Sold To Mr. Milano - Daniella Wright Page 0,32

discovered. I didn’t have much time. While some of the guards would immediately report to Alberto, the rest of them would spread across the entire estate to hunt me down.

I jumped on the horse and headed towards the woods, this time noticing a path cut through the trees. I stood a better chance on that than I did in the thick of the brush, so I steered the horse towards it. A path would likely eventually lead out to more guards standing watch at the edge of the property, but as long as I was alert and kept my eyes peeled, maybe I could avoid them.

As I rode deeper into the woods, the path splintered off every mile or so in three or four different directions. While continuing straight on might lead me to the quickest exit back to the main road, it would also be the first path they would search from start to finish. Soon it would be crawling with guards. I took my chances on turning off to the side paths. I did this several times until I knew I was so hopelessly lost, but I figured if I went on long enough I had to find some way to freedom sooner or later.

I kept riding until the sun was starting to come up. It was still early enough that it was nearly pitch black among the trees, and the sky was just barely turning from back to dark blue. That’s when I heard something behind me. I brought my horse to a stop, just long enough to assess the sounds and decide if I should stay still and hide, or keep barreling down the path. But as I stopped, so did the noises.

I pushed forward with my horse, only slightly slower, not sure if I should be more cautious or if I was just being paranoid. I didn’t have time for either. I needed to keep moving. After a few minutes, I broke the horseback out into a full canter along the path.

The noises returned again, only this time there was no mistaking them and I couldn’t stop. A man on horseback was behind me and coming up fast. Soon he was joined by another man and another, until there were five of them chasing after me as fast as they could. I did my best to look over my shoulder at them without crashing. I assumed they were Alberto’s guards at first, but then I noticed they weren’t wearing the same uniforms. But if they weren’t Alberto’s men, who the hell were they?

I didn’t want to find out. They were charging towards me with no signs of mercy, and it was obvious they had harmful intentions. I urged my horse to gallop faster and faster, praying that some sharp turn or fallen tree didn’t send me plummeting to my death, or right into the arms of these attempted captors.

But it wasn’t a tree or turn that stopped me at all. I could see something in the distance blocking my way, but I needed to get closer before I knew if there was some way around it. The closer I got, the more the shape of it started making sense to me. It was another man on a horse in a dead stop right in the middle of the road. By the time I made out that much, it was too late.

My horse reared back and skidded to a stop. He couldn’t slow down fast enough and ended up falling over into a roll, but not before I was thrown from his back. I didn’t crash to the ground this time, but instead was swept up by one of the men chasing me. I thought maybe I would have been better off if he hadn’t.

His strong arm gripped me tightly and there was no hope of struggling free. In the cluster of galloping horses, it was too loud for me to ask questions, and they didn’t seem willing to give answers anyway. One thing I knew is that they weren’t turning around or showing any signs of going back to the Milano estate. I started to fear that these men weren’t with Alberto at all. They were after me for something completely different.

I racked my brain for some means of escape, but could think of nothing. At least not until I saw where they were taking me, and even then I didn’t know what chance I stood. With Alberto, I at least had our history to