According to Genevieve, the beds sold out months in advance. A new face on the scene shouting loudest for a place would be telling. And more than likely the culprit who’d sent the messages about me and invaded my home. He’d need to see me in action. He’d have to know who claimed me before we disappeared off together for weeks.
Our trap, with me as bait.
Somewhere, my therapist would be having a field day.
Despite the plan being a good one, I still shook. The tremble in my hands wouldn’t quit from the moment I’d made a show of walking in, the last person to do so.
Or so I’d thought. Another man had been led in after. I’d blocked out his enraged shouts to focus on simply breathing.
“Lovelyn, are you okay?” One of the women crouched beside me on tall heels that made her legs look incredible. She had eldest child energy and had introduced herself as Wendy.
I felt like a fraud. She and the others wanted this so badly. I had long since changed my mind. My escalating pulse was evidence.
Luckily I had an out.
Soon, this would end for me. My involvement came with the provision that someone would let me out. Arran had agreed to it.
Where was that person now?
I’d done the hard bit and made a show of walking inside, the trap sprung. Since I’d been here in the dressing room, I’d expected a door to be opened. Someone like Convict or Manny waving to me.
They hadn’t come.
Wendy tilted her head at my lack of an answer.
“I’m scared out of my mind,” I confessed.
She held up her hand, displaying a tremor. “It’ll be worth it. Trust yourself. You’ve done all the thinking outside the room. Inside is for action.”
A second woman laughed, the sound nervous. “I just need that buzzer to sound. I’ve never felt like this. I’m so…alive.”
I forced a smile. A roar sounded, louder than before. All five of us went to the door and peeked out.
Taller than the rest of us, Wendy craned her neck. “One of the men is fighting the others. Jesus. He’s huge.”
“What can you see?” A pretty woman with wavy black hair and sparkly eyelashes pushed up on her toes.
“He’s got a contestant by the throat and is threatening him, his lip sticking out, snarling in his face. There are two on the floor of the cage. I think they’re unconscious already. God, there’s blood.”
We stared at each other. Them with excitement in their eyes, me with…
A strange feeling took hold of my belly. That feral violence sounded familiar. It reminded me of a man I was trying hard not to think about. Who’d haunted my dreams, taking free rein there unlike in the daytime when I could block him out. The universe really had a type, and apparently, so did I.
Not tonight, Kane Ryan.He needed to get out of my head.
The lights swirled over the door, pink neon flaring. A siren wailed.
I jumped. No, no! This wasn’t meant to happen. Where was my exit?
The women shrieked and scattered. I sobbed and followed them out. Straight ahead, down the cavernous space.
The cage doors cranked open behind, and I peered back. A mistake. A terrifying spectacle. A gang fought to follow us. To hunt us. But they were still brawling.
A second pack joined them, uproar among their ranks. They clashed, and some broke away to the left or right, pursuing the women who were making this a true game.
Not me. I couldn’t run, only managing a backwards pace across the wide expanse of floor, my feet bare, the concrete rough. Terror had almost paralysed me.
Something had gone wrong.
