Page 22 of Above All Else

Were the police in on this?

Why didn’t they care?

I glanced to the right.

A stunned, teary-eyed blonde woman trembled next to a man in a pig mask, her gaze fixed on the woman hanging from the ceiling. The hanging woman’s hands hung limp, her fingertips just a hair’s width away from the filled goblet beneath her.

Was she trapped like me with no way out?

How did sweet Carter get involved in something so horrid?

Carter moved his hand to my lower stomach, making my insides burn. My heart pounded as I sucked in a deep breath, my cheeks heating with the fire inside of me. “Let me go.”

He chuckled. “Still that smitten teenage girl, I wonder?” His hand moved lower, pulling up my negligee in front of the dozens of people roaming about.

I was just a thirteen-year-old girl when I first developed a crush on him, blossoming each year until the age of eighteen when we shared our first kiss. The next day, he promised it would never happen again.

He’d disappeared from existence ever since—keeping his word.

Why so hot and cold?

How—

The soft material pressed against my clit, making my stomach twist.

No, no, no.

Not like this.

Not now.

Not after everything...

Carter dipped his fingers down the front of my panties and grazed my clit between the folds, his arm crushing my breasts.

“S-Stop.” I jerked against him.

My stomach roiled as I twisted my legs and squirmed, pinching his hand between my thighs.

“I’m going to take everything from you. Just like you did for Amber.”

My heartbeat raced, pounding against my ribs as if it might break free. Nausea clawed up my throat, the acrid taste of my last meal with Ethan threatening to make a reappearance on the floor.

Oh God.

Ethan.

A venomous bloom spread through my veins, clenching my fist at my side and my other digging nails into his arm. I threw my elbow back, slamming it into his stomach.

He groaned and coughed, and I turned in his faulty grasp, striking him in the throat below his mask.

No wonder I couldn’t find him.

He stumbled to the side, sputtering, and I ran.

Darting to the left, I sucked in a deep breath, pushing my way through the throng of people, my bare feet slapping against the floors. My gaze snapped left and right, the front door looming just ahead.

Would they stop me?

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