“Please go,” I whispered. “Please, just go.”
I forced myself out of the corner, crawling to the door. If he’s been watching me, let him have seen my debut with the Bedlam Boys. I wasn’t ignoring the letters. I desperately wanted to keep my friends and their children safe. The situation doesn’t have to escalate—
I glanced through the blinds and saw no one.
—before I found them myself and put an arrow in their heart.
Shaking, it took three tries to open the door and step out. I swept the farm for a sight of a person running away and saw no one.
I still didn’t know why Cavendish and his buddy chose me. I didn’t know who the Letter Man was, or how I’d find them in my shortened time period. I just knew two things. They wouldn’t get anywhere near my friends, and if I had to pick up my bow again to ensure they were safe, this time there’d be no hesitation.
I’m going to find your ass, bitch.
I stomped back inside, shoved the letters in my pack, and hitched it on my shoulder.
The laughing jackass, Douglas Herbert, had a whole crew of guys who got off on their sick pranks. Wasn’t a stretch to think there may have been more than one sociopath in the bunch other than Scott Cavendish.
The Letter Man could be one of them. Someone who has history with Cavendish. Someone he trusts. Nathan Wade and Sam Dillion.
I closed on the door handle.
Last I checked, Sam Dillion left town. All the same, he was the one I put my money on. Dillion called in a bomb threat, then fired blanks at a panicking crowd of teenagers. His goal was to incite true, honest terror, and two girls ended up in the hospital so he’d get his kicks.
Tonight, I mused as I stepped on the porch. I’ll head to the library and see if I can find out where that guy really is. If I can’t find a trace, that’s suspicious enough to—
A hand clamped over my mouth.
“Hmph!”
I was yanked off my feet, flying back into the house. The door slammed on my muffled scream.
No!
I kicked and thrashed, bucking in his viselike grip. My head smashed against a hard chest. The Letter Man was correctly named, and now he had me.
“Hmm!”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
My eyes popped. That voice...
“I told you to wait outside for me after your last class, and I’d walk you home,” Cairo hissed. “You disobey me, refuse to answer my calls, and then I find you here.”
“Cairo, no,” I cried. “You don’t understand.”
He slammed me front-first against the door.
“Who you belong to now doesn’t seem to be sinking in.” Cairo bit my ear. “Seems you need another lesson.”
“No, I do. It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t ignoring—”
Cairo ripped my borrowed pants down.
“Please, Cairo.”
His hand snaked around my waist, dipping between my middle. Cairo shoved two fingers inside without ceremony. I gasped on a cry.
The sound of his zipper dropping filled the room.
I shot away, knocking him out of me. I raced into the hall with no real idea of where I was going. All I knew was this was a hunt.
I had to run.
Cairo was on me in three bounds.
We collapsed before the door to the guest bedroom.
“Get off!”
“Keep struggling. I’m going to fuck you right here while the Ghost of Nanas Past watches. If you wanted to get away from me, de Souza, you should’ve run faster.”
There’s nowhere I could run to be free of you.
Seizing my ankles, Cairo dragged me across the floor.
“No!”
I latched on the doorframe, kicking to get free. All it did was help him get my pants all the way off.
He pulled me free of the door and hauled me bare-assed over the splintered wood. Cairo dove between my legs, descending on my pussy like a ravenous beast.
Have you ever been eaten out by a wild animal masquerading as a man? I would assume not unless that man was Cairo Sharpe.
Mercy was not in his vocabulary.
He tortured my clit between his teeth—reducing me to a moaning, quivering mess in seconds. His tongue forced its way past my folds, licking and collecting every drop of juice from my traitorous sex.
“Uh, it hurts.” I slapped him. “Stop!”
“I don’t have to stop taking what’s mine.”
He rose up, snapped me to him, and pushed in with a single thrust.
“Ah!”
Cairo gripped my neck, pinning me to the floor as he started pumping. I grabbed his wrist—to pull him off or to hold him, I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t think.
The pain was mind numbing. Ripping, tearing, rending the last pieces of the Rainey I used to be to shreds.
“C-Cairo... no, please.”
Sweat covered my body, easing my slide on the unforgiving floor. Cairo lifted me, burying his face in my neck. I whimpered as he licked a stripe along my collarbone, then sucked to mark his claim.