“Our lucky day.” Another voice comes from feet away, and another thug, almost identical but heavier, scowls at us as he pushes a tree branch away with a hand holding a knife, too.
My heart starts pounding in my chest. Dani stares at them in some stalled surprise.
“We should go,” I whisper.
The thoughts flicker in my head—we are ten minutes away from the beach, we don’t have any weapons, and there is that overwhelming fear at the thought of Olivia.
What happened to Olivia…
I start panicking, backing away down the path and tugging Dani with me.
“Run,” I whisper, whip around, and dart down the path.
Only to slam into someone else’s arms that grip me with painful strength, whip me around, and a hand presses to my mouth.
“Well, hello, pretty.”
I try to scream, but the hand is too tight around my mouth.
“Shhh, sweetie. Be quiet, and you might enjoy it.”
Nasty breath fills my nostrils, and my heart jolts in panic.
I scream, but it only comes out as a muffled moan. The hands around me tighten.
And there is Dani, who stares at me as one of the guys comes up from behind her and pokes her ribs, making her jump and whip around in shock.
They cackle—that nasty laughter of predators who know exactly what their prey will or will not do.
Dani won’t do a thing. She is the weakest of us, and she is paralyzed as the guy strokes her cheek. She jerks away, but he catches her, widening his eyes, and blows out a “Boo.” And she trembles.
I try to fight, but there is no way I can do anything against a guy.
So I do the only thing possible. I suppress the gagging from the stench of stale booze and piss and bite into the hand over my mouth.
“Fuuuuuck!” the guy shouts.
For the flimsiest second that he lets me go, I pull away from him, start running, and scream.
“Heeeelp!”
I scream as loud as I can because that’s the only thing that can save us.
And I run like I never ran in my life.
But then something slams over me and tackles me to the ground, the impact so sudden and painful that it takes the breath out of me.
A slap on the face comes next.
It’s blinding.
Loud.
Painful.
My face catches on fire. Tears burn my eyes.
A hand wraps around my throat too tightly, cutting off the air.