Maybe this is all in my imagination, and I’m slowly bleeding out in the rosebush outside the keg party.
“Hit her again and shut her up,” Mr Tall, Dark, and Allergic To Me orders, his penetrative deep green gaze set on my face as my mouth curls up into a wide grin. There is a familiarity about him that I can’t place.
“I would, but I think she likes it.” The other guy whoslapped me chuckles, slick satisfaction and what I think is admiration in his playful tone.
‘Do we like it?’I pose the silent question, my gaze refusing to be beaten down by the big guy who is breathing a little heavier now as his frustration with me grows.
‘From them apparently, yes. Note to self: you need to change your underwear.’
Rubbing my thighs together to relieve the ache there, I feel how wet I truly am.
‘We are appalled though, right? With their audacity? This is kidnapping,’I snap back, hoping I haven’t completely lost my mind as I have the one-way conversation with myself.
‘I think you mispronounced the word aroused—we are definitely aroused.’
Fucking inner-thought train—as usual veering completely off track at a hundred miles an hour and of no use to me. My body should know better, and yet here we are, wanting two strangers to play out this little captive scenario with me.
Lock me up and throw away the key, I’m clearly certifiable.
“You want to scream all pretty for me, darlin?” the playful one whispers into my ear as he tousles my hair in his fingers; it takes everything in me not to scream my approval and melt into a gooey puddle at his booted feet.
The spell is broken when the other guy says tersely, “Stop playing with the captive.”
Even with all this charged flirtatious energy bouncing around between us, my fight or flight mode activates, and I rear back, headbutting the guy that smells like heaven and hearing a mighty crack fill the air.
“Holy fuck, Dove,” he splutters and groans, swaying on his feet, backing away as he rips the red handkerchief stained with his blood from his face. Unmasking one of my captors leads to yet more questions as his head snaps back, and he pinches the bridge of his nose to stop the flow of blood streaming down over his lips. His cowboy hat tumbles to the ground as he whines as he approaches the other guy so he can assess the damage. “Definitely broken.”
I’m stunned into silence, unable to move from the spot. The second part of the safety class tutorial encouraged us to make a break for it, but the soles of my feet are glued to the spot. My mouth is dry, tears building at the corners of my eyes as a searing heat expands in my chest.
“You’ll survive,” the other guy says as he pulls down the matching handkerchief from covering his mouth and grabs a hold of his brother’s face. The dusting of facial hair light across his tan skin, his full lips stretched into a wide smile. Using his thumbs, Caleb cracks his brother’s broken nose back into place with very little effort. “Stop whining,” he adds, slapping Cooper’s face playfully as he leans in and hands him a wadded-up t-shirt from the front seat of their car to stem the residual blood flow before it has a chance to dry on his skin.
I haven’t heard the nickname in six years, the sound of it crushing as my heart lurches painfully against my ribs. I feel it as my internal armour slots back into place, my guard up as realisation dawns. Ebony with an axe to grind steps forward with clenched fists as hot tears trail over her battered cheeks. Sixteen-year-old Ebony, the girl they left behind—her instinct is to run to them and wrap her armsaround their necks, her fingers tingling, ready to pull them in close and never let them go again.
Each inhale burns as I fight back the emotion clawing at my throat, for so long I’ve imagined what this moment might look like, and now that I’m here, the daydream that has brought me so much comfort in my darkest of moments, shatters. The venom that fills their unfeeling gazes tells me to keep my distance—like two pit bulls warning me off as they bare their teeth, all playfulness gone. The bubble of hope that was blooming inside my belly when I first saw their faces unmasked dies a fiery death, and all that remains are the charred remnants of sorrow and loss that I have felt every day since they were taken away all those years ago.
I bite on my lip and push aside the heartbreak—years of practice mean it’s easily done; there was no place for feelings where I’m from. With my emotions wrangled and chained away, hidden from the light of day again, I steady myself and fill my lungs until they burn in protest.
I refuse to let them see how much they affect me. I’ll revisit how good they look and how much I’ve missed them when I’m alone later crying into my pillow. Right now, I have questions, and they have the answers.
Caleb and Cooper Knox will likely kill me for what I did, and I can’t say I wouldn’t deserve it, but that doesn’t mean I’ll lower my defences for them and make it easy.
Be strong, Ebs. You’ve got this.
I very much don’t‘got this,’ but the confidence boost is appreciated.
“Care to share your thoughts with the group?” Caleb teases, and I wish he’d get close enough so I could breakhis nose like I did his brother’s. There is a beautiful irony to the fact that these guys were the ones who taught me everything I know about true self-defence; the headbutt was a Cooper classic, and I doubt he thought I’d ever be using it on him.
Ever the carefree jokester of the two, Cooper leans against the wall, his amused gaze flicking between the two of us as a contrite smile spreads across his stupidly handsome face. Damn these fuckers and their Adonis looks. Crazy at this level should come with a warning label—not a cover model aesthetic, large muscles, and a protective bear aura. What have these guys been eating? It’s hard to forget them as the two scrawny kids who were always by my side.
“Looks like I’m not the only person you’ve pissed off today.” I glance up at Cooper’s left eye with the purpling bruising.
“My brother decided to go against the plan,” Caleb says through gritted teeth. I glance down at his bloodied right hand where the skin has split across his knuckles.
Cooper chuckles darkly, pulling my stare from his brother. “Totally worth the beating to get a taste of you, Ebs.”
“Your eyes…” I breathe, the word more of a sigh as the memory of my time at the party pushes past everything that has happened since I woke up here in the boot of their car.“Cowboy in the closet?” It feels like a question I already know the answer to. How didn’t I see it?
Cooper dips his hat by the brim as though to greet me as I struggle to take in a full breath.
