“Give me anestimate.”
“I said I don’t know.” Her refusal to meet my gaze was extremelytelling.
“It’s all of them, isn’tit?”
She finally looked back at me with narrowed eyes. “Don’t slut-shame me, Laney. I thought you were better thanthat.”
“I’m not slut-shaming you! I’m just telling you the truth. This isn’t empowering for any of the girls. It’s not some big sex-positive equality movement, either, no matter how much you try to convince yourself it is.” I took a step closer, forehead creasing. “If you weren’t living under the constant threat of having your sex tapes exposed, how many of those men would you actually choose to sleep with? Like if you randomly met them out in the realworld?”
Camila looked away again and swallowedaudibly.
I kept going. “You say it’s all so fun, but how much do you actually enjoy sleeping with them? And how many orgasms have you had with them?” I asked. “Any at all? Or is it just performative bullshit because you’re scared of what they’ll do if you say no or refuse to fake pleasure forthem?”
“Shut the fuck up,” she said in an acid tone. “You honestly have no idea what you’re talkingabout.”
“I’m pretty sure I do. They tricked you into joining sometime in the past, and now it’s your job to trick other girls to make sure the men always have a supply of fresh meat. Once you’ve graduated from RFA, that job will get passed down to one of the other girls.” I lifted my chin. “It isn’t empowerment, and you know it. It’s the opposite. You’re giving these men everything they want, andtheyhave all the power, because if you refuse them, not only do you lose your future college scholarship and career, you risk having a sex tape leaked of you.” I paused and let out a snort. “Tell me, what part of that makes you feelempowered?”
Camila’s eyes blazed with contemptuous fury as she stared at me. “You should’ve just taken the first drink we gave you,” she said in a low voice, grabbing one of my wrists. “But you just had to make things fucking hard for everyone, didn’tyou?”
My stomach lurched. It wasn’t the first time in my life that I’d heard something along those lines.You should’ve just had the drink and made things easier for everyoneelse.
Dark memories seeped like ink into my brain. My father’s face flashed in my mind, along with the sickening thumping sound his body made when my mother and I rolled it off the cliff into the quarry below. A chaotic mixture of fear, rage and anguish filled my chest, sending a flood of adrenaline through my veins, and I wrenched my wrist out of Camila’s grasp, making her yelp withsurprise.
I whirled around and sprinted down thepath.
“Stop!” Camila called after me. “You can’tleave!”
“Watch me!” I shouted over myshoulder.
She caught up to me again and grabbed at my dress, pulling me back to her. “How are you planning on getting off the island?” she asked. “You don’t have the keys to themotorboats.”
“Let go!” I shouted, swatting at herhands.
“I suppose you could swim,” she went on. “But it’s halfway through fall, so that water is fuckingfreezing.You’ll probably die of hypothermia before you even make it halfway back to theshore.”
“I’d rather freeze to death than hang around your fucked-up fantasy party for a second longer,” I snarled, eyes narrowed and chest heaving as I struggled to make her let go of mydress.
I finally freed myself from her grip and started running again. This time, she let mego.
“You better not fucking tell anyone about this!” she shouted after me. “Some of the most powerful people in the state are in the Network, so if you do, you’ll regretit!”
I ignored her and kept going, stumbling over tree roots and rocks in the darkness. When I reached the end of the path, I burst onto the shore and dashed toward the pier. There had to be a spare key in one of the boats, or at least some sort of inflatable raft for emergencies that I could paddle back to the RFA side of theshore.
A flicker of movement in the woods by my side caught my eye, along with the sound of heavy footsteps crunching over dead leaves. Then a tall, hulking man dressed in black emerged from the trees and stepped out in front of me, blocking mypath.
“Hello,Laney.”
6
Hunter
“Hello, Laney. Fancy seeing you here.”
My attempt at a stupid joke fell flat instantly as I caught sight of Laney’s strickenface.
Under the bright starlight, I could see smeared mascara under her eyes and a long scratch on the side of her left arm, presumably from a small branch that had scraped her as she dashed through the woods. Her chest was heaving, and her hair was damp withperspiration.
“Hunter?” she said, eyes bulging. She took a step backwards. “What thefuck?”