Page 49 of Ruining Vanessa

A full-on branch.

Holy shit.

I start running again, my sides and legs aching from the effort, but I have no choice but to keep moving. I keep going, right up until I see a modestly sized cabin in the middle of the clearing.

No lights are on. It looks abandoned, empty, and it just might be a place I can hide out in until dark. I slow down, glancing behind me but still seeing nothing, then start to circle the building. Nothing. Even if I can’t get inside the cabin itself, there’s a shed outside that might be unlocked.

Something creaks behind me, but that’s the only warning I have before a gloved hand slaps over my mouth and I’m pulled back against a large, heavily muscled body.

My scream is muffled, and even though I fight, the person holding me is unyielding. I try to kick and punch and grab, but nothing helps. The man—because it has to be a man from the erection pressed against my back—simply holds me in place until I wear myself out.

Giulio, I think hysterically. Except the door to the cabin suddenly opens, and Giulio strolls out, waving.

“Yo! Took you a while.” He smiles in my direction. “Hey, Vanessa, good job finding this place. It’s kind of remote.”

“Sorry,” Slayer’s voice comes from behind me, not sounding sorry at all. “It was too easy to catch up with her, so I entertained myself for a little bit. A few times, she tried to jackrabbit off in the wrong direction, but we got her here.”

I close my eyes and cry.

Of course this was a setup. Of course it was a fucking setup. There’s no way Giulio would ever give me a fair shot at escaping. I’d known as much, but with the threat against Stef, I hadn’t had a choice but to try.

Slayer takes his hand off my mouth. “I don’t think I have to tell you not to scream. Do I, Vanessa?”

I shake my head, my shoulders slumping as I realize this is it. Game over. There’s no way out of this.

“Good.” He grabs my arm and starts to drag me toward the cabin.

13

SLAYER

Vanessa presses against me, and it has my blood pumping hard as I think of how she’d writhed against me only seconds earlier. Giulio follows us, snapping photos on his phone every few minutes.

I’d tell him to knock it off, but I trust him not to get my face in the shots, and it’d be nice to have a few mementos.

It’s not every day I get to indulge myself like this, after all.

Though the knowledge that we’re doing this because she tricked all of us does take something away from the situation. I can’t help but frown, my mood darkening just a little. I don’t know when I started caring about Giulio Jr., but apparently, I’d gotten into the idea at some point.

“How close did she actually get to escaping?” Giulio asks once we’re in the mudroom. There’s a space for coats and boots on one side, and a small drain and hose on the other end of the room.

I unzip Vanessa’s hoodie. “Not very,” I say with a snort.

Vanessa shakes her head and tries to keep the hoodie on, but a light slap on her cheek has her sobbing and relaxing her arms enough for me to pull the hoodie off her.

“Yeah. She left such an obvious trail, even I might have been able to track her.” Giulio circles around to Vanessa’s other side. “Lift your arms for us, Vanessa.”

Vanessa looks up at me with big, pleading eyes, and I grin savagely down at her. I can’t wait to lick away her tears.

After we hose her down, obviously, because she’s covered in dust and dirt from her trek through the woods.

She lifts her arms after a pause, and I yank her shirt off, tossing it carelessly onto the ground. “Oh, is she going to need that when we’re done?” I laugh, glancing at the mud-covered shirt. “Whoops.”

Vanessa wraps her arms around herself, drawing my attention to something else that’s out of place.

“Why’s she wearing a bra?” I ask.

Giulio shrugs. “I realize she’s part of the no-titty committee, but I wanted it to be fair. Can’t have her slowing down ‘cause her chest hurts.” He pinches one of her tiny tits through the bra. “You can cut the bra off her if you want. She definitely won’t be needing it again… not unless her boobs grow with pregnancy.”

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