Page 31 of Make Me Lie (Rich Demons of Darkwood 1)

One of the other men sat down on my other side. They were trying to pin me in. The third man moved behind me, and that was what really worried me, hearing his slow footsteps move down the metal bleachers.

“You know my name, what's your name?”

“You don’t need to worry about our names. We’re only some of the people who are coming for you.”

“My girlfriend’s been scared ever since she heard you were on campus. She’s worried that she’ll find herself splayed open somewhere with superglue sealing her eyes shut just like so many of your father’s victims.”

The images that reeled through my mind at those words would have made bile rise in my throat if I didn’t have so much practice coping with adrenaline coursing through my body. My heartrate was dropping, my mind growing cooler, quicker.

“Well, your girlfriend can rest assured that she'll be just fine. I assume you think that I'm The Demon’s daughter because of that stupid prank, but I'm not. And The Demon is locked away in prison.”

That was the thought that made it almost possible for me to sleep at night.

“It's funny that you look just like her.”

“It's funny that you think I look just like her. It sure seems like you've never cracked a book or a newspaper. You see oneposterand you’re convinced it’s the God’s honest truth. People that gullible are going to be the death of this whole nation.”

“Do you think it's wise to talk back to us?”

“You just made it clear that you think that I'm dangerous, right? So I'm not understanding why you would think it's wise to talk to me to begin with unless you know that this is bullshit and you're just seeking a reason to bully a young woman, like you're any better than The Demon himself.”

Maybe I shouldn’t rile them up, but I was about done with humanity today.

“I was reading about the things that your daddy would do to girls.” The man on my right leaned toward me.

I had the sense that he was trying to distract me from the one behind me, and I twisted subtly, trying to keep two of them in my sight at all times while I used my instincts to look out for the third. My skin prickled, and I knew that the second I got up to move away it would turn into a chase, so I needed to pick my moment carefully.

But even though I was trying to keep my eyes on all three of them at once, something pulled my gaze down to the field, a sensation crawling up my spine as if someone were watching me. I looked down to find Cain staring up at all of us, his eyes blazing with fury.

“Really, that seems remarkable. I didn't get the vibe that you read very much. I'm very excited for you. Maybe you can earn a free personal pan pizza if you keep up the good work.”

My childhood had been a nightmare that seemed relentless where I'd careened from one terror to another, but there had been brief pleasant moments, and some of them had been provided by Pizza Hut's “Book It!” program.

“I read that in the early days he used to steal girls out of thin air, or so it seemed.”

“I think you’re mixing metaphors. Girls don't come out of thin air, the unlucky onesdisappearinto thin air.” And I hated how often that happened to them. Not that these men would believe that. “Also, you can't steal girls. They’re people, not toaster ovens. Youcansteal toaster ovens, like if you have a lot of bagels that you need to toast.”

The guy on my left looked bewildered. “Why the fuck are you talking about toaster ovens?”

I started to shrug. I didn't know why I was the way I was sometimes.

Suddenly, the guy behind me burst into motion, grabbing my shoulders and yanking me backward. My head slammed into the metal bleacher, stars bursting in front of my eyes. The two other guys scrambled over the bleachers toward me, trying to pin me down, but it was the knife thrust against my throat hard enough to draw blood that had me suddenly pausing.

“I read about how your dad used to cut off pieces of girls one little bit at a time.”

“Maybe,” I said, my breath coming out thin even though I didn’t want to sound afraid. “But at least my dad wasn’t an idiot who murdered girls in public.”

“Who said we were going to do it in public? This is just a start. There’s a whole Internet forum dedicated to who’s going to be the one to take you off the streets. You might have gotten off a lot better than your father, but everyone knows what you did, and someone’s going to make sure that you pay. If it’s not us, it might be someone even worse...someone who will make it take even longer.”

Suddenly, Cain loomed into view. He’d moved silently until he was here, but now he definitely was two hundred and twenty pounds of pissed-off muscle and blazing eyes. He grabbed the guy nearest me and threw him. The guy went flying. He slammed on his back on one of the bleachers and then tumbled over, his legs folding over his head before he toppled off the bleacher to the ground. It would have been comical if there hadn't still been a knife to my throat.

Stellan, Paxton, and Remington were there too suddenly. I wondered if they'd been watching or if Cain had sent some kind of SOS to them.

The four of them had moved so quickly to come to my rescue.

If I needed Cain and his buddies to rescue me, then I was in a sad state indeed.

It was Pax who suddenly knife chopped the man who held the blade to my throat. The blade went flying and Paxton caught it out of the air. He grabbed the guy and pressed the knife against his throat.

---