CHAPTER EIGHTEENMary Jo
Mary Jo
Jayden stands over my bed. “Time to get up. We’re going out.”
“What?” I rub my eyes.
“Get a jacket. It’s cold out.” His voice is cold. Colder than normal.
I sit up. The room is dark. Did he say we were going out? I was going out?
I scramble to my feet and grab a jacket. Jayden is already out in the kitchen.
“Where are we going?”
He looks at me but doesn’t say anything. Cole comes up from the basement. He also seems unusually sober.
Dread pools in my stomach. What is going on? I take a step back.
“Now, now.” Jayden glares at me. “You wanted to leave so bad. Now you’re going to. Let’s go.” He motions at the front door.
I look at Cole.
He lifts an eyebrow. “You gonna obey, little one?”
I look back at Jayden and notice something in his waistband. A gun.
Adrenaline fills me, and I take a small step back. “You going to shoot me?”
Jayden cuts his gaze to me. He looks lethal. “Go.”
I don’t want to. Every instinct is screaming at me not to go. But somehow, I do.
We walk out to the truck in silence. My thoughts are going a thousand miles an hour. I pushed it too far yesterday. Would he tell me to get a jacket if he was just going to kill me? Why am I not running right now?
Cole must sense my indecision. He grabs my arm and tucks me into him.
With horror, I realize he also has a gun tucked into his waistband.
He keeps my arm pinned to him and away from it.
We get to the truck, and he opens the back door, pushing me in.
Jayden jumps in on the other side. Cole goes to the driver’s side and gets in, starting the car.
“These are the rules: you sit there like a good girl and be quiet. It’s pretty simple. Do you understand?”
I look down at his waistband. I nod.
Jayden moves his right hand to his pocket, and I jump. He pulls out a cloth and turns to me. “Blindfold.”
“No.” It slips out before I can stop it. No. I want to see before he shoots me in the head. I need to see it.
“Little one,” Cole growls in warning from the front.
Jayden’s eyes are hard. If he was going to kill me, why would he care if I saw where we went? But who knows with these psychopaths.
When I don’t move, Jayden puts it on me and my world goes dark. I start to panic again. I’m completely at their mercy.
Cole starts the car, and I lurch as we begin to move.
What purpose could they have to move me?
Maybe we were moving locations. Maybe the police were hot on their tail.
That thought fills me with brief joy. But they didn’t pack anything.
Maybe they weren’t going to kill me. Why go through the trouble of marking me as theirs and then killing me off?
Oh fuck. The tattoo could be their calling card. They could be serial murderers. It strikes me how little I actually know about these men.
My breathing is heavy. A hand drops on my knee, and I jump. He keeps it there, heavy and warm.
We drive for what feels like hours. At first, it feels like hills and twists and turns, and it makes me feel sick.
Then it flattens out, and we just drive and drive.
I need to pee, but I don’t dare ask them.
Jayden keeps his hand on my knee the whole time.
The touch grounds me. I can do this. I may not survive, but I’ll kill them before I give up.
Finally, the car stops. Cole gets out, and my door opens with a rush of cold wind.
“Scoot over.” He pushes in next to me. Jayden then gets out his side.
Cole takes my blindfold off. It’s still dark out. We’re parked in what looks to be a parking lot. Of a church maybe? Jayden is walking across the lot, hands shoved in his pockets.
“Where are we?”
“That’s not relevant to you, little one.”
I turn to look at him. He has an edge to him today that he doesn’t normally have. My gut sinks. We sit in silence. My tattoo itches.
“I need to pee.”
“Hold it.”
“What’s going on?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
I’m moving from scared to pissed off. “You know what? No. You don’t get to drag me out here and then not answer anything. Tell me what’s going on.”
Cole leans into my space, his toned body suddenly feeling bigger and more menacing than before. “Do you think I won’t hurt you? I will. And I’ll enjoy it. Stop pushing your luck.”
My heart races. He hasn’t raised his voice, but it felt like his voice filled the car.
“Do not push Jayden.” He sits back. “Not today.”