Page 66 of Ramsay

“You eighteen?” he grunts.

Flushing under his scrutiny, I spy the lighter I grabbed in my haste and shake my head no.

With a long-suffering sigh, he says, “You’re underage and wasting my time. You need to leave.”

“But—“

“Out!”

Fuck.

I push through the doors and stare at the idling car. It hasn’t moved, and I’m stuck. I can keep going, or I can wait, but I know I just know whoever is in that vehicle means me harm.

“Fuck!” I jump out of my skin when another text from Jagger comes through.

Staring at the message, I curse, and against my better judgment, I call him, my gaze trained on the car waiting patiently for me down the street.

“Baby, you better be calling to apologize,” he barks.

Ignoring his tone, I say quietly, “Jagger, I think someone is following me, and I’m scared.”

“Where are you?” he demands.

Rattling off the address, I drop the call and wait, knowing I’ve just traded one evil for another.

But what choice do I have?

∞∞∞

Jagger greets me with a smile, and I slide into the vehicle grimly. I’ve just opened the door and welcomed my past over the threshold. Can I see my way out when all is said and done?

With a sinking sensation, I see that he’s flying high, and I ignore his jittery speech as he races recklessly down the freeway. My past threatens to overwhelm me as I clutch the rabbit foot inside my pocket, reminding myself while I stare at him grimly that my other choice was possible death.

Of course, he disregards my request to be delivered home, instead taking me back to the underground fight club where I ran into him just days before.

“You don’t mind, right baby? We can get down and dirty after I do some business,” he says with a wicked smile, wagging his eyebrows.

The sight turns my stomach, and I look away. At the very least, this will buy me some time, but if I don’t find a way out of this, he’s going to force himself on me, and I will cave because I’d rather be high than feel his slimy hands on my body.

Before Ramsay’s cold words about my cruel secrets, I might have hoped they were here, to intervene, as they’ve done before, but that’s the type of thoughts that created the mess they continue to spread. I have no hope on that front.

I guess Ramsay’s threats were the wake-up call I needed, stay the fuck away from the Sinners because they’ll ruin what’s left of my broken dignity.

I don’t care if every person in our school knows I’m a drug addict, but I spilled horrors into my files that never need to see the light of day again. Those were my painful truths, and the thought of Ramsay fucking Yates using them against me turns my stomach. Hell, the fact he knows them at all, much less holds them in the palm of his hand, is too fucking much.

I knew, I knew there was darkness behind his cold eyes, and still, I underestimated him.

I’ve no notion how I’m the fucking problem when the assholes keep approaching me, but it hardly matters, I read him loud and clear. I’m nothing to him but a nuisance that he wants to disappear.

Jagger pulls me from my wretched thoughts when he grabs my chin in a painful grip and holds out three little white pills. My heart jumps into my throat and my mouth dries. I try to shake my head, but he just tightens his grip until I cry out before he shoves them between my lips.

“Swallow them down, or you’ll regret it,” he says. It would be so easy to justify my failure and comply but visions of my greatest mistake dance before my eyes and I know what I have to do.

Meeting his gaze, I nod slowly, before tucking them under my tongue. He cocks his head to the side, and I widen my eyes but he’s far smarter than to let me hide them. Clucking his tongue, he tightens his grip on my chin and covers my nose, forcing me to open my mouth and then proceeds to move my tongue around like I’m a recalcitrant fucking child.

Smarting under the pain, tears prick my eyes as once again I’m forced to face my greatest demon, and it’s writhing just below the surface with anticipation.

“Fucking bitch,” he snarls, “chew them up, now!”

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