But then a pop went off in the distance, and I jerked my head back, staring into the air above me as I listened to the whir and whistle that followed. Was that…a firework?
All of a sudden, a second, third, and fourth pop went off, sounding like it was coming from the forest nearby, burning and fizzing overhead, and I heard a ruckus downstairs as what sounded like more fireworks began exploding in the sky near the house. Doors slammed shut, and I peered over the railing, seeing servants run to the rear of the house, probably to head outside.
What the hell was going on?
I turned to head back down to investigate, but just then something was shoved over my head, turning my world black, and I whipped around, gasping.
“What?” I cried, my heart jumping into my throat.
Hands gripped my arms, the cloth over my head tightened around my neck, and my feet were swept off the floor as I was carried down the stairs.
“Let go of me!” I thrashed and kicked. What the fuck was happening? Who were they?
A hand came down over the cloth, covering my mouth, and I continued to writhe and twist against their hold as their hard footfalls trampled down the stairs. How many were there?
“Help!” I screamed through the hand. The muscles in my stomach burned as I resisted them with everything I had inside me.
Oh, God. Cool air hit my back where my sweatshirt rose up in the struggle, and I felt their footsteps quicken.
“Get her in!” one of them barked. “Hurry!”
The fireworks went crazy, whizzing in the distance, and I continued to thrash, twisting my head back and forth to get my mouth free.
“Help!” My muffled cry broke out.
That’s what the fireworks were for. A diversion.
I faintly heard something click and a male’s voice jeered, “Hope you don’t mind tight spaces, little one.”
Someone else laughed, and all of a sudden I was falling, hitting a hard surface too high to be the ground. And then, any light coming through the hood disappeared completely and something was slammed shut over me, all noise faint and dull now.
Tight spaces. I shot out my hands and legs, every one of them hitting a barrier, like I was in a coffin. The floor under me rumbled to life, I heard car doors slam, and I moved my hands in front of me, finding a felt-like upholstery above.
I was encased. The engine roared, and realization hit me. I was in a trunk. I immediately began pounding and kicking. “No!” I bellowed, the hand covering my mouth now gone. “Please! Let me out!”
Ripping at the tie around my neck, I pulled it off and yanked the bag off my head, sucking in a lungful of air.
And then I beat the roof above me. I screamed as loud as I could and made as much noise as possible in the hopes anyone would hear me.
“Let me out!” I yelled, my throat burning raw as I howled until every last ounce of breath left my lungs. “Ilia! Lev! David! Help!”
Fuck! The car under me moved, and I rolled a little as it took off. “Help!” I pounded my fists harder and faster, going crazy. The farther away they took me, the greater the chance I’d never be found.
Music started blaring dully from the inside of the car, and my metal coffin vibrated under me, the noise drowning out the sound of my screams.
“Oh, God,” I cried, my eyes welling with tears. “Please.”
I started whimpering uncontrollably, sucking in short, shallow breaths as I patted my hands around the trunk floor, trying to find anything I could use as a weapon. A tool, a tire iron, anything.
But the trunk was completely empty, and I shook my head. My father would never come for me.
Fuck it. I slammed my fists, beating the lid above me again and again, not even stopping when they began to ache. They were going to do what they were going to do. I wasn’t going to lie here and wait for it. There might be a chance, any chance, a passing car or even a kid on a bike might hear me.
“Help!” I screamed, trying to make my voice carry. “Heeeeeelp!”
The car jostled, and I rocked back and forth in the trunk. I thought we turned, and suddenly the road underneath turned gravelly, and we slowed.
But I kept belting and pounding, kicking and shouting. I turned to my side and began kicking against the wall behind the back seat, hoping there might be some kind of escape, since I knew some cars’ rear seats folded down, opening into the trunk. But since I hadn’t seen what kind of car I was tossed into, I couldn’t be sure. So, I tried anyway.
The car continued to slow, and then it finally stopped. I breathed hard and listened. Shifting my eyes around the darkness, I heard the music die off, the car going silent, and doors started to slam shut. How many of them were there? At least two carried me out of the house.
Fear coursed through my body, and a small gasp escaped. I covered my mouth with my shaking hand as a tear spilled across my temple.
Three knocks hit the trunk lid, and my eyes rounded.
“Go ahead and scream,” a male’s cocky voice—the same one from before—said. “There’s no one around to hear you now.”
I heard muffled laughter, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted out of here, but I also didn’t. What were they going to do?
But another voice spoke up, this one smoother and darker, sounding an inch away from me. “You said you wanted to be hunted. Right?”
My breath caught in my throat.
Kai?
I pinched my eyebrows together as the dots started to connect. Fear morphed into anger, and my gaze tried to burn a hole through the trunk lid.
“You see that little green glow-in-the-dark lever in there?” he asked. “Pull it.”
Lever? What? I darted my gaze around, finally seeing something green glowing in the corner on my right. It was small but readily visible, and I didn’t know how’d I’d missed it. It had a picture of a car on it, and I reached out and pulled it, the trunk immediately clicking open and a sliver of daylight suddenly pouring in.
I exhaled, my nerves relaxing.
Pushing the lid open, I looked up, seeing three of them standing over me, their eyes barely visible through their masks. A chuckle came from the slightly shorter one to the left, in the white and red mask—Will—and I quickly wiped my tears away and scrambled out of the trunk.
“Assholes!” I growled, shoving the one in the silver mask I knew to be Kai with both hands, and then darting out and slamming Michael in the straight, red mask with a hand in the chest. They may not know much about me, but I knew exactly who they were and the bullshit they liked to pull simply because they could. I couldn’t believe they did this! Rich boys playing at being bad.
But the joke was on them. You’re not really bad when you only do shit under the security of never having to suffer consequences.
And where was Damon? I looked around for their fourth, but aside from all the cars in the lot, it was empty.
“That wasn’t funny,” I barked.
The one in the middle simply looked at me, while the other two chuckled softly, walking away and leaving us. I followed them with my eyes, seeing them head off into the brush and disappearing into the trees. More than two dozen cars were parked around us in the gravel, make-shift lot, but there were no buildings, no houses, just forest and cars.
Where the hell were we? It looked like just a clearing in the woods.
I turned back, seeing Kai approach me, his mask still on. He placed one hand on the lid and pointed at the lever I’d pulled inside.
“Every car made since 2002 has one,” he told me. “If that ever happens to you again, you know what to do.”
I scowled up at him. “If that ever happens again, my crew won’t be as polite as they were earlier.”
David might get on my case a lot, but he’d cut out their tongues if he knew what they’d done.
But then, suddenly, Kai pressed into me, making me fall back into the trunk and land on my ass. My legs dangled over the side, and I looked up him, his long body blocking my escape.
“Is tha
t supposed to be a threat?”
And then he leaned down, his vicious mask an inch from my face, making my stomach flip. “I was raised to be a gentleman,” he said, “but if you send other men after me, catching my interest will be the worst mistake you ever made.”
I forced a sneer, but a shiver ran down my spine anyway.
He straightened and lifted the mask off his head, revealing the face I knew was underneath. His dark eyes, underneath even darker eyebrows, stared down at me like a dare, and a sense of foreboding nipped at my insides. But I didn’t look away.
A light layer of sweat matted the edges of his hair, making it messy and sexy. So rare for him to have anything out of place.
Without saying a word, he walked away from me, toward the front of the car and out of sight.
I heard the crunch of gravel slowly getting fainter and fainter, and then it was gone, and I twisted my head, confused.
What? I hopped out of the trunk and slammed it shut, looking over the hood. Where did he go?
Where did they all go?
A sea of cars spread out before me, a forest of trees in every direction, and I looked up, seeing the first stars peeking out of the sapphire sky. The sun had set a while ago, and it would be dark soon.
Chills covered my arms. Shit.
Twisting my head, I saw the narrow, unpaved road behind me that we came down. The emptiness of it as it wound around a turn and disappeared creeped me out. I should go that way. It had to lead to the highway.
But music made my ears perk up, and I turned back to the way Kai went. A girl’s cheer rang out in the night, and I studied the darkness of the dense forest ahead as the beat of subwoofers vibrated off my body.
All these cars, all these people…they were in the woods somewhere. This was a party.
I glanced behind me again. I should take the road. Walk home, catch a ride…whatever.
But he’d brought me here, hadn’t he? Maybe I was a little curious. He was daring me.
Walking around the car, I headed straight for the woods. Someone at this party would have a phone, and I’d call David. He’d blame this on me, but he’d keep his mouth shut. Neither one of us wanted to suffer the consequences of me being here.
I jogged, looking around as gold and orange leaves shuffled under my shoes. The scent of burning wood drifted into my nostrils, but I didn’t see a fire or any people yet. Where were they? I could still hear the music in the distance, so I continued straight into the darkening woods.
I shot a glance back to the parking lot, the light from the clearing getting smaller and smaller.
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. I searched the brush again. “Hello?” I called.
Where was I exactly? I’d taken walks in the woods, but I don’t think I’d ever been out this far. I was pretty sure the sea cliffs sat half a mile to my left, Loch Lairn Cave was behind Stuart Hill to my right, and the Bell Tower should be…
Right there. I looked up, off to my right, and squinted my eyes ahead, making out the stone tower about two stories high and the tall, green shrubbery around it.
The Bell Tower was a ruin, part of an old village that died out over a hundred years ago when a bad storm drove everyone inland a few miles for safety.
“Hello?” I called again. Maybe someone was over there. “Hello?”
My heart raced. It was getting dark.
“Kai!” I shouted.
My foot caught on a log, and I stumbled forward, hearing a creaking branch to my right. I jerked my head, looking for where it came from.
Nothing.
Then a swoosh of leaves sounded behind me, and I spun around, panting.
“Who’s there?”
I caught sight of something black and turned my eyes just a hair to the left.
Kai stood there, leaning his shoulder into a tree and watching me.
I immediately took a step backward. “Wha—What are you doing?”
How long had he been there? He had been behind me, which meant I passed him on my trek. A chill ran down my spine.
He took a step, his mask dangling from his hand.
I glanced around. “Where is everyone? Why’d you bring me here?”
He didn’t answer, his eyes locked on mine as he moved closer. What the fuck?
I moved one step back for his every step forward.
“It was stupid of you to eavesdrop on me today,” he stated calmly. “And an even bigger mistake to reveal yourself earlier. I might never have known it was you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, still retreating. The music in the distance felt like a lifeline all of a sudden, and he probably knew what I was thinking.
“You should run,” he said, his warning cool and quiet.
Should I? But this was Kai. I didn’t know him, but I’d watched him. He was the good one. The quiet one.
He was playing with me.
“You…” I stammered. “You won’t do anything.”
“Like I didn’t do anything to that girl in the shower?” he challenged me. “You think I’d go to all this trouble to get you here just to let you go?”
Maybe. Yes. Okay, no, but…
“You see, I don’t like being teased,” he continued, one of his eyebrows arched. “Respect and reverence are important to me, and you have neither. You need to learn a lesson.”
“That’s not true.” I did respect him. I didn’t know he was going to be in that confessional today. I didn’t mean to listen.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I told him, but my feet betrayed me, still backing up.
“That’s because you think you know what’s happening right now.”
And suddenly, I hit a wall.
“But you don’t,” he finished.
I froze, feeling something behind me. Slowly, I twisted around to see Michael standing there, towering over me.
What? I shot my eyes back to Kai, seeing one corner of his mouth lift in a small smile.
Oh, shit.
My breath caught in my throat as Michael’s red skull stared down at me, and I understood the feeling of walls closing in from before. I looked around. We were out here alone. Them and me.
And what about Will? Was he still out here somewhere, too?
I changed direction, moving left and backing away from both of them now. They stepped slowly toward me, Michael pulling off his mask and then his hoodie and T-shirt, and dropping them to the ground.
My mouth fell open, and heat rushed to my cheeks. His long torso, tan from playing ball out in the sun, stood right in front of me, and I dropped my eyes. I’d seen David and the guys without their shirts plenty of times, but they didn’t look like that.
“She’s pretty,” he told Kai, the two of them walking side by side toward me as I kept backing up. “And she looks easy for us to handle. Together.”
I heard Kai’s quiet laugh, and I took another step back, suddenly hitting a tree. I dug my nails into the bark behind me.
“Don’t be afraid,” Michael told me, and I glanced up just enough to see his boxer briefs sticking out of the top of his jeans. “We’re good. We’re really good.”
We’re good? They weren’t serious?
I fucking bolted. Without turning back, I ran through the forest and toward the music. Get to a phone, get a ride, and get home. For once, the hiding I always had to do sounded pretty damn good right now. My brother was right. Guys were assholes.
I panted, digging in my heels harder and harder to get away. Kai would’ve let that happen? For me to be used like entertainment? There was an air of danger about him at the church today, but he was also gentle.
All of a sudden, Kai was in front of me, cutting me off and bringing me to a halt. “Wait,” he said.
But I didn’t care what he had to say. I shoved him in the chest, pushing past him and running away. I dug in my heels, racing as fast as I could without even watching where I was going.
Arms wrapped around my waist, and I was lifted off the ground as a husky whisper br
eathed in my ear, “It’s not what you think,” he told me. “It was a joke.”
Oh, even better. Something for them to get a laugh out of.
“Why did you bring me here?” I cried, trying to wriggle free.
“Shhh.”
He tried to soothe me, but I just shook my head. I just wanted to go home. If I wasn’t seen, I couldn’t be humiliated.
“Get off me!” I thrashed, feeling him stumble as we both fell to the ground.
I landed on him and heard him grunt, but when I tried to sit up and scurry away, he hauled me back to the ground and climbed on top of me. His body nestled between my legs, and he squeezed my wrists, pinning them above my head.
“Let me go,” I said firmly. “Now.”
But he just held himself up, staring down at me. His groin rested on mine, and I tried to ignore the nerves coming to life.
“Say it,” he whispered.
“Say what?”
“That you only want me.”
“I’d rather lick an ice cream cone of razor blades,” I gritted out.
He smirked. “You let me touch you in the confessional booth today. You liked me touching you.”
I slowed my breathing, evening out my expression. “Really? I barely remember.”
He then shifted between my legs, rising to the challenge, and a small moan escaped me.
Jesus.
Leaning down, he tickled my lips with his. “Stay?” he asked, heat filling his eyes. “I’d like you to.”
God, he was on top of me. I’d never felt someone’s weight on me like this. Unless I counted wrestling with the guys growing up, and even then, it wasn’t like this.
“What’s going on?” someone asked. I darted my eyes up to see some girl come up to Michael, who stood behind Kai. How long had he been there?
She probably came from the party. We had to be close then.
Kai twisted his head, talking to Michael. “Go on to the cemetery. I got this one.”
Michael didn’t say anything, but I saw his shoes walk over to our side and then a condom dropped to the ground right by my arm.
My chest caved. What?