Page 135 of Devil's Bargain

His eyes flick between mine before he leans forward, brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear. His touch lingers. “Here!” he says as he shrugs out of his letterman jacket and puts it over my shoulders.

I clutch the lapels even though I’m not cold. “What was that for?”

He looks at me as if taking a mental snapshot. “I just wanted to see you in my number.”

Behind us, the song keeps playing.

He looks back out over the lake and tears at a piece of grass. “I wish we could stay here.”

I follow his line of sight. The bird is gone. “Me too.”

* * *

“She returns!” Scott drawls, placing his beer down on the littered coffee table. He brings the cigarette pinched between his fingers up to his lips and takes a deep drag.

“Don’t you guys have homes or something?” I give Scott a pointed look. “A wife?”

The cigarette hangs from his bottom lip. He watches me through a cloud of smoke, then squints as he takes a drag. “Where have you been all day?”

“Here and there.”

He nods as if my response is perfectly acceptable and stubs out his cigarette. “Here and there, huh?”

I know what’s coming even before he kicks the coffee table over. Jared is amused. He’s sitting on the armchair, watching Scott rage with a barely suppressed smile on his face. Since the ashtray now lies upturned on the floor amongst the beer cans, he flicks the cigarette in the air.

“You think you can disrespect us like that?!”

I tear my gaze away from Jared as Scott gets up in my face and seethes, “You think we won’t find out where you were?”

I whimper when I feel the sharp blade of a knife against my neck. “I can do whatever the fuck I want! I don’t belong to you. Just because I can’t seem to get rid of you doesn’t mean you can order me around!”

I must have a death wish.

He trails the blade down my temple and over my trembling lips. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. You’re ours. You belong to us!”

I squeeze my eyes shut against the tears that sting my eyes. “Fuck you!”

He backhands me.

Jared laughs as I hit the floor.

“Not so aroused now, are you?” Scott mocks and kicks me in the stomach.

I’m crying. No amount of willpower and stubbornness can stop these tears from falling. “I HATE YOU!”

He kicks me again before sitting down on my chest and gripping hold of my jaw. It’s impossible to breathe with his weight bearing down on me. “Aroused yet, whore?”

“I want you dead!” I choke out.

Jared laughs like it’s the funniest shit he’s heard all year.

Scott slaps me and then grabs my jaw again, pressing the blade against my cheek. “Do you think Quarterback would still pine after you if I cut up your pretty face?”

Ice runs through my veins.

“That shut you up!” He looks over at Jared. “Want me to cut her?”

Jared shakes his head and takes another drag on his cigarette. It’s almost down to the filter. “She’s worth too much money.”

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