I can’t control it.
Loud pop pop pop sounds keep echoing in my ears, and I know they’re not real. They’re not gunshots. There’s no one shooting at us now. But the noises keep echoing, and my body seems to jerk with each one.
“You said you wouldn’t tolerate lies? Everything you told me was a fucking lie! Why? Why? I trusted you!” I shriek at Marcus, elbowing Theo again. I catch him in the jaw this time, and he lets out a pained grunt, his head snapping to the side. “I cared about you!”
The words fly past my lips before I can stop them, and I hate that I just admitted it out loud.
He doesn’t deserve that from me. It shouldn’t be fucking true.
Theo’s grip on me loosens, and I manage to make it halfway into the front seat, still partly splayed across his lap. My ruined arm clutches at the back of Marcus’s seat, jolts of pain shooting down my forearm into fingers I no longer have. My other hand curls into a fist, connecting with his face just above his jawline.
“Fuck.” Marcus curses, grabbing my wrist tightly before I can hit him again. Dozens of things filter through his multicolored eyes, but I’m too overcome by my own wild emotions to identify any of his.
I grapple against his hold on me, kicking against Theo too. Then my whole body lurches forward as Ryland hits the brakes hard and we come to a sudden stop.
“We’re here.” His voice is hard, almost robotic. “Get her inside.”
Something about his words get her inside, coupled with the fresh and visceral memory of waking up tied to a chair, makes the panic inside me explode into true terror.
I don’t know these men at all. I was kidding myself if I thought I did. They pulled me out of Carson’s confinement and practically carried me out of the house. But how do I know they didn’t just steal me away so they could use me exactly like he planned to?
As bait.
As a pawn.
Theo pushes the car door open, tightening his grip on me as he drags me out of the car and up a short flight of stairs. A door opens, and I’m in another house, this one newer and less dusty than the first.
The heavy wooden front door slams shut as overhead lights switch on, and I can feel both Marcus and Ryland standing close by.
I shove hard at Theo’s chest, wedging my hand between us and pushing with all my strength. He releases me and takes a step back to join his friends, his hands raised as if to say he won’t hurt me—or maybe he’s just holding them up to catch me if I fall.
There’s a real possibility that might happen. My legs shake like pieces of string, but I lock my knees to try to stay upright, my breaths coming in choppy gasps as I turn to meet Marcus’s gaze. “Let me go.”
“No.”
“Let me go!”
“I’m not gonna do that, angel.”
“Yes, you fucking will.”
I move to shove past him, but he wraps an arm around me, hauling me against his body. His arms are like steel, and unlike Theo, he doesn’t give even an inch when I push hard against him. I can feel his heart pounding in his chest, nearly matching the wild tempo of mine, and his lips brush against my ear as the tight cage of his body makes it almost impossible to breathe.
“I can’t,” he murmurs. “I’ll never let you go.”
The words echo in my head like ripples spreading across a pond, and I clutch at his forearms, scraping my nails over the skin of his arms, his fingers, his knuckles—as if I could erase the events of one fateful night just by gouging out the date tattooed on his skin.
I’ll never let you go.
The present bleeds into the past as my mind shuts down completely, blurry dreams mixing with the memories until I no longer know what’s real and what’s not.
My body feels cold. Wet.
Blood covers my skin.
I’m bleeding out, dying slowly on the dirty pavement outside an alley.
“Fuck, what’s wrong with her?”