Nolan shoots daggers with his dark eyes before disappearing again, and I curl into a ball on the carpet and cry harder. "Well, go ahead and do it! Get it over with! Call them! What's taking so long?"
"I'm really enjoying seeing you like this," Elias says. "I think I'll wait a while longer; not like he's going anywhere."
"Nolan might not like watching girls cry, but we don't mind," Dax says.
Although I know he's enjoying watching me fall apart, I don't bother trying to get my shit together. There's no point anymore. Elias wins.
Minutes go by like this, the two of them watching me, whispering, but I can't hear them over my sobbing and intermittent pleading.
"Saige…" Elias says eventually, a hint of a question in his tone. "What if wedidhelp you?"
"What do you mean?" I ask, sitting up and wiping my cheeks with my wrists. "You'll tell them it was self-defense?"
"What if we got rid of the body for you?" Dax clarifies.
Then that would be worse.That's the first thought that pops into my head. Getting rid of his body would make it worse for me than if we just called the police right now.
But only if we got caught.
I nod slowly, my voice almost a whisper. "Okay."
"But you have to understand something," Elias says. "There are conditions to this. For as long as you're here, you'll be indebted to us. And if you misbehave, I can take it back at any time. Dax's dad wouldn't let him go to jail; we'd walk, and you wouldn't. I can promise you that."
"Well…what would I have to do?"
"Whatever we want, whenever we want. There's no list, Saige. And no fucking limits, either—you need to understand that. If you say yes, you don't get to change your mind. Youshould also know that this has worked before; we're experienced in disappearing people…just in case you decide to try to run your mouth or some shit."
"That's a threat, Ripley," Dax adds. "In case that isn't clear."
"And if I say no?" I ask, my voice hoarse from crying.
Elias shrugs. "We call the police right now. It's up to you—which is worse? Prison or me?"
It's him.I'm pretty sure it's him, but I think about spending the next decade or longer in a cage, the wordmurdererfollowing me around for the rest of my life. And he'll have to leave me alone eventually, right? He'll get bored and move on; he'll graduate and have to go live his life.
So, I nod again, agreeing to a different kind of cage. "That's fine. I'll do it."
"Good. Now prove it."
"What…how do I prove it?"
"Seal it with a kiss," Elias says.
"You…really want me to kiss you?"
"No, I don't really want you to kiss me. I want you to suck Dax's dick."
"You're going to make me—"
Dax cuts me off. "We're not going tomakeyou do anything, Ripley. You're agreeing to this. You have a choice."
"And Dax already has herpes, so he has nothing to worry about."
Horrified, I look at Dax, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "I don't have herpes."
Elias takes two slow steps toward me, closing the space between us, standing over me before reaching down andgrabbing me by the chin, jerking my face until I'm gazing up at him. "Open your mouth."
I hesitate for only a second before doing as he asks.
