I whirl around, staring at her. “I know you thinkI’m full of shit, but I didn’t have one the last time I told you that, just like I didn’t have one this morning. None of us did.”What can I do to make her see?Scraping my teeth over my lower lip, I nod. “And yeah, I remember what you said to me that night in your room. I know you didn’t have a choice in coming here either. You’re being kept against your will.” My hands begin to shake, so I clench them into tight fists until I think my fingernails might actually carve their shape into the skin of my palms.
And then… I find myself admitting to her something I can hardly ever bring myself to think about, much less share. “I didn’t have a say in coming here, either.” I take in the confusion in her expression—and wrench my gaze from hers.
Fingers brush over my arm, demanding my attention. I open my eyes. And she’s right there, standing only inches away. “Malakai.” She blinks up at me. “What do you mean?”
“You heard me. I don’t talk about it, but… I wasn’t born here.” I gaze steadily at her before forcing the rest from my lips. “I don’t like to think about my life…before.”
She tilts her head to the side. I can’t tell what she’s thinking. “Okay.” Her response is just that simple. For what seems like an eternity, we stare at each other. She doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t push me. Laying myself bare like that is already more than I can handle tonight, so I let my eyes close against her curiosity, every part of me fighting the urge to grab my jacket and raceout of this motherfucking barn right now. My throat is thick with the regret that’s been crashing down on me for even opening my damn mouth.
“Malakai. Could I ask you to do something?”
My eyes flash open and my brows raise. “Uh. Sure.”
“Um. I can’t reach my back—” She lifts her shoulders in a helpless gesture. “Please?”
I cringe. Here I am deep in my own head, and meanwhile she’s standing here completely bared to me, washing with a rag and water from a motherfucking bucket in a goddamn barn full of animals. We did this to her. Fuck.
My cock stiffens out of nowhere as a replay of the four of us jacking off on her spins through my head. “Shit. Yeah. Sorry,” I murmur. And I mean it, just like I did before… but she doesn’t comment. Pressing my lips together, I take the cloth, then drag in a deep breath as I begin to run it over her skin. “Wish I could have taken you inside to the tubs or a shower.”
She stands completely still, her shoulders hunched forward. “It’s fine. Like I said earlier, I’ll survive. I’m a survivor.”
My brows furrow at her tone. Something about the way she said that—I cock my head to the side—it gives me pause. I clear my throat. “Where did you come from, Delilah?”
She hasn’t yet responded when voices drift through the cracks in the walls of the barn, coming closer.
SIXTEEN
DELILAH
The wet washcloththat Malakai had been swiping over my skin to erase their correction drops to the dirt at my feet. His hurried exhale is ragged, and he quickly squeezes my shoulder and points to a ladder that goes up into a loft. “Go. Climb up there. Hide.”
“Do you think she got away?”
My nerves prickle. That’s Gannon.Oh. Fuck.My eyes dart around as Malakai upends the bucket, emptying it of water, then sets it aside and begins to collect the rest of the evidence that we’ve been here. “Go!” he bites out, his dark-as-sin eyes urging me to run when he realizes I’m still standing here.
“Who the fuck knows,” whispers Dragan, overly loud. “She’s probably in the woods somewhere. But she couldn’t have gone far. She can’t cross the river, and she won’t last outside more than a day or so. She’s just a girl.”
I can imagine the smug look on his face, andthe urge to barrel from this fucking barn and slap the shit out of him nearly overtakes all rational thought.
Just then, though, their demented chuckles reach us, followed by Gannon’s voice. “Maybe she’s inthere.”
A jolt of fear lances through me, and I scream internally.Move!When my body finally cooperates, I scurry across the dirt floor to the rickety-looking ladder, then prop it against the edge of the loft area above. My heart is jammed somewhere at the base of my throat, wedged in so tight it’ll take a crowbar to remove it. Scrambling now, I plant my foot on the bottom rung, then race upward, terrified that I’ll make a misstep and the whole thing will come crashing down.
At the top, I somehow manage to climb awkwardly onto the landing, spin around, and kneel there. Heart in my throat, I peer down into the musty barn. Bits of straw float through the air and an animal snorts somewhere below me. Oh my fucking god. Outside, the voices are getting louder. With most everything collected, Malakai stoops to snatch up the jacket he’d been wearing earlier. Charging up the ladder, he hardly pauses to keep his balance, and I hold my breath as it shifts and shudders. Finally at the top, he pitches everything in his hands toward me.
My eyes widen as the groan of the barn door echoes all the way up to the rafters. At the last second, Malakai throws himself from the ladder then turns, crouching to hoist it onto the platform. He hurriedly lays it down, then hooks me around the waist. I hardlyknow which end is up when he takes hurried strides toward the corner where we’ll be out of view before sitting with me on his lap.
The metallic, grating sound of the barn door opening the rest of the way fills the air. Gingerly, Malakai scoots backward, the curve of my spine rigid against his chest. When he hits the wall, we freeze in place. His arms are wound around me, and he’s holding me so tightly to him, I feel the beat of his heart against my shoulder blade. My chest heaves in time with it, and I fight to control the breaths exiting my lungs.
“Huh. I thought I heard something.”
“Time for you to clean out your fucking ears.”
“Whatever.”
As the two idiots bicker back and forth, each second seems to draw out and every beat of our hearts seems to last forever, the breaths we take are measured. Slow. Riddled with anxiety.
“Wanna have a look in the forest? See if we can catch ourselves a little bunny to fuck?”
