“Sorry, Daisy, I can’t. I care about you too much to see you get hurt out there. This world is a big, fucking scary place, and you may not fully understand why yet, but you need us.”
A sob escapes my lips, knowing I’m truly screwed. Why couldn’t I have been faster or smarter, able to outrun and outwit them? Why didn’t I leave a week ago when I still had the chance? So many whys, but none of them are going to help me now. I’m trapped, and he knows it.
“I think maybe this time we’ll go with dare,” he says, trying to continue the game. “I dare you to trust me.”
Silence for a beat as I try to work out how to respond. Does he really think I’ll just say sure and come out of the closet and straight back into his arms?
“Daisy, have you snuck out, or do you accept my dare?”
“You’re fucking crazy, Cruz,” I spit, my anger getting the better of me. He has my brain in a spin. It’s so insane I can’t even see straight anymore.
“A little bit, darlin’, but that doesn’t stop you from loving me.”
My heart hammers in my chest at the way he says I love him. I can’t love someone like him. It’s not possible. I don’t want to love anyone; it’s the only way to keep myself safe. And right now, I’m stuck here because I was starting to trust them, because I was stupidly falling for them.
“What’s it going to be? You trust us to take care of you. Come back down to our apartment with us. Jagger will make us all dinner, or we can order takeout, whatever you want. Then we can talk all this over.”
I hate that he’s trying to be sweet. It’s all tricks, it has to be. I can’t trust them. My brother would never lie to me. He just wouldn’t. “No. I’m not some toy for you to mess with.”
“I’ll even let you have your phone back.”
That makes me sit up a little taller. My phone back means calling my brother.
“Do you know the rules of this game, Daisy? If you refuse a dare, you get a punishment chosen by the other player. Do you want me to punish you?”
“I didn’t even agree to play,” I whine. He doesn’t play fair, and he knows it.
“I’m sure I heard you agree.”
“Cruz,” I warn, fresh fear rocketing through me because I have no idea what he’s going to do next.
“Choose, sweetheart, you want to accept that dare or do you receive my punishment?”
Fuck, I don’t want either, but this is what they do. They make it impossible for me. He knows he holds all the power here, and I have no place to escape to. “The dare,” I say with more confidence than I feel. At least the dare gives me a chance to escape. I know it’s not agood one, but it’s something. I can walk out of here with him and, as soon as I see my first chance, bolt.
He twists the door handle, his eyes locking on me as the door opens. He could have done that right from the start, but that’s not his way; he likes to toy with his prey first. I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the light from the hallway. He shakes his head as if disappointed, and I have no idea why. I’m playing his messed-up game, aren’t I? “I will never do anything to hurt you, little darlin’. Never. You’re mine to protect. All you need to do is trust me.”
I suck in a ragged breath, staring up at him. “You are already hurting me, keeping me locked up with you and your brothers when you know all I want is my independence.”
His eyes flash with hurt before he forces a grin. “One day you will see it was for your own good.” He holds a hand out to help me up.
I’m so weak I want to break down and cry. I can’t stand the way he’s looking at me, or the tension now so thick in the air that it hurts. I was starting to believe my life could be different, that I could have some happiness. But now I don’t have faith in any of it. “How much are they going to pay you?” I spit back at him.
“Who?” He raises a pierced brow.
“Whoever has offered you the big payday to hand me over? Is it my papa you’re in with?”
He takes a step back, running a hand through his long hair. “I’m not the bad guy, Daisy,” he says like he did the first night I met him, and I believe him just as much as I did that night—not at all.
I stare back at him, waiting for him to snatch my hands up and drag me back to the apartment. But he just keeps staring back at me with a look I don’t understand on his face. Hurt?
He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, playing with his lip ring, and it’s as if he makes a decision.
But I’m not sticking around to work out what it is. My heart surges with adrenaline, I leap to my feet, and run.
He tries to snatch me up, but I have the element of surprise and squeeze past him before he can grab hold of me. “You can’t escape us.” His voice is sad as he follows behind me, but it doesn’t sound like he’s running.
I don’t look back at him. I take off for the other end of the hallway, moving as quickly as my bare feet will take me, my hair wild as it flies out behind me like a cape.
