Page 7 of Fall

Managing to finally get one shoe pressed to the floor, I jerk upward. I make it a few centimeters before Val growls, the soundrough and more than a little feral, before suddenly I’m on my back with him straddling my hips, arm across my throat.

Worse, my head isrightbetween Kieran’s boots, which feels more than a little ironic and unfortunate.

Kieran just sighs from the couch and doesn’t move, meaning that I don’t have many places to try to shift to get away from Val’s arm. “Stop!” I gasp, trying to suck in air. “Stop it!I can’t breathe!”

“If you can bitch, you can breathe,” Val assures me with a sweet smile. “And if you weren’t trying to tear my face off, princess, we wouldn’t be here. So stop sneering at me and take a breath.”

“Let go of—” He rolls his eyes and presses down again, cutting off my words and twisting them into a surprised yelp of discomfort and severe lack of oxygen.

“Breathe,” he reminds me. “Not bitch.” After a few more seconds he lessens the pressure, and I take a deep breath followed by a few desperate pants.

“I would say I’m surprised,” Kieran remarks from somewhere behind my head. “I’d say I expected you to maybe act a little rational and hear us out. But well…I’m not and I didn’t. You really are such a feral little thing. I’ve realized you can’t help yourself when you’re backed into a corner. Most people would be begging for us to be nice, to let them go. They’d be simpering and pleading and promising to do anything. But you…”

Val grins in silence and leans down to bare his teeth at me in some kind of show of dominance or threat. For all I know, he could just be looking for approval on his tooth-brushing skills.

But probably not.

So I show him my teeth right back, kicking up at him just to see where it gets me.

Which is absolutely nowhere.

"What do you want?” I snap, letting my foot drop back to the floor with a thump of displeasure. “I thought you weren’t going to kill me. You…you didn’t last night. When you drugged me and took me home.” Thinking about how long and exhausting my night was seems to remind my body of just how little rest I’ve gotten in the past twenty-four hours.

Part of me can’t believe that’s all it’s been.

Kieran shifts and sighs like he’s tired. If so, that makes two of us. “We would’ve brought you here straight from the haunt, truthfully. But Val needed to make sure this place was empty and the stuff I used to drug you last night wouldn’t last as long as I’d like. Not with the drive.”

The drive?

Biting my lip, I glare up at Val again, wondering if he’ll choke me out for asking too many questions. “Where are we? Are we far from the city?” Without being able to see anything outside or being able to find my phone, I have no idea how far from Nashville we could possibly be. The idea that I’m hours from my apartment and my cats makes my fingers flex and the urge to whack Val in the face goes through me again.

“I fed your cats and gave them extra water. Changed the litter boxes for you, too,” Val remarks, drawing my attention to his grin. His eyes glitter sweetly, like he really thinks he’s done me some great favor that will sway me into not freaking out.

“Wow. You’re such a saint. My absolute hero—” He presses down again on my throat, his smirk turning rueful as he tips his head to the side playfully.

“We don’t want to kill you,” Kieran continues. “Neither of us. But we aren’t going to risk going to jail for you, feral little thing.”

Fear prickles up my spine, causing my fingers to flex against Val’s arm. My heart rate picks up, and it occurs to me they’re definitely going to murder me. But if so…why not do it while I was unconscious?

Unless they’ve kept me alive to torture me like the other people at the haunt.

My sudden realization must show on my face, because Val’s face turns a little apologetic. “Don’t do that,” he murmurs, and leans forward to brush his lips to mine. “No, princess, it’s not like that.”

“You don’t know what I was thinking,” I breathe, trying not to let my fear show in my voice.

But he just smiles against my lips and huffs a soft chuckle.

“We figure you don’t want to die.” It’s frustrating how Kieran can just sound so casual about this, as if he’s not talking about whether they’re going to end my life, or not. Again my fingers flex, nails digging into Val’s arm as everything in me screams at me to figure out how to run.

God, I really wish I could.

“You can’t just keep me here or bury me in the woods.” I cast around my brain, searching for a reason to back up my statement. “My friends will notice. Sierra?—”

That pulls a laugh from Val and he sits up, not moving his arm. “Princess,” he admonishes. “Come on. We were in your apartment when you oh-so-conveniently told the cops and your friend that you were fine, just busy. And I took the liberty of texting her for you once her first flight landed. I think she’s too busy to come check on you, seeing as she’s all the way inPortland.”

Fuck.

I hoped they’d forgotten that, or hadn’t thought to check my phone.

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