Page 6 of Chill

God, I wish I had some context for this conversation.

“Don’t go too far without me,” Rav finally grumbles, shoulders slumping in defeat. “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

“Don’t worry, darling boy.” Harrow chuckles and turns just as the moonlight makes another appearance to illuminate him in the campsite. When I look up, his mask is pointed in my direction, and I feel his eyes on mine as the moonlight shines on me as well.

I’m busted.

I am so fucking busted, so I slowly straighten with a wince for my poor, abused knees.

“I want to have my fun for as long as I can.” It dawns on me, finally, that I’m an idiot.

They’ve known I was here for at least five minutes.

My muscles tense, and my body screams at me tomove, toescape, to do something other than stand here, and all of my resolve to confront them starts to waver in the face of actually doing what I came here for.

But I’m stuck completely still. I’m frozen to the spot and unable to speak while I hold my staring match with Harrow, like moving will break some kind of spell between us.

At least, until he moves, and my body acts on its own to bolt like the scared little prey they make me feel like.

I can’t help it.

I run.

4

I don’t knowwhy I’m running.

Logically, I know this is what I came here for. I wanted to find the two of them, to tell them to their faces that they don’t just get to leave me behind without a word.

Without a choice.

Yet seeing how they act when they’reHarrow and Ravagemakes something in me churn with a primal fear, and adrenaline courses through me to dull the ache of my sore legs. I run faster this time, tripping over roots and gravel and whatever else litters the campground. There’s no point in being sneaky anymore. They know I’m here, and I’m not trying to eavesdrop.

But am I really trying to get away from him?

For a moment I consider slowing, and I finally do, only to hear the feral snarl of the masked man behind me. It sounds much more like an inhuman predator than one of the men I’ve been looking for. The sound makes me speed right back up until I’m panting with exertion and crashing through the undergrowth once more.

Within seconds, the cold air starts biting at my lungs, and I’m doing more tripping than actual running. From behind me I hear a sound of disapproval—a small growl almost—and just as Istumble over the remains of a camp grill, a hand snatches out to grab me by my hoodie and pull me back into a hard, lean chest.

“It’s no fun when I’m worried about you killing yourself in a fall,” Kieran huffs in my ear. “Now, are you going to fight me, or are you going to be good and tell me what the fuck you’re doing here, darling?”

My first urge is to fight him, and I go with it even as a loud, hysterical giggle bubbles from my lips. I kick out from him, scattering gravel, before slamming my foot back into his knee.

And it’s possible I pull my blow, in the same way he’s not holding me as tightly as he could. Kieran could take me down. Could force me to submit in a second if he really wanted to. Not to mention, I’m sure he has a weapon on him he could use against me, instead of letting me fight him like this.

But he merely huffs a chuckle, and one of his hands shifts from my waist to the front of my throat. “So we’re going to play this game?” he asks. The way his mask presses to the side of my face sends an unwanted shiver down my spine.

Fuck, being here just reinforces how messed up they’ve made me.

“I don’t think you deserve for me to settle down,” I tell him in a panting, breathy voice. My fingers hook around his wrists, but I’m not tugging. I’m not trying to pull him off of me. If anything, I’m trying to pull him closer, urging him to hold me more tightly.

Naturally, he notices.

I hear his soft laugh and he nuzzles my throat, though with the mask he can’t do much more than that. “You really want to play this game, don’t you?” His fingers tighten slowly around my throat, until he’s cutting off some of my air and reducing me to sharp, desperate pants to get the oxygen I need.

“Don’t—”

But he growls, cutting me off, and he certainly doesn’t lessen his grip. “No. You asked for it, little girl. You asked for this whenyou ran from me like you’re myprey.” God, the way he says it has me shuddering, and it takes a few moments for me to realize his hand on my hoodie is moving and taking mine along with it.

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