Page 102 of Ready Or Not

My face burns. Why do they have to look at me?

“Rachel,” Manson’s voice is low and unhurried. “You ran.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Here is where they kill me. This is it. They’ll kill me because I defied them.

But both of them are silent. They’re silent for so long. I only know they’re still there by Manson’s body on me and Riley’s soft breaths on my skin.

“Just kill me and get it over with,” I mutter.

Riley snorts.

I snap my gaze open. She wants to mock me? I open my mouth to yell at her, and her eyes spark in excitement.

I snap my mouth shut.

“Oh, come on, bambi. Play with me,” she pouts.

“Play with you?” I sputter. “Play with you? Really? After all this time that you’ve been playing with me? With my life and my…” I stop. I was about to say my heart, and that would sound horrendously stupid.

Riley opens her mouth, but Manson growls, “Feelings, Riley. Play nice.”

Play nice? Play fucking nice? My face burns with embarrassment, and I buck into him. I want to get away. Have to get away. I can feel their eyes burning into me, seeing me, seeing my struggle, and I hate it. I fucking hate it. I struggle until I’m panting. Manson hasn’t even budged.

“Yeah, he sucks like that.” Riley looks at her nails. “If you want something, he’ll lean in extra hard. Feel free to kick him in the nuts for me.”

I just stare at her. She picks at her index finger. “Now you’ve got me picking at my nails, bambi. Gonna have to get you to kick that habit so I can kick mine.”

I blink. What in the ever-living hell is going on?

“Are you…going to kill me?” I can’t keep the question back any longer.

Riley and Manson share a look. Riley’s pretty eyes lock back on mine. “Uh, no? What the hell, Rachel? You thought we were going to kill you?”

My heart starts racing again, and I glance between the two of them. “Isn’t that what you’ve been saying this whole time?” I can’t help the screech in my voice.

“Well, I mean, yeah, we’re gonna fuck you within an inch of your life, but we won’t actually kill you, Rachel.”

I still can’t understand. They aren’t going to kill me?

Manson leans up a little more. Just enough to trap both of my hands in his one and trail the other down my chest. He runs a finger down to my breasts, turning one in circles around my nipple.

“Why?” I gasp.

Riley cocks her head. “Well, to start, you’re mine. Why would I want to get rid of something I’ve worked so hard to keep alive?”

“Ours,” Manson growls, and a shiver runs through me.

“Well, she’s more mine ‘cause you tried to kill her more often.”

Manson snorts. “If I was actually trying, she’d be dead, Riley.”

I blink at both of them. Manson’s finger is causing delicious tingles to run through me and distracting me.

“And,” Riley snaps her gaze back to me, “Iwantto keep you.”

I swallow. She wants this? There’s no way.

“What Riley means to say,” Manson keeps messing with my nipple, softly twisting, flicking, and teasing, “if she had any cognitive empathy, is that she likes you.”

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