“Hunter, no!”
“Do you think I won’t do it?”
I saw him wrap his fingers around the door handle so quickly that I didn’t even have time to think.
“This is for punching me in the face, bitch.” I heard a thud. He’d locked me in William’s basement.
I threw myself at the door in desperation.
It was my party. It was our date. Everything was going so well. I screamed a few times but couldn’t hear myself because of the noise upstairs. I wanted the earth to swallow me up.
What if nobody looked for me until tomorrow morning?
My mom would call the FBI for sure. Because the LA police wouldn’t suffice.
What was I supposed to do? My first thought was obvious: get out and kill him. But how was I supposed to do that?
I tried to force the door open, but only an expert lock picker or a key could have opened the old lock.
I cursed myself for wearing this stupid dress. I’d left my phone in Poppy’s purse, but if I was wearing my jeans, I’d be holding it in my pocket.
I started crying. I hated him with every fiber of my being.
I looked around. There were a few old rickety-looking wooden tables, knickknacks of every kind, and dusty wine bottles everywhere. High on the wall was a small rectangular window, but it was too far, and at first glance there was nothing here that I could use to get to it.
Other than a bench that was hidden in the dark. “Would it be heavy to move?” I wondered aloud as I approached it.
I shoved it and managed to move it across the floor. It was heavy—incredibly heavy. I stopped and doubled over, trying to stop panting.
The mental image of me hitting that idiot was the only thing that kept me going.
Exhausted, I gave the bench one more push with all my strength. I felt like one of those women in the movies who was sweaty and exhausted from giving birth after a series of superhuman pushes and piercing screams. But I did it. I dragged it to where I wanted it to be.
I climbed on top of it and reached for the window to the outside. It was still too high up, so I tried jumping. The creaking sound under my feet didn’t sound promising, but I decided to try one last time, and caught the ledge with my fingertips. I leaned on my forearms and pulled myself up to lean on the windowsill.
Much to my dismay, I saw a cluster of thorny blackberry bushes right under the window.
I cursed fate. This all seemed like a sick joke.
I soon realized that I had two options. One was to stay there and wait, hoping that Hunter would come get me out of a sense of guilt, or I could fall on the ground knowing that I’d end up looking as disfigured as a stray cat. It wasn’t a hard decision; I didn’t trust that asshole, so I wasn’t gonna wait for him any longer.
Fabulous. This wasexactlyhow I thought the night would end when I said yes to William’s invitation—by ending up as a talking cactus.
I was about to jump, but I froze. I’d get scratched up, but I didn’t have a choice.
I had to be strong. I wasn’t gonna stay here.
I took a deep breath and lunged forward.
17
Blaze
“Blaze, don’t stay there all alone. Come with us.” Amelia beckoned me from the couch.
“What if your brother sees you?” I asked her.
“My brother’s not here.”
