“If she wants to stay,” Parker says to Briggs, “I say we leave her.”
Briggs looks torn, like he wants to leave me here but isn’t sure he should. He almost looks concerned, but there’s no way that’s true. He’d have to possess compassion for that to happen, and that’s not Briggs. He only cares about himself.
“What the hell’s going on?” Finn jumps out of the SUV and comes over to us. “What the fuck’sshedoing here?”
“Her truck broke down,” Parker says. “But she doesn’t want a ride so we’re gonna head out.”
A wicked grin appears on Finn’s face. “We could have some fun with her before we leave.” He looks me up and down, his eyes pausing on my breasts. I’m wearing cutoff shorts and a t-shirt that’s tighter than one I’d wear to school. “She doesn’t look that bad in the dark.”
“Get back in the car!” Briggs orders. “Now!”
Finn’s eyes dart to Briggs. “Why the fuck you yelling at me?”
“Just go! Wait in the car.”
Finn blows out a breath as he walks back, muttering something to himself.
“You too,” Briggs says to Parker. “Get out of here.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“None of your damn business! Go wait with Finn.”
Parker glances at me before turning and walking back to the SUV.
Briggs gets in front of me, folding his arms over his chest. “You really want to stay here?”
I chew on my lip, not answering him. I don’t want to be alone out here, but I don’t trust I’ll be safe going with my three biggest enemies.
“There’s coyotes out here,” Briggs says. “Mountain lions. Might even be bears.”
If he’s trying to scare me, he’s doing a good job. I wasn’t even thinking about all the animals out here, and I’m sure they all come out at night. A bear could try to get in the truck. He might even try to flip it over. I don’t know why he’d do that, but I’ve seen stories of stuff like that happening on the news.
“Even if we call your dad,” Briggs says, “it’ll be at least an hour before he gets here. You think he’ll be okay with that? Knowing you’re out here all alone?”
He’s right. My dad’s going to panic, thinking I’ll be killed before he gets to me. I can’t do that to him. I’m all he has left, and he’s always worried something will happen to me. Losing my mom nearly destroyed him. He could barely get out of bed. He’d get up long enough to feed me or take me to school, but then he’d go back in his room and sleep. My grandparents had to come and stay with us until my dad could function again.
I’m sure my dad’s already a nervous wreck, knowing I should’ve been home by now. If he gets a call saying I’m out here all alone, he’s going to freak out and probably drive like a crazy person to get here, which is dangerous on these dark, winding roads. He could get in an accident, and it’d be all my fault.
“How far did you say it was before I can get a signal?” I ask Briggs.
“Eight or ten miles.”
That’s a long way to walk, and I don’t want to walk in the dark.
What do I do? Can I trust Briggs and his friends to drive me back? Finn made that comment, hinting they might do something to me, but the other guys didn’t seem to want to go along with it. Or maybe they would, but they didn’t want to say it in front of me. Parker and Briggs are smarter than Finn. They know they need to gain my trust in order to get me to go with them. After that, they’ll do what they want with me.
Then again, if they wanted to rape me, they could just do it right here. It’s three against one. I can’t fight off three huge guys.
I’m feeling sick just thinking about that. It makes me want to run away, but there’s nowhere to go. And if I ran, they’d catch me. Briggs is an athlete with long, powerful legs that could easily outrun me.
“Come on.” Briggs grabs hold of my arm.
“Don’t!” I yank away from him.
“You seriously want to stay out here?”
“No, but...” I swallow and look back at the SUV. “I don’t trust you.”
