CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENMary Jo
Mary Jo
As the sun gets low in the sky, I sneak out the back door. I swing my backpack with water and a change of clothes over my shoulder. The August heat instantly wraps me up. I’ve been thinking all day about running.
I feel bad for leaving Rosemary and Carissa, but I don’t want to get them involved. I almost texted Carissa a few times today, but despite any of my warnings, she would have come roaring down here with guns, and I can’t get her hurt.
I don’t go to the barn to get my or Rosemary’s car. They’ve probably staked it out. Two dangerous shadows lurking in the dark. The thought makes me shiver.
I jog to the road and go North, towards Carissa’s house.
It’s all farmland here, framed with trees and scrub.
I’ll be able to hear and see any car that comes before they see me and dodge into the brush.
It’s stupid leaving before the sun sets fully, but I couldn't stay any longer. My blood felt like it was on fire, and the warning in my head told me to run before I couldn’t anymore.
Adrenaline runs through my body, making my fingers numb. This is what I’ve been waiting for all six months. That they’d find me. It feels like I’m playing an old game again.
A thrill runs through me. I take a deep breath. I feel alive. The sounds of my shoes on the gravel crunch crisply. The summer-baked grass smell is warm and delicious. I almost can’t believe that any of this is real. Like maybe I’ve finally lost it, and I’m just seeing things now.
I can’t keep a smile off my face. The smile is followed up by a delicious hit of fear. If they find me, they’re going to fuck me up.
I jog until my lungs burn, and I slow. I’ve wondered all day how the fuck they found me. How long have they known I’ve been here? I think about them watching me, and it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
An engine sounds down the road. I whirl around, scanning the empty road. My heart races. There’s nothing there.
It’s probably just a neighbor. I turn back around and keep going.
The engine gets louder. It sounds like they're flying. I mutter and get to the side of the road, peeking over my shoulder again. Headlights shine in the distance. Looks like a truck. I turn and duck behind a scrubby bush.
The noise gets louder, and I see the truck better.
My stomach drops, and dread courses through me. It can’t be. The truck roars up to where I am and then slams on the brakes, stopping in a cloud of dust.
Maybe they haven’t seen me. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
The driver’s door opens, and a deep voice says, “I wouldn’t stop if I were you.”
My heart stops. His voice is gravelly and full of menace. “Cole’s a little testy that you’ve gotten away this long.”
I know I should be running. I feel like a bunny in the sight of a hawk. Maybe if I’m still enough, they won’t see me. I’ll be safe.
The passenger window rolls down, and Cole makes eye contact with me.
I draw in a breath so harshly it makes my lungs hurt. I forgot how big he is. How easily he can hurt me.
I turn and sprint. I run faster than I’ve ever run in my life. I sprint down the side of the road, looking for a place to get over the fence. The road blurs past me. I feel like I’m flying over the ground, but I can’t go fast enough.
Doors slam.
The hot wind whistles past my ears, and my shoes crunch. Oh god, I need to hide. I don’t look to see if they’re following, but I know they are. I can hear crunches and skitters and heavy, fast footsteps.
There’s a downed part of wire fencing ahead. I hurtle towards it and jump over, flying through the field. I narrowly miss twisting my ankle in the uneven terrain. I don’t even know where I’m going until something looms in the dimming light. A barn.
I run to it. The closer I get I can see that it looks old and unused. The sliding doors sag open. I slip inside.
Darkness blinds me for a moment. Then I see I’ve run into an abandoned barn with two stalls on both sides and an opening into a paddock at the opposite end.
An old horse barn. I dart to the right and into one of the old stalls.
Once behind the wall, I collapse on the bare rubber mats, digging in my bag for the knife I brought.
“Little one.” The voice is deadly calm, coming from the arena. “I missed you. Come out and play.”
The words hold promise and danger. They hang in the hot air. It makes lust settle deep in me.
What is wrong with me? I find my knife and grip it, trying to catch my breath in the stifling heat.
“Kitten.”
I jump. The voice is close. In the aisle I’m hiding in.
“Did you touch yourself without our permission? Make yourself come all over your desperate fingers?”
I swallow.
The other voice speaks up, also close. “That’s a broken rule, little one.”
“Two broken rules…” The first voice speaks up, then abruptly stops.
I hold my breath. Everything goes unnaturally silent. I grip my knife harder, staring at the stall door.
“I told you not to run.” Two massive forms slip inside the stall and roll the door shut with a screech and a bang.
I scream and jump to my feet, darting away from their reach to the back of the stall.
“Nowhere to go.” Cole steps forward. He’s dressed in black pants and a black T-shirt that’s stretched across his muscled body. He has a grin on his handsome face. He looks like he wants to eat me alive.
I know what I’m about to say will make them angry and fuck me harder. It makes my heart race. “I played your stupid game. And I won. I beat you, Jayden.” I swipe my knife out in front of me. “Just needed to come here to get that reminder?”
Jayden’s gaze darkens to completely black. Cole throws his head back and laughs. “Just as cute as I remember.” Cole eyes me and my knife. “You want to cut me again, lemon drop?”
“I want you to back off and go to hell.” I feel more alive right now than I have in forever. My blood sings with electricity.
He just smiles and steps closer. “Do I make your panties wet?”
I glare at him.
“I think we should check.” Jayden also walks closer, hunger all over his dark face.
My back is against the wall. They have me and they know it. They look like lions playing with their food. I slash at Cole when he gets too close, but he just steps out of the way.
“There is no escape for you,” Jayden growls, and goosebumps prickle down my arms. He leans in and his voice lowers.
“We will hurt you. And you’ll like it. But first,” he cocks his head.
I don’t take my eyes off him. There’s a battle in his eyes and then his gaze softens and pain fills it.
He looks...vulnerable. His voice comes out low. “I’m sorry.”
I freeze, and the barn is full of nothing but my heavy breathing.
“Me too, lemon drop.”
My gaze darts between them. I lower my knife slightly and swallow.
Silence fills the barn. Jayden won’t look at me but Cole does, his gaze strong and soft. Sorry. They’re sorry. For what? Kidnapping me? Making me watch them kill someone? The baby? I swallow.
My grip on the knife is almost painful. “I—I don’t know what to say.”
Jayden rubs the back of his neck and growls, “You don’t have to say anything. Just accept that we’re sorry and we want to try again.”
“I…”
Cole slips into an easy grin. “That doesn’t change the fact you’ve broken rules.”
I’m warned that the moment is over only by a glint in Jayden’s eyes before he darts toward me.
He moves so quickly that I hardly move before his huge body slams into me, and we both slam into the wall.
His hand goes behind my head before it can crack off the wood.
On reflex, I try to stab him, but my hand won’t move.
Cole is there, grinning. The game is on.
I scream. I scream loud and hard into Jayden’s chest. He smells of musk and oil, and I catch spearmint too.
One of them groans.
I slam my head forward into Jayden’s chest, putting all my pent-up energy into it.
He just chuckles. The knife is stripped from my hand, and Jayden steps back.
Before I can get away, he grabs my tank with his big hands and rips it down the middle.
Cole’s hands are around my waist, and he yanks my pants down.
He flicks the knife to my panties and bra and suddenly, I’m naked in front of them while they’re fully dressed.
Cole grabs my panties. “Yep. Soaked.”
I feel exposed and turned on.
Jayden bends down and throws me over his shoulder.
I beat his back and ass. “Let me go. Put me down!” He doesn’t.
He carts me to the middle of the barn where Cole throws an old tarp onto the dirt and Jayden lays me down on my back.
I scratch and claw, making contact with his skin, drawing beads of blood.
His body feels warm and familiar. It’s like my body remembers it and is drawn to him.
They flip me over, exposing my tattoo, and someone smacks my ass hard.
“Good girl. You didn’t mess with it.”
They flip me again. I glare up at them. Their eyes are molten with hunger. Jayden’s nostrils flare, and his pupils dilate.
“This is how it’s going to go, kitten.” Jayden reaches down to play with my breast. I smack him away and he grins. “We’re going to punish that beautiful body for defying us, for coming without permission, and for being so damn intoxicating, neither of us could let you go.”
Cole adjusts himself.
“And if we punish you and you don’t come, we’ll let you go.”
I look between both of them. They look serious.
I sneer. “You have to be turned on to come. Shouldn’t be a problem.” I turn and scramble away.
Hot, heavy hands clamp on my legs and yank me back, rustling the tarp and flipping me, face up. It’s Cole who has grabbed me. He runs his hand up my thigh while pinning my hip down with the other.
Despite the heat, my body gets goosebumps. He looks me in the eye as he goes higher. I look down my nose at him. He reaches my cunt and runs a finger along it, then holds it out in front of me. It glistens.
I glare. Both men wear smug looks. “Whatever you say, kitten.”
“I hate you,” I say with all the venom I can.