“Like I said, you can try,” he replies easily, taking Grace’s phone out of her hand and turning away from her. “Here’s the deal, Zoey. Erika lives over on Meadow Ridge. That’s about a 5 minute drive from your house, but I’m gonna be nice and give you 10 minutes to get here.” He taps the watch on his wrist, lifting an eyebrow. His finger moves down just slightly. “Now, it gets to be 15 minutes and I take Grace upstairs.”
My body is so amped up, I can scarcely breathe. “Carter, this is not funny. You leave Grace alone.”
He taps the watch again. “It’s in your hands now, Ellis.” Pointing a little lower, he says, “I wouldn’t let it get to this 20-minute mark, because if it gets to this 20-minute mark and you’re still not here? Well, then good little Gracie’s gonna lose hers before you lose yours.”
My skin burns with rage. “Don’t you touch her. I’m so serious about this, Carter. I’m not playing some stupid game with you—”
“Yes, you are, and the clock’s running.” With one last little smirk, he says, “Tick tock, princess.”
Then he ends the call.
It has been 12 minutes by the time I pull onto Erika’s road. Dread moves through my body and my stomach aches, because I know this can’t go well. I can’t believe Grace came here without me. I can’t believe Carter is being such an enormous shithead. I tried to call her four times on the way over and she didn’t answer her phone. Why isn’t she answering all of a sudden? Maybe she just doesn’t hear it ringing over the music, but maybe Carter is doing something horrible and she can’t.
I was a fool to believe him when he said he doesn’t terrorize other girls. I can’t even believe I fell into that trap—thinking I was some sort of exception. He’s a psycho, and I want to rip his dick off and feed it to him.
Every step I take toward Erika’s front door feels heavier than the last. This is the last place I want to be. These are the absolute last people I want to see.
I hesitate at the door, unsure what to do. Should I knock? Just open the door and barge in? There are six small windows on the front door, so I can see inside the house, right into the living room. I can see it packed full of people, jocks piled on the couch, a cheerleader sitting on the arm, grinning and drinking from a red Solo cup.
I decide to knock first, but if no one hears me, I’m busting in.
I grab my phone to check where I’m at on time. Fuck, 15 minutes. I look in the window again, searching for either Grace or Carter.
Instead I see the blue eyes of Jake Parsons move directly into view on the other side of the window. The door drifts open, the noise growing louder, and Jake cocks an eyebrow at me.
“Fancy seein’ you here, Ellis.”
I glare at him. “Where is Carter?”
Now Jake rolls his eyes. “Tell me something, Zoey. How is it that I come onto you and get my ass handed to me, but after what me and Shayne saw him do to you, you’re hangin’ around the guy all the time? Is it because he’s rich? I don’t have enough money to impress you?”
“Carter doesn’t impress me. He’s terrorizing me. I do not have time for this—he has my friend somewhere alone. Alone, like he had me in that classroom. Where is he?”
Realization suddenly dawns on Jake’s face. “Oh, shit.” He turns and indicates the stairs. “He and Grace went up there a couple minutes ago. She seemed like she went willingly though….”
I don’t waste time explaining, I just brush past him and jog up the stairs to go save Grace.
Chapter 13
Of course every single door upstairs is closed, so I have to open each one as I go. The last door on the left is the right one. I shove it open and there sits Grace on the edge of a bed, her hand on Carter’s knee. The smallest tickle of relief moves through me when I see that they are both still fully clothed, and though she’s touching him, Carter is not touching her.
Even drunk off her ass, Grace is proselytizing. Reaching out and trying to share with this asshole what helped her through her own struggles. Her voice is soft and dreamy as she tells him, “It’s just the greatest joy you can fathom, Carter. I can’t even explain it.”
I don’t know who to glare at first, but I go with Carter since he’s the devil. His gaze drifts to me as soon as the door opens. Casually as can be, as if I didn’t just interrupt, he says to Grace, “Is that right?”