He leaned down, his chest brushing her back as he pointed toward the entrance. "Look, pet! The park! You're almost there!"
"Don't you dare stop now! Just a few more yards and you can have your reward!"
The sight of the park gave her a final, desperate surge of adrenaline. With a final, guttural cry of effort, Madison lunged forward, her body a frantic blur of motion, desperate to reach the safety of the shadows before the man behind her decided to turn her "reward" into something even more intense.
The transition from the unyielding, unforgiving pavement of the street to the soft, damp earth of the park felt like entering a different realm. Madison collapsed onto a patch of grass beneath the heavy canopy of an ancient oak tree, her limbs trembling so violently she could barely keep her head off the ground.
The shadows here were thick and protective, swallowing her naked, messy form in a velvet darkness that offered the first semblance of privacy she had felt in hours.
