Page 104 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

I give her two more smacks, each harder than the last. But as much as I’d like to torture this pretty little thing until the sun goes down, we still have a lot of shit to do.

“Turn her over. Open her up.”

Mason does as I command, he and Silas pinning down her arms before grabbing her legs and wrenching them open. She struggles furiously, thrashing in their grip. When I step closer, she throws her hair out of her face with a flick of her head, glaring furiously until she sees the machete in my hand.

Thenthe terror finally sets in.

I could have fucked her then and there, and Christ I almost can’t control myself. But there’s a growing sense of urgency. We need to wrap this up—we have things to do.

“Remember this, love,” I say quietly as I sink to my knees between her legs. “Rememberus...”

Nim lets out a breathless yell when I carve an S onto her inner thigh. Mason releases her as soon as I’m done, brushing leaves from his camo gear as he gets to his feet. Nim scrambles up, clamping her hand over her leg. Blood oozes between her fingers as she stares at us in shock.

“You should be more careful when you walk alone in the woods, Liberty,” Silas says as he stands. “Now run home and tell your parents what a clumsy bitch you are.”

Nim doesn’t wait for a second invitation. Her silhouette flickers through the leaves as she races away from us.We all watch until she’s out of sight, and then we head back to Lorenzo’s body, Mason shoving Nim’s torn-off underwear into his pocket.

When Boomer sees me approaching, his whole body starts wriggling, but he doesn’t get up or come closer.

“I can’t believe Lorenzo thinks he’s old enough to train,” Silas says, stooping to pick up the dog.

“If anything, he left it a few weeks too late,” I tell him.

Both Silas and Mason turn wide eyes to me, so I roll mine. “Their training starts as soon as they’re weaned.” I turn and put my fingers in my mouth, letting out a piercing whistle meant for the other hounds. They’d picked up a bear scent a few miles back, but even if they’d treed it, it’s not bear hunting season.

“Put him down,” I tell Silas. “He has to learn to run with the rest of the pack.”

“We can’t justleavehim here,” Silas whispers, as if he doesn’t want Boomer to overhear.

“Christ,” I mutter, snatching the puppy from Silas with one hand. He squirms furiously in my grip, doing his best to lick my face when I hold him up at eye level from the scruff of his neck. I have a feeling I know what happened. Little Nim must have spotted Boomer—who has a penchant for wandering off to go sniff flowers and shit—and the puppy led her straight to Lorenzo.

I give Boomer a gentle shake. “You’re going to be the death of me, you little shit.”

I tuck him under one arm, and stare down at Lorenzo’s sticky face. He’s already starting to attract flies. I hand the machete to Mason.

“You know what to do.”

Chapter 4

Nim

I stagger out of the woods like I’ve been lost inside for weeks. I’m not even sure how I managed to find my way back to the path, and for a while I wasn’t sure if it was the same one I took to get into the forest, but by some twist of fate I end up back at Vicky’s wrought-iron gates. My parents’ car isn’t parked outside anymore. When I check my phone, I see a missed call from Mom.

And the partially-entered phone number I’d taken from Boomer’s collar. I save it as ‘Boomer’, glance down to make sure there’s no blood visible on my legs, and press the intercom.

My legs are rubber. It felt like they were chasing me the entire way back here. I ran until I couldn’t anymore, and then jogged until I hit another—or possibly the same—stream. I washed my face, bathed my cut, and washed out my mouth. I walked the rest of the way, one of my socks pressed to the cut on my leg so it would stop bleeding.

A prim, “Hello?”comes through the intercom.

“Hi, uh, it’s Nim.”

“Nim! Come in.” I don’t know who it is that sounds so excited since they don’t introduce themselves before letting me in.

I expect the massive iron gates to open, but instead I hear a short buzz to my side. I see there’s a smaller doorway set into the main gate, and it opens when I push at it.

I have a lot of time to consider what I’m going to tell my parents when I see them, because there’s what feels like a ten-mile drive between the gates and the palatial mansion that appears from the pines ahead. I think I’m kind of in shock about what just happened in the woods, because I’m not as awed by the enormous building as I think I would have been.

Why didn’t I just stay in the car with my parents? If I’d done that, none of this would have happened. I’d never have seen Boomer, never run into those hunters in the woods, never been tormented. I could have died out there. I’m still shocked that theydidn’tkill me...but I guess they were full up on murder for the day.

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