Briggs leans into the car and puts his face up to mine, looking at me with those blue eyes. “I promise you, we won’t hurt you.”
As he says it, I notice the bruise on his cheek. It starts below his eye and goes down his cheek to his jaw.
“What happened to your face?” I ask, reaching up to touch it.
“Don’t!” He backs away. “It’s nothing. I just fell getting up in the night. Now are you coming or do I need to get you in there myself?”
“I’m waiting here.”
“Wrong answer.” He undoes my seatbelt, and the next thing I know, he’s picking me up and out of the car.
“Put me down!” I yell as Briggs throws me over his shoulder.
“Get the door,” he says to Parker. I look over and see Parker unlocking the door to the building.
“Briggs, I’m serious. Put me down!”
He ignores me and goes into the building. Parker and Finn follow behind, locking the door behind us.
“I swear to God, if you guys rape me I’ll—”
“Where do we go?” Briggs asks Parker, not even caring that I’m kicking and punching him to get him to let me down.
“Over here.” Parker leads us through the open room to an office with some folding chairs.
“What is this place?” Finn asks.
“It’s for data storage,” Parker says. “Right now he doesn’t need it but he will eventually so he bought the building before the price went up.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, and don’t care. I just want to hurry this up and get out of here.
Briggs sets me down but clamps his hands down on my shoulders, holding me in place. “Can I trust you not to run off?”
“I’ll shut the door,” Finn says, closing it.
Briggs lets me go, but picks up a chair and moves it in front of the door, blocking it. I should be scared to death right now, being here with the three of them, but for some reason I’m oddly calm. And even stranger, I think it’s because of Briggs. I feel like he’s being protective of me, which makes no sense and is probably not even close to being true, and yet I’m not as nervous as I should be.
I take the chair next to Parker, directly across from Briggs, while Finn sits on the metal desk that’s off to the side.
“Let’s just get this shit over with,” Finn says. “I fucked up and everyone’s pissed. So now what?”
I look at Finn. “What are you talking about? What’d you do?”
“He went to the party last night,” Parker explains. “He got wasted and thinks he told someone what happened.”
“Who?” I ask, still looking at Finn.
“Could be anyone,” Finn says, taking a pen from the desk and tossing it in the air. “I was wasted and high.”
“Then how do you know you told someone?”
“Because Ariel texted me this morning, asking when my car would be fixed. She wouldn’t know that unless I told her what happened.”
“Maybe you just told her it broke down,” I say. “How’d you get to the party last night?”
“Kiera picked me up. I must’ve said something to piss her off because she left and I ended up with Ariel.”
“Have you talked to her since last night?” I ask.
