I grab my bag and exit into the cool evening air. It’s quiet. The road is one of those roads that needs some tender loving care, with black tar patches crisscrossing everywhere.
If they try something, I’m sure I could outrun them now. But Vincent and Trey stay seated in the car, and Emmett closes the door behind me.
“So, what now?” I say. I tense, ready to run, ready to fight for my life. I don’t know what he’s got hidden under his clothes, what his diabolical plan for me entails. But I won’t go out easily. “What the fuck do you want with me?”
My voice breaks ever so slightly, and he hears it, eyes roving curiously over my face. I grit my teeth – I wish I could incinerate people with lasers. Emmett Jameson would be the first to go.
I wait and see if he moves closer, but instead he rakes a hand through his dark hair, meeting my eyes again. They’re impassive, blank. Again, I’m reminded of how fucking handsome he is – his gray eyes are stormy clouds, framed by thick black lashes I would kill for.
I instantly clamp down on a flicker of desire. He’s choked me, manhandled me, and hurt me. I don’t want to even entertain a positive thought about the bastard.
“Not anything right now, Ophelia.” Emmett looks into the trees. “When we do want something from you, you’ll know. For now, we ask your total and complete subservience.”
I don’t respond. There’s nothing to respond to. His words hammer the final nail into my coffin. I wonder if it is too late to move – surely other schools haven’t started yet.
“But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” he says.
I give him a withering look, raising my eyebrows. “You’re kidding.”
“It can actually be quite okay,” he insists.
“In what world is you kidnapping me and bringing me to the middle of the woods ‘okay?’” I cut harsh quotation marks in the air. “Or trying to choke me out? Because in my book, that’s assault.”
“We’re just giving you a little insight to what will happen if you don’t comply.”
“Comply with what?” I snap. I’m tired and irritated, and this whole situation doesn’t make sense. “What the fuck am I supposed to comply with?”
He gives me a hard look. It’s like he doesn’t believe I don’t know.
“The whole hierarchy code?” I suggest. It sounds ridiculous when I say it. It’s like I’ve stepped into some sort of weird drama series.
“My family built this town,” Emmett says slowly. He’s still got that curious look to his eyes. “And there’s a certain expectation surrounding that. A certain sort of-”
“Hierarchy?” I suggest, but I can’t stop my voice from lilting with humor.
“Respect,” he finishes, grey eyes narrowing. “That comes with it.”
“Like what?” I challenge. My hands find my hips, and I try to send him a contemptible smirk. “What more respect could you possibly want other than me staying out of your way?”
“You can’t just escape, Ophelia,” he says, and his warning gives me shivers. “You can’t just try and avoid this.”
“What is this? Look, I said I won’t bother you. Great. That’s what I was doing all along.” Lily’s face flashes in my mind and I wince. I realize I’d given these guys fodder to mess with me. “And I won’t interfere.”
“You’re not the type to sit by idly.”
He’s right, but I’m not going to tell him that.
“Please,” I say, lowering my voice. Great, I sound like I’m begging, “I just came here to run. That’s all I want to do. Run and then leave.”
“And that’s all you’re here for,” Emmett says, but his tone seems more like he’s trying to convince himself than me.
“I’m just here to run,” I reiterate. I want him to get that into his pea-sized brain. “I just want to run.”
We eye each other, sizing each other up. I notice he has the faintest of freckles speckling the bridge of his nose. It’s cute, in a sort of devilishly innocent way. Like the rabbit from the Holy Grail.
But something in his gaze… It’s the smallest speck of confusion.
Why would Emmett be confused?