Someone is yanking on my top, and I try to slap their hands away. Panic begins to burn away my drunken haze.
“Stop! Don’t touch me!”
Another pair of hands grab both of my wrists and lift them violently above my head, pinning them down. I kick out and try to twist my body to get out of the hold.
“Fuck!” someone yelps when my foot makes contact with a thigh.
“Will you fucking keep her still,” Blaise yells at Luke.
A heavy body straddles my legs and sits on them. I feel my shirt being ripped and then hands are fondling my breasts.
“No! Stop it!” I buck violently, screaming, which only makes my head throb worse, and their touches hurt more. “Jackson!” I yell his name over and over like a prayer.
This can’t be happening. I made a stupid mistake coming here tonight. I just wanted to forget. I never wantedthisto happen.
Hot breath puffs over my face. “JD’s not here to save you,” Blaise tells me and attacks my mouth with crushing force, shoving his tongue inside, and I almost throw up.
“Stop, Blaise! I don’t want this!” I plead when he pulls back, his hands clawing down my abdomen.
“We do,” he says, and goes for the button of my jeans.
Tears leak from my eyes as I shut them tight, not wanting to see what happens next. The three of them are holding me down, and I can’t move. They’re not going to stop and I’m powerless to do anything about it.
Maybe I deserve this. It was my choice to come here tonight. My choice to drink and get drunk. My choice to leave Shelby’s side and wander off by myself.
Tonight was the first time I drank alcohol. I never touch the stuff, no matter what. My mom was an alcoholic. She was drinking and driving when she plowed into Cam’s car and killed him. Cam had been drinking as well that night when he was behind the wheel driving. To me, alcohol is a curse. The root of all the evil in my life. I allowed my depression and anguish over JD to take over tonight. I’m so stupid. I made a horrible mistake.
“Please, don’t do this,” I beg, but Blaise, Will, and Luke just laugh. It’s an ugly, vacant sound that sends terror straight through me.
Hands roughly tug at my jeans and cool air hits the tops of my thighs. Lips suck hard on my lower abdomen as fingers pinch my breasts painfully. They’re not going to stop. I don’t know if I’ll survive this. I’m barely hanging on from JD’s absence from my life. I turn my head, sobbing into the bedcovers and drift away. Shut down. I can’t be here mentally when it happens.
The pressure on my arms, torso, and legs are lifted and I’m able to roll over on the bed, gagging and trembling. My body curls itself into a ball. Is it over?
“Rory. I’ve got you. You’re okay. They won’t hurt you anymore. I’ve got you.”
A blanket is wrapped around me, and I’m lifted from the bed and cradled in someone’s arms.
My first thought is JD came back for me. He saved me. But the scent of the person holding me is wrong. It’s not JD’s.
“Oh my God, Rory!” Shelby cries. Then I hear her give a feral snarl, followed by a few thunking sounds and low groans. “You. Pieces. Of. Shit!” she shouts, each word punctuated.
I’m scared to open my eyes, but I do anyway. Shelby is kicking the crap out of Blaise who is on the floor along with Luke and Will, all three of them barely conscious. I look up at the person holding me.
“Austin?”
“I’ve got you, Rory. You’re safe.”
“Did they…?” I’m terrified to ask.
“No, Rory. You’re safe.” Austin presses me tighter against his chest and I release a cry of relief.
“Thank you,” I choke out. Austin saved me. Austin will protect me.
“The police should be here soon. Just in case though—” Shelby says, and I turn my head to watch as she takes something out of her purse.
It looks like a remote control, but she presses a button and electricity arcs between two leads. She’s holding a taser. I can’t believe what she does next but I look on in utter fascination anyway. This girl is a warrior. One at a time, Shelby stands over Blaise, Will, and Luke, and tases their asses until they pass out.
“There. That should do the trick until the cops get here,” she proudly tells us, putting her taser back in her small purse.
