Page 52 of Reverse Perspective

“Six? Don’t they usually get home sooner than that?” Leo asks as he slips his phone into his jeans pocket.

“Yeah. They must have had something come up,” I say. “You know you can sit, Leo.”

“I’m going to leave here in just a few minutes,” he says. “Who’s coming for game night?”

“No idea,” I shrug. “Last time it was everyone.”

“Yeah, that was fun,” he laughs. A knock at the door pulls my attention.

“Todd probably left something,” I say as I get off the couch. “And it was only fun because you won.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I do like winning.”

“Why did you knock?” I start to say when I open the door. I gasp and take a step back when it’s not Todd who takes a quick step into the house before I can shut the door. “You need to leave, Paul.”

I am still backing away from him. Nothing good will come from him being here. He shouldn’t even have my address. I try to swallow the lump in my throat as anxiety starts to pool inside me.

“Ah!” Paul says happily. “You’ve met my cousin, Leo. Small world, isn’t it, Bunny?”

“Fuck,” I mutter when I take another step back and Leo grabs my waist and stops me. I don’t even need to ask to understand that Leo has been playing me since high school. I’ve got to hand it to him, though. He played that role pretty fucking well to pretend to not be a two-faced little fucker. I can’t imagine the guys will take well to this. Something in the way Paul is grinning at me tells me that I won’t be around to find out what their reaction is.

I pull away and make an attempt at running for the back door. I can easily cross over the creek to get onto the neighbor’s property. I get as far as the doorway to the kitchen before one of them grabs me by the hair and pulls me to a stop.

“Stop it!” I scream. I try to pry the hand out of my hair but an arm snakes around my waist and pulls me against their body.

“I’ve missed you, Bunny,” Paul says. “We have so much time to make up for.”

“Please don’t Paul,” I say as tears flood my cheeks. He has his hand on my neck and presses in on the side. I am almost immediately woozy.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle,” he says as everything goes dark and my body suddenly feels like a lead weight.

Chapter twelve

Lance

I stop the carin the driveway and I see that the front door is wide open, but the screen door is shut. “That’s weird,” I say as I put the car in park and get out. “She doesn’t leave the door open like that.”

“She didn’t answer when I called to ask about picking up dinner, so maybe Todd left it open,” Dean suggests.

“He wouldn’t leave her here alone if she hadn’t woken up yet,” I disagree. I have an awful feeling twisting in my gut when I step into the house and it is silent.

“Sadie?” Mason calls out. I go to what used to be her room. She still naps here and some of her stuff is still here, so logically she’d be here if she was still napping. The dishwasher is running, so I know she was awake at some point today.

I open the door and flip the light on to find an empty room. When I see her phone sitting on the nightstand, panic fills me. “Dean. Mason.”

“She here?” Mason asks with the same worry in his tone.

“No. Her phone is though,” I say as I pull my phone from my pocket.

“Have you looked everywhere?” Dean asks as he comes in. His eyes find the phone and he tenses instantly.

“She’s not here,” Mason says, more as a question. He is struggling to connect the dots as fast, or he’s in denial. Todd wouldn’t have left her here alone unless he knew she was okay.

“Hey,” Todd says when he answers my call.

“Is Sadie with you?” I ask.

“No. Why? Leo stopped by and she said her headache was gone so I went and got Stacy. Is Leo not there?”

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