Page 14 of Pushed

Sitting up straight, I forced my breathing to seize. He was too close, I needed to move.

Temptation to shift away itched over my muscles, but I stayed still. It was hard as hell to not force space between us, but I wanted to be strong, I wanted to be fearless.

The pads of his fingers brush over my head, causing my body to jerk in surprise. “Don't worry,” he said, “I won't hurt you.”

Arching my lip, I spoke through my teeth. “You lie.”

His hand flattened, palm gliding down my hair, smoothing it over my back. “You don't know me well enough to call me a liar.”

Snapping my back straight, I kept my head facing forward. Even if I didn't have the blindfold on, I still wouldn't have looked at him. “I don't want to know you at all.”

Sucking in a loud rush of air, he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you stuck your face in that window. But I have news for you, that's going to change. I'm the only friend you have here.”

“Friend?” Letting out a light chuckle, I angled my face over my shoulder in his direction. “You're far from a friend, you're an evil bastard, you're a sick fucking psycho, that's what you are.”

I hated not being able to see. I had no clue what he was about to do. Machi could have had a gun pointed at my face and I wouldn't know it until it was too late and I heard the click of the trigger.

Or felt the grip of his fingers around my throat.

His hand swept over my shoulders, rubbing my back in large circles. “Don't touch me.” Twisting my upper body, his hand slid off.

Heaving out a long sigh, he rested his palm on my thigh. “I'm going to tell you something you won't want to hear. I hope you're a good listener, little girl, because it's important that you hear me.” His hand stroked up and down the inside of my leg, soft and slow. “You are no longer the girl you used to be, in here you are nothing. You're mine now, I own you. Do you understand that?”

With darkness surrounding me, I bared my teeth as I spoke. “You've got that wrong, Asshole,you are nothing.”Flaring my nostrils, I tipped my head up. “Doyouunderstand? People are going to look for me, they're going to come!”

Machi let out a growl, his voice deep and raspy. “You know what I'm capable of, you saw it first hand.” Slamming his hand into my hair, he tore my head back. “Don't test me.”

My voice cracked as I gasped and the pain in my scalp spread around my face, hitting my eyes and forcing them to water.

Swallowing hard, I blinked my lids and sucked in a heated breath. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Releasing my head, I felt his fingers start to work at the knot on my wrists. “Why does anyone do anything?”

“That doesn't make sense. You can't compare this to a normal situation, it's different, it's evil.”

His fingers pushed and pulled, jerking and tearing at the rope. “I guess we have different opinions on evil then.”

“Tell me why.”

“I lost something tonight, then I found something.” His fingers kept digging and pulling, forcing the rope deeper into my skin as he worked at the knot. “You just happened to be the something I found.”

“So this is what—punishment? What about that man? What did he do to you?”

Machi breathed in deep through his nose as he spoke. “That man deserved what he got, he deserved more if you ask me. If I could resurrect him just to kill him over and over again, I would. No one is going to miss him.”

What the hell does that mean?

Did that mean I deserved this too?

“How can you say that? That's not for you to decide, you're not God, you're not the law. Who are you to kill a man just because you think he deserved it?”

“He made choices, sometimes your choices get you killed.”

I wanted to understand him, but there was no possible way for me to know what the hell he was talking about. “Is that what I have coming to me too? I made a choice, are you going to kill me for it?”

Machi grew quiet, his breathing slowing down to almost nonexistent as his fingers froze up, sitting stagnant. There was no answer.

“Well?” I asked, letting my shoulders slump forward. “Is that what's going to happen? Are you going to squeeze the life out my lungs too because I made the choice to look?”

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