noise draws my attention to a bench down the hill, closer to the water. I can make out a body, the black clothing and shaggy hair reminding me that although I’ve missed this place, I was brought here against my will. Tucker.
    He hasn’t noticed me standing here, not yet. My brain starts working through plans.
    I could run. But I have no other shoes besides my heels, and I wouldn’t get very far in these woods. The Marsh’s own more than seventy acres. There isn’t another property in site.
    I could go to the car … but chances are he has the keys. And he would just shoot through the windows if I locked myself in there.
    Do I really think he’d hurt me?
    I didn’t. At first. But then he’d put the gun against my temple, shoved me down in the sand, and practically thrown me against the cabin wall.
    And I’d realized I didn’t know him. Not anymore. I had no idea what he was capable of.
    While I’m standing here, thinking about an escape plan, I notice that Tucker is shaking.
    No … not shaking. More like convulsing.
    I don’t think before my bare feet are running through the blades of grass; moisture and untouched dew coating my feet and ankles. I reach him within seconds, rounding the bench and almost lose the contents of my stomach when I see the sight before me.
    Tucker is slouched over, foam and what looks like vomit coating his mouth, chin and sweatshirt. He’s convulsing, like one of the stroke victims I’ve watched on my favorite medical drama. Only this time it’s real. And scary as hell.
    His face is an unnatural shade of blue, his eyes focusing in and out with each pulse of his body.
    “Tucker! Oh my God … what … what did you do?”
    The thought passes through my brain that I