That was where this entire mess started.
I’d been leaving school, heading to my car, when Mario and his brother had spotted me.
Dario had dropped Mario off right in front of me, and I’d had nowhere to go to hide.
I’d been in an almost-empty parking lot in the middle of a deserted school thanks to a late-night makeup test that I’d had to take in the school’s computer lab. I cursed myself for stopping to get coffee after I was done, making it possible for Mario to find me.
I froze, my limbs going numb as terror struck like bolts of lightning through me.
I had nowhere to go.
My car was too far away.
And I couldn’t run back into the computer lab because it locked behind me when I left before I’d gone to the coffee shop.
The closest building that might have some people in it was half a mile away—a frat house that was likely full of men who would help Mario and Dario instead of me.
Fingers and lips numb, I came to a stop and stared at the two men through the window of their car.
I could see the laughter in Mario’s eyes as he saw the terror in mine.
He enjoyed the terror.
It made him happy.
“Get in,” Mario said as he got out of the car and held the back door open for me.
“I can’t,” I said. “I can’t leave my car here overnight or I’ll get a ticket.”
Which was the truth.
I’d gotten one the last time he’d forced me to go with him.
Not that I had my car this time, but he didn’t need to know that.
“I’m sure that your daddy will pay the fine.”
He would.
But he’d punch me in the face for getting one in the first place.
Why did I know that?
Because the man that I called father had done it the first time.
“He’ll hurt me,” I tried.
Mario’s eyes gleamed. “I’m sure he won’t.”
I’m sure he would…
“Can I follow you?” I asked. “I swear I’ll go wherever you want to go.”
Lie.
We both knew it to be a lie.
If he let me get into my car, I’d drive off and not look back.
