“I told you we could be friends. You’re going to be begging me for more soon enough.” He grinds out the words against my cheek, his knee holding me up between my legs as I recoil at his nearness. The vitriol in his tone like icy venom bleeding into my veins. I wish I hadstabbed him in the cafeteria, maybe then he would have gotten the message because Bobby Masters doesn’t seem the type to understand the simplicity of the word no.
In his hurry to manipulate my body into a better position, the rough wood scrapes at my back. I should fight, my body wants to, but instead, I clear my mind and welcome the weightlessness in my limbs. Accepting what fate has in store. He’ll get what he wants and leave me here, unrepentant of the quiet mousy girl he raped and murdered at that beer and wine mixer when my body is discovered and one of his football buddies gives him an airtight alibi. Just a memory in years to come, a name added to the list of women he used without permission.
I’d rather not be awake to have to endure what he has planned. Maybe comatose will be enough for him, and I’ll live to see another day—waking up here in the dirt groggy, abused, and discarded.
Is it sad to say I’ve had worse nights?
The last thing I hear before the darkness creeps into the edges of my vision, my lungs screaming for air, my arms limp as blood rushes to my head, is the tear of lace as he grapples with my sodden underwear.
Of all the ways I thought I would die—this wasn’t one of them.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
COOPER
Her screams are muffled as she pounds with her feet against the boot. Our car rocking as she tries to break free.
“And here I was thinking you had fucked the feistiness right out of her. That’s what you said, right?”
Hand to heart with a slack jaw, I turn to my brother. “Hey, I did my job; she was floating on cloud nine when she left me. Whose idea was it to lock her in the boot?” I counter.
“Drugging and incapacitating two people at a packed party, I wasn’t exactly spoilt for choice on getaway strategies.”
“She is gonna kill us. You know that, right?”
“She has to get to us first.” He grins wickedly. “Open the boot, Coop.”
“Why the fuckam I opening the boot?”
“Because you touched her when we explicitly said we wouldn’t.”
“Temptation is a hard thing to ignore. I tried my best.” It’s a lie that he sees right through; sometimes this twin shit is a curse.
“Fuck did you. I seem to remember vividly how much you were enjoying our little temptation.” I see his fists bunching as the memory of the two of us on that video call plays out in my brother’s head. The fucker knows he has me. “Now open the fucking boot.” There’s no wiggle room in his order this time. Ebony’s impatient yells are getting louder, and this car park may be deserted, but we have no control over who’s occupying the surrounding buildings. If we get caught down here with a battered crazy woman tied up in the trunk of our car, we’ll be up in front of a judge again faster than perverts joining a free Only Fans meet and greet. “And pull up your mask,” Caleb adds as he takes a step back to a safer distance. Ebony might be small, but I know from experience her ability to damage when backed into a corner like this.
I tighten the red handkerchief around my head and dip my hat so all she’ll be able to see is my eyes. I glance back to see Caleb doing the same, rolling his shoulders and prepping his stance to run at her if he needs to.
“You think you’ll need to protect me? That’s sweet,” I tease, reaching out to knock the brim of his hat.
“I’m protecting myself. Sucks to be you.” The grin hidden behind the handkerchief sparkles in his green eyes. He’s fucking loving this.
I lift the latch, unprepared for the spitfire lunging for me as she swings wide with a tyre iron. I double over as itconnects with my ribs, stumbling back into a trash can that clatters to the ground. Thankfully, the small space she’s been cooped up in means she can’t get as much power behind the blow as she wants to, but the crack that rang out let me know the steel had connected enough to leave a lasting mark. Ribs are a bitch to heal.
Ragged breaths rock her chest as she scrambles to get up from her knees. Using her bound hands in front of her to push herself up to standing, she holds the tyre iron out at us like it’s a sword. Waving it in the air as her eyes dance between us in a panic.
“Fuck, she looks pretty all riled up like a wild cat,” I splutter out the thought as I straighten to my full height with a groan. I know my brother doesn’t want to admit he agrees, but I see the lines around his eyes crinkle as he smiles under his disguise.
Caleb pulls the gun from his waistband and directs it her way.
“Bullet trumps iron—drop it,” he orders, and realising she isn’t invincible, she lets it clatter to the ground in defeat. He tucks the gun away into the back of his jeans and moves to kick the tyre iron out of her reach.
She stumbles, her hands flying up to her face as she paws at the broken skin around the nastier of the two wounds Bobby left her with.
“What…?” She tugs at Caleb’s t-shirt that is covering her body and skimming her thighs. Bobby had done a number on her dress, and we didn’t want her waking up in there with her underwear on full display.
My brother refuses to answer her unasked question, instead relaying the facts as a doctor would his patient. “You’ll feel a little hazy for a while. We’ve given you something to make you feel a little more alert. He really did a number on you.”
We’d hit her with a pretty powerful concoction of drugs, so while she’ll feel unnerved by what happened at the party, her body aching from the assault and her wounds still not patched up, she will be able to function relatively well.
