Page 81 of The Dollhouse

I didn’t know what I was expecting from Lola, but the girl I met was not it. She was… well, she was different, that’s for sure. The way she held herself, the way she talked. I could immediately tell she was off her rocker, but I wasn’t uncomfortable around her. I had the feeling she wore a mask around most people, which was something I could understand.

She was also very, very pretty. Like, maybe the prettiest girl I’d ever met kind of pretty. Still, Carter had no interest in her, and neither did Roman. My men only had eyes for me, even when Lola was sitting on the floor beside Lake and me, playing cards. It made me feel good, to have their attention even though a pretty, busty blonde who could clearly handle herself around dangerous men was nearby.

It was probably a good thing Lola was in a relationship similar to mine with the guys in the other cabin. Roman had kept me separate from them, but I saw glimpses of them, here and there. They looked like the dangerous sort, like Roman and Carter… only worse. More tattooed, angrier.

Just don’t get me started on how peculiar it was to meet another girl in a situation like mine. I knew other harems like mine existed, but I didn’t think I’d ever meet one. Mind blown. Seriously.

Lola had just left, one of her men had come and gotten her. From what it sounded like, one of their men was shot and not in the best condition. I sat on the floor with Lake, while Carter sat on the couch.

“Thank fucking God,” Carter grumbled, tossing his leftover cards at me. “No more card games. Ever.” His gruff tone told me he was utterly serious, but all I could do was grin at him while thinking,if I want to play a card game, we’re going to play a card game. That’s just how I rolled.

Roman was in the back, in one of the bedrooms. He hated Lola, I think, hated her for what she did—when Roman and Carter ran off that night all those weeks ago, that’s where he’d gone. She was a killer. Not only did she kill her parents, as she’d so proudly told Lake and me, but she also killed someone Roman and Carter knew.

Yeah, I was surrounded by killers, and yet I did not feel like running. How odd was that?

Time became a blur, and we all grew restless. I didn’t know how long we’d be here, but I hoped it wouldn’t be forever. It was one thing to go from Hillcrest to the Dollhouse, but it was another thing entirely to go from the Dollhouse to the middle of nowhere.

Hell, I think I’d take Hillcrest over this torture.

Because that’s what it was: torture. Plain and simple.

It was made even more torturous by the fact that Roman didn’t want Carter to hurt me, so no fun times, other than when I could convince Lake. It felt almost like everyone thought I was some fragile flower, or some other bullshit. I mean, okay, I wasn’t as psychotic as Lola, but come on. Who the fuck was as psycho as that one? I might not be at her level, but give mesomecredit.

Lake and I sat on the couch together, eating toast for a snack, because when you lived in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, good food was hard to come by. And, somehow, I didn’t think anyone would want to run into town to pick up some good pizza.

Roman was in the other cabin with Carter, so I wasn’t expecting to hear a knock on the door, but that’s exactly what I heard.

Knock, knock.

Lake’s blue eyes met my stare as he asked, “Who could that be?”

“I don’t know, but I think you should go answer it.” Volunteering Lake for the job; he didn’t appear too thrilled with me, but he was sweet and got up to see who it was, anyway. I knew it couldn’t be either of my other guys, for they wouldn’t have knocked, and I highly doubted it was one of the other crazy men in the opposite cabin.

Somehow, they didn’t seem like the knocking sort.

Lake opened the door, standing there quite awkwardly as he met the amber eyes of someone I didn’t recognize. A man in his late twenties, who wore his button-down shirt tucked into his pants. Thin-rimmed glasses sat on his nose. “Uh, can I help you?”

I nearly laughed at Lake’s unease.

“Yes,” the stranger said. “I mean, I can help you—not you, but her. I heard you got shot as well, though your wound isn’t as bad as Mike’s. Roman mentioned he stitched you up already, but since I’m here, I figured I could take a look at your arm.” He sounded so easygoing, so… kind, a stark contrast to the men in the other cabin, including Roman and Carter.

Lake, like me, didn’t know how to respond. I got off the couch, moving to stand beside him as I gazed at the stranger. “You a doctor or something?”

“Or something, yes,” he said. “Most people call me Doc, but my name is Theo. I don’t work at a hospital, but I do have many patients.” He chuckled quietly. “You’d be surprised at how many people I’ve stitched up since getting out of medical school.” Theo didn’t wait for me to say yes or no; he simply turned and headed away, off the front porch and down the wooden steps of the cabin. “Come on,” he eventually said. “My things are in the other cabin; it’ll be easier to do it there.”

I glanced at my arm, at the bandage wrapped around it, figuring what was the harm? Even though he seemed young, it sounded like Theo had a lot of practice, maybe even more so than Roman. If they’d called him in to operate on the other person who’d gotten shot, they had to trust him.

As I went, Lake called out, “I’ll, uh, I’ll wait here. Good luck.”

I didn’t hold it against him. Lake was not too comfortable when it came to the other guys. Roman and Carter he could stomach, but that Maddox fellow? Yeah, he was a little too off his rocker, even for me.

Theo held open the other cabin’s door for me, and I walked in. “Sit on the couch,” he instructed, and as I did so, Roman and Carter approached me.

Carter was silent, but Roman couldn’t hold it in: “What’s this?” The suit he wore hugged his wide, strong body well, and I held my legs together, lest I spread them right here and now to try to get some.

It’d been so freaking long, I couldn’t deal. I just wanted… well, I wanted to be bent over the couch and fucked like a wild animal while Roman watched and got off. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently, with my current injury and everything else going on in the world, it was, and it made me very sad.

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