Page 2 of Drown in You

From the shadows, Marcus ambles in front of me. His hazel eyes cold and vacant, jaw square and hard. Solid muscles still bulge beneath his clothes despite the months he’s been trading the gym for physical therapy. The poster boy for fraternities across the nation.

Before it happened, we barely knew each other. Students at the same university whose paths never crossed until Juliet introduced us. I meant little to him then, and I mean nothing to him now.

Panic makes my frantically pounding heart climb to my throat. After a targeted campaign to turn me into the town pariah and torment me from a distance since that night, they’re finally doing more than scaring me.

Tonight, they’ll make me pay for what I did.

“Where you going, Sienna?” Marcus’s voice grows fangs and drags down my spine.

“Home.” The word is muffled by Kade’s hand still covering my mouth.

They all laugh. They’re not letting me go home.

Maybe Juliet will call the cops. Maybe she’ll call Mom, who’s much closer and the only other person in this town on my side. No one other than my mother and my best friend will care what Marcus, Stephen, and Kade are about to do to me.

When everyone else hears the news, they’ll think I deserved it.

Marcus nods at his henchmen. “Take her to the park.”

Stephen tucks my phone into his pocket and latches onto my arm, his grip unyielding and tight enough to bring burning tears to my eyes. Marcus’s lackeys drag me toward the trees. I wriggle and kick and scream, heart thumping harder with every failed escape attempt and every inch closer to my demise.

I fucked up. Maybe I deserve what’s coming to me, but I can’t go down without a fight.

Once we get close to a tree past the nearest park bench, Kade hurls me forward, my back slamming against the bark and knocking the wind out of me.

I don’t get a chance to catch my breath before Marcus lands the first blow to my stomach.

My head swims with the pain, and I gasp out the little remaining air in my lungs.

Stephen aims a kick at my leg and my shin splinters. Tears spring to my eyes.

Kade’s cruel laugh precedes his fist striking against my skull.

My vision darkens, the stabbing pain in my temple drowning out the agony radiating through the rest of my body.

Mom. Juliet. Ten. What will happen to them if I’m gone? Will Juliet think to tell Ten what happened to me? I’ll die before he and I ever get a chance to meet. Before I ever get to see the face beneath the mask.

And Mom...Mom will be lost without me. I’m all she has left.

“Stop!” I cry out, bending at the waist and covering my head with my arms. The protection they offer is flimsy. I might as well not try to shield myself at all for the little good they’ll do against my assailants’ fists.

Marcus shoves me to the ground, straddling me and pinning me against the cold, unyielding earth. His body is a boulder on top of me. Anything he wants to do to me, he can. I am powerless to stop him.

“Don’t, Marcus!” Tears from the horrifying mix of pain and terror spill down my face.

He leans closer, beer breath flooding my nose as he growls in my ear, “You think you can accuse me of some sick shit I didn’t do? You think you can get away with ruining my life?” He pulls back slightly so I get a clear view of the malicious smile distorting his face. “If you’re going to accuse me, I might as well be guilty.”

Raw terror threatens to make my heart burst. “No, Marcus! Please, don’t. Please don’t do this. Everyone knows it wasn’t true?—”

“Maybe you should’ve realized that before you nearly fucking killed me.” With one hand, he pins my shoulder down while the other finds the button on my jeans.

I wriggle desperately beneath him, heart pounding impossibly hard while his teammates egg him on. “Should we take turns?” Kade runs a hand through his greasy hair, his snaggle-toothed grin enough to turn my stomach. “Or should we all fuck her at once?”

Marcus gets my jeans unbuttoned and my zipper down.

No, no, no. This can’t be happening?—

“Hey!” A husky, feminine voice cuts through the silent darkness surrounding us. “I’m calling the cops!”

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