Page 162 of Save Me

They can’t.

They’re tied behind my back to a chair.

Slowly, I peel my eyes open to stare at beat up, cracked wooden floorboards.

“Kennedy,” a voice whispers.

At first, I thought it was a dream, but it called my name again, a little louder.

I force my eyelids to open wider, raise my head, and then gasp. “N-Nicole?”

I stare in horror at the young woman perched on the dirty floor across the room. She cowers beneath a window, her wrists bound to an old metal radiator by rope.

“You’re awake,” she whispers, then turns to the closed door.

The door doesn’t budge, but I hear male voices on the other side as I hold my breath.

“Who—”

“Shshsh,” she shushes me.

When she turns back to me, I gasp again. Her right eye is swollen shut, there are scratches on her neck, and her clothes are torn.

I try to get up from the wooden chair to go to her, but my hands and legs are bound. I tug at the rope, but that just causes my skin to tear around my wrists and ankles.

“What the hell?” I whisper, trying to remember how I ended up in this position.

All I can recall is leaving my parents’ home, still upset about Dae, and then … darkness.

I shake off my distress at my inability to remember and look at Nicole. “Who’s on the other side of that door?”

“It’s—” She stops abruptly when the door opens.

My attention shoots across the room, and my stomach drops when her piece of shit ex, Michael, walks in. He’s not alone.

Following Michael is Daniel Park.

His gaze falls on me, and I barely manage to keep the surprise off my face. I expected Blackmon to be the one behind this.

Park’s top lip curls as he glares at me. He comes closer and stops about a foot in front of me.

I jerk my leg out in an attempt to kick him, but I’m reminded that my legs are bound to the chair.

He lets out a mocking laugh.

“Weren’t expecting me?”

He doesn’t give me time to answer before he taps his chin with his finger. Then he points at me.

“You know, I knew you looked familiar.” His expression turns hard. “You’re that same bitch from that day. If you had let me take care of that bastard, you wouldn’t be in this position now.”

Anger boils up from the pit of my stomach. “Fuck you.”

“What did you just say?” He seems genuinely appalled.

“You’re a fucking coward who needed two other people to help you attack one boy. You’re a weak piece of shit—” I hiss in pain when he punches me across the face.

My vision blurs, and I see stars. I squeeze my eyes shut and then open them, blinking a few times.

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