She shakes her head inside the hood.
“Need to hear you say it, Twyla.”
“No. No safe word.” She sounds out of breath. “I’m in.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
“Got it. Safe word any time. For any reason. Three of anything.” She steps closer, puts a tiny bell in Twyla’s hand, closes her fingers into a fist around it. “Worst case scenario, you drop the bell. They stop. Check in. Pick up from there or end the scene. Got it?”
“Yes,” Twyla gasps. “Yes. Yes.”
“All right. Enjoy.” Max moves a couple steps back, grinning wide, and nods at me and Blade. “She’s all yours, boys.”
“Boys?” Twyla whimpers.
“Shut up.” My voice comes out sounding mean as shit, and nothing like myself. I doubt she recognizes me. “Don’t talk, don’t fucking move. Or you get hurt.”
She fights us, my sweet little brat. Of course she fucking does. She twists when I grab her, she turns and shakes her head and tries to scratch me with her empty hand.
That’s my girl. I’d expect nothing less.
This is gonna be so much fun.
28
Twyla
There’s a difference between expecting something, having imagined it, and actually experiencing it.
My fantasies seemed dirty, but they weren’t. This is dirty. They were safe, this is pure danger. This is stark reality. Or as close as I want to come to it.
And pure, pure fear. Shit. Why didn’t it occur to me that it would be this terrifying?
I heard them a second before the black bag went over my head and the world got shut down to nothing but sensation, sounds, and the smell of freshly-laundered fabric.
I answered the safety questions with my mind in a million places. Images, not solid thoughts.
The hood smells good, freshly washed.Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It would be filthy if this were real.
Not real, not real, not real.Real would smell bad. Dirty.
I jump. Who’s that? Behind me?
Where’s Zion? Shit. Zion’s not here. Is he?
“Zion?”
“Shut up,” someone says. Is that him? No. Can’t be. Too hard, gruff.
“Tell me you’re here.Please.” My voice comes out shrill and scared. “I need you to be here.”
“Such a fuckin’ brat.”
It’s him. Relief floods through me, followed a second later by more of the fear thing. The nerves, the edgy thrill.
