Page 77 of The Piece You Stole

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The car—is that where I am?—rocks even harder.

“Shut the fuck up,” Rylan snarls.

I roll onto my shoulder again, but I bite my lip just in time and stop my sob of pain from spilling out.

I’m in the trunk, and if I don’t keep quiet, Rylan will open the lid and it won’t just be my shoulder that hurts. So, I hide in silence because it will keep me safe.

Until Rylan takes me somewhere and kills me because I slashed open Nathan’s throat.

But I don’t regret it. I willneverregret it. Rylan can kill me, but it won’t bring Nathan back. Nothing will bring Dad or Simon back, either, but I couldn’t let Nathan hurt anyone else.

My arm is wet. It throbs with each heartbeat, shooting more agony through my bloodstream and all over my body.

I bite my lip, press my face against the carpeted side, and don’t move.

They’re still talking outside. Rylan is shouting, and he never shouts.Bruce?What did Bruce do for Rylan to threaten him like that?

I remember something.They.Rylan said,they.

He can’t have been talking about me like I’d thought.

Who did he mean?

An image of Aden smiling at me in the Cerberus, a gentle smile that tells me he likes me flickers in my mind. Taunting me with things that can’t be real. That willneverbe real. They won’t come after me. And if they did, none of them would survive Rylan’s rage. Better it’s just me who feels the lash of it.

I shove the image away.Faraway.

Kade cleaning me in the shower takes root for a bare moment, chasing away the hell I’m in.

I shove that away too.

Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope that I’ll get out of this hell. Hope that the hounds are the ones responsible for ripping Rylan’s life apart because I couldn’t handle it if I were wrong. Better I prepare myself for something worse.

This is just a new game,I tell myself.Some new punishment for killing Nathan. That’s all this is.

The muffled conversation moves away from me. The sharp edge in Rylan’s voice is still there, but it’s not as loud anymore. Even my arm doesn’t hurt as badly as it did before.

Why are my eyes so heavy?

“… playground?” It sounds like it could be Isa talking.

I knew I should have expected something worse. They were going to take me to the playground, and it sounds like that’s what’s happening now.

It won’t matter to him that I don’t think I can stand, let alone run. After what I did to Felix, and now Nathan, Rylan won’t care.

There won’t be a five-minute head start this time. He’ll just have the pack savage me. Tear me apart until I’m in pieces so small they won’t even have to bury me. Just leave my remains there and the animals that live in the playground will steal away the pieces of me until I’m all gone.

Eaten. That’s what will happen to you. The wild animals will eat you.

Heavyweights pull on the lids of my eyes, dragging them down, as my world tips back and forth.

Why am I lying in something wet?

A low throaty hum vibrates all around me.

“Like a cat purring.” I giggle.

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