Page 12 of Luka

He’s my best hope for survival. I could tell the tall one would’ve chosen to just kill me. Handsome convinced him to let me live … even if it was just for now.

I watch Handsome.Arseni. I watch Arseni as he turns and goes back to the car, and when he finally looks at me, I don’t let my eyes leave him.

He smiles at me. It definitely isn’t kind, but it isn’t cruel. It’s … playful. Sadistically playful.

That isn’t good either.

I drop my eyes to the ground when I can’t help myself and listen to him chuckle. Then I go back to counting. I reach two hundred when they start loading Piper into a body bag that they then fill with rocks and fling off the ledge.

My mind clears of numbers when they walk back to me, no more dead body to deal with, only the captive girl.

I swallow and wish I could cross my arms over my chest.

“Up,” Tall commands.

I open my mouth to tell him my ankles are tied but stop myself. He knows. Of course he knows. He just wants to watch me struggle.

Breaths shuddering, I hesitate a few seconds before shifting onto my knees and digging the toes of my sandals into the dirt. I flatten my feet on the ground and push myself to stand, focusing on my balance, and am halfway up before I lose it.

Arseni grabs my arm as I go to fall and hauls me to standing. My eyes naturally find his as I lean his way, searching for some shred of compassion in his toffee irises. His head tilts as he peers at me, smiling.

“I think she likes you,” Tall comments. I can’t tell for sure because he sounds teasing, but I think I detect jealousy in his voice.

“Everyone likes me,” Arseni replies.

“Choose.”

I’m still staring at Arseni when Tall speaks, so it takes me several seconds before I realize he was speaking to me. I still don’t look at him.

Arseni elaborates. “We’re going to share you,” he points between the two of them as if I needed the clarification. “Choose who you go with first.”

My lip trembles as my eyes well with tears. I lower my head to the men’s shoes—Arseni’s sneakers, Tall’s black boots—when I can’t stand to meet Arseni’s eyes any longer.

His words are enough to give away the kind of man he is and the difficult task of making him see me as a person, but even worse is his tone. There isn’t a drop of hesitation. Not an ounce of pity.

He wants to use me, then hand me off to his friend, then use me again. He’ll probably gag me when I try to tell him my name.

“Choose,” Tall presses, sounding impatient.

But I have to try.

“Arseni,” I whisper, my voice cracking.

Arseni lets out a whistle of victory before taking me by the waist and throwing me over his shoulder. I let out a yelp as hestarts toward Piper’s car, his palm sliding beneath my dress to flatten against the spot he struck.

My face burns and body tenses. I try not to think about what’ll take place once we leave here, try to put numbers in my head instead, but my mind freezes as Arseni suddenly halts and grasps my bottom so tightly I gasp.

I look up at Tall, blank-faced by his car. He’s peering our way with his eyes narrowed in question.

Arseni pulls something from his pocket.

“Fuck!”

With a quick jerk of his shoulder, he shrugs me to my feet but doesn’t bother helping me steady myself. I stumble into him and fall to the ground once he backs away from me, barely turning my head in time to avoid my nose connecting with hard earth.

“Something wrong?” Tall asks, although he sounds noticeably more chipper.

I let a moment go by before I peer up to see Arseni showing Tall his phone.

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