Chapter Four
Brynn
Several things happen in the span of a second.
I feel Aiden’s warm lips covering mine and my heart does a somersault. I haven’t been kissed in a long time, and I don’t want to kiss him, but I don’t want to die, either.
Kyle starts to say something, but he doesn’t get to finish.
He’s too startled.
We all are.
Because the lights go out.
The notion they might have planned it this way dies as Aiden rips his mouth from mine and leans back. His fingers are still cradling my head, but I can’t see anything. I can only hear as Kyle yelps and something hits a wall hard. I hear rustling robes as some guys move, and murmurs like, “what the fuck is going on?”
One of the guys lights up his cell phone. I see Aiden still straddling me but looking back over his shoulder, trying to figure out what the hell is happening.
Then I see movement down by my bound legs. Guys moving. One falls.
Nobody knows what’s going on.
This isn’t part of it.
Amid the flailing noises and the murmurs of confusion, Kyle flicks the light back on. My confused gaze only lands on him for a moment. One hand is braced on the wall, the other cradling his head as he looks around a bit dazedly.
There’s someone in the room with us. Someone who wasn’t here when I came down.
The intruder is wearing all black, but he’s not wearing a hooded robe like the other guys. He’s wearing a skull mask.
Not fazed by the light, he elbows a guy in the throat, then lands a quick left hook to the jaw of the guy in front of him using the same arm. My eyes widen as he throws the redhead out of the way and vaults up on the table with the grace of a cat.
Whoa.
Aiden scrambles to let me go and turn around, but he’s not quick enough. A grunt escapes him and his whole body tenses.
It’s hard to grasp exactly what’s happening until I see one of the guys with his hood pulled back stumble backward, losing a couple of shades of color as he stares at the same sight from a different angle.
“Dude, he just fucking stabbed Aiden.”
“What?” someone else says, then he stops in stunned horror as the masked man grabs Aiden by the back of his hooded robe and throws him off the table.
That scared kid doesn’t stick around to see who’s next. He shoves his friend out of the way and scrambles up the stairs.
“No,” Kyle barks, grabbing the back of his hood to stop him, a ferocious scowl on his face. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? We went over the society rules. We’re united as brothers. We don’t break ranks!”
“Fuck that. You can keep playing Skull and Bones if you want to, but I’m not trying to get stabbed! You said there was no way this went wrong.”
Growling with annoyance, Aiden says, “There’s six of us and only one of him. Don’t be a fucking pussy. Kyle, get the gun.”
The masked man grabs Kyle, jerking him back when he presumably moves to get the weapon. He shoves him into the friend he stopped from going up the stairs, then he hustles over to my side, grabbing my right wrist and growling lowly, “Hold still.”
My heart hammers as he firmly grips my wrist, evidently not trusting me to listen.
But his actions and his words both imply he doesn’t want me hurt, so while I don’t know who he is, I make the leap to assume he’s on my side. I won’t make his life any harder, so I hold as still as possible while he cuts me loose.
Before he can saw through the rope entirely, two guys grab him from behind and he swings around, still holding the knife, to fight them off.
Heart pounding, I pull against the frayed rope. He didn’t cut all the way through it, but I think if I pull hard enough…
A surge of adrenaline hits when I manage to break through what’s left of the rope. I’ll have a nasty rope burn, but it’s better than being dead.
My hands shake and my fingers are practically useless, but since the guys are all distracted going after the intruder, no one seems to realize or care that I’m halfway to getting free. Taking advantage of the distraction, I beg my fingers to work for me and do my best to unknot the rope around my other wrist as quickly as possible.
I could cry with relief when I get myself free, but Aiden has recovered from the shock of being stabbed and he lunges back up on the table, pinning my body down with his and grabbing my wrists.
“I don’t think so,” he seethes, leaning over me as he pins them back down. He grunts with the effort, his hands locked around mine like manacles. “Someone get the fucking rope and tie this bitch down.”
Ew.
Since I can’t fight him off me—he’s too strong—I do what he likely won’t expect and lift up closer to him. He’s startled, but not too startled since he still thinks I at least somewhat want to fuck him.
As if I could ever want to fuck some guy who called me a bitch.
Asshole.
But because he considers me easy prey, he doesn’t recoil when I bury my face in his neck.
And he’s definitely not prepared for me to bite him as hard as I fucking can.
He mutters a low, angry curse, then he gets rougher to punish me, slamming me back against the table and grabbing me by the hair, anger glinting in his dark eyes as he glares down at me.
“I’m not opposed to a little love bite here and there,” he murmurs, grabbing me by the throat, “but if you bite me that hard again, I’ll knock your fucking teeth out.”
I gasp for breath as he chokes me, but just as my vision begins to fade at the edges, his hand leaves my throat, and I can breathe again.
Then he goes crashing to the ground as the masked man grabs him by the back of his robe and hurls him off the table again.
My eyes brighten as I look up at him.
He hands me the knife and nods at my ankles.
I don’t need further instruction, but I’m scared to death as I try to pull the tight rope away from my skin and can’t find any give. They tied it so tight.
I’m not convinced I can safely cut the rope off, and I don’t have time to undo the knots right now, so instead, I reach past my foot and slice the rope, leaving the knotted loops attached to my ankles.
“Come on.” The masked man shoves a guy back so he trips over his friend on the floor. As the guy falls and the room is in chaos, my savior turns and grabs my waist, helping me down off the table.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice wobbling.
He grabs my hand and pulls me with him. I don’t know where we’re going, but I trust that he knows what he’s doing and follow him… hopefully, to safety.
I dart a glance back as he hauls me away.
Aiden looks down at his torso with a grimace, then meets my gaze coldly. He drops my gaze long enough to bend down and grab a shard of broken glass off the floor, then he meets my eyes again and smiles in a way that makes my heart drop. Kyle fumbles with an open case, and my stomach sinks when I realize what’s in it.
“I think Kyle has a gun,” I say shakily.
The mask’s hollowed, empty eyes meet mine, and my heart sinks on instinct. Rationally, I know he’s my savior, but looking at him, he seems as much like a predator as they do.
Before I can sink into the feeling, the guy yanks my hand and pulls me around him. “Get in front of me.” He points ahead, and I hurry up a few stone stairs. My heart does a somersault as I get to a pair of closed doors and he crowds me, grabbing my waist and pulling me back against him with one strong arm as he uses the other to push open the solid wood door.
Once the doors are open, the cool night air hits my face and a chill passes over me.
I hear the guys behind us.
Remember the things they said they were going to do to me.
Maybe they didn’t get a chance to, but I know what their intentions were. And I saw their faces.
They’re going to come after us.
My masked savior already seems to expect that.
“Run. Toward the woods.”
I start off in that direction, but trying to run in heels proves impossible. I nearly turn my ankle and let out a cry, then I make a split-second decision to stop.
It makes the most sense. If I get these damn heels off, I can run faster. If I break my ankle trying to run in shoes I can hardly walk in, we’ll both be in a terrible position.
I stop just long enough to get my shoes off, but it’s long enough for Kyle to emerge from the mouth of the cellar.
“Right there! They’re right there!” one guy yells.
Heels clutched in one hand, I take off running and try to catch up with the guy in the mask.
The grass is easy to run on, but as we near the woods, there are sticks and pinecones on the ground. They hurt my feet, and my lungs already burn.
Behind us, I hear gunfire. My heart nearly stops as the bullet rips into the bark of a tree just to my left. Chunks of wood fly into the air, and I run harder, my blood roaring in my ears and my heart pounding so fast, I’m surprised it doesn’t give out.
I don’t know if it’s the fear, adrenaline, or I just need to hit the gym, but my legs feel wobbly and undependable. Every time my feet hit the rough forest floor, I grow more terrified of what feels inevitable—a bullet hitting me or the guy right on my heels.
He’s faster than I am, so even though he’s trying to let me stay ahead, he’s also trying to outrun whoever might be behind us.
It’s too dark in this wooded area. Without the streetlights and with the sounds of our own hearts thundering in our ears, it’s impossible to judge how close they are.
Especially for me, because he’s right behind me.
Even though I know he’s the one who saved my ass back there, hearing him running after me, it feels like I’m being chased by him, too.
My legs are ready to give out. I think it’s the fear and adrenaline because I’ve run a lot farther than this before.
The masked man comes up beside me. I look over at him, my hair whipping my face, then I dart a look behind us.
It does no good. I can’t see anybody.
But maybe that’s good news. It means they aren’t close.
It occurs to me as I run beside the guy gazing at me wordlessly from behind the empty eyes of that mask, this could be part of it.
I immediately thought he was my savior because that’s the role he showed up playing and I was desperate for help. Hell, I was ready to play nice with that Aiden asshole. I wasn’t picky.
But while I’m running for my life, the guy running beside me just… doesn’t feel as afraid as I am.
I remember a story some guy at a bar near campus told me last year right before Halloween. He was talking about the secret societies on campus, and he told this twisted tale of a virgin sacrifice one of them made in the woods on Halloween night.
Wouldn’t it be a hell of a lot easier to get me into these woods without a fight if they tricked me into running out here myself?
The one guy said Aiden was stabbed, but I didn’t see that myself. Things were happening fast, so it’s totally possible I missed it, but I didn’t see any blood, either.
My imagination starts working overtime and I picture it. We stop up ahead to catch our breath. I’m afraid to stop for too long because they might catch up, but he assures me he thinks we lost them.
Only we didn’t, and as soon as I start to breathe normally again, the guys emerge from the darkness with their black hoods up. Aiden is holding the knife he was supposedly stabbed with. Then I turn to my supposed hero, and he takes off the mask. He’s number seven, and he grabs me before I can run away.
A chill runs down my spine.
If that happens, if I’m cornered again, is there any chance I can keep running and not get caught by one of them?
I don’t think so.
I’m spent already. I’d trade a few months of my life for a drink of water right now, but I’m determined to keep moving even if that’s the last thing my legs want to do.
Still jogging but not as fast as he was before, the guy beside me draws out his phone.
To alert them?
My paranoia tempts me to take off running faster, but I’m not even sure where to go. I’ve been running in the direction he told me to, but if he’s working with them, he’s just leading me wherever they want me to go.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I ask.
He points up ahead of us. “If we keep going that way, we’ll find the road. It’s not much farther.” He looks over at me. He sees I’m tired, but he lifts his chin. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
Almost where?
I don’t ask, though.
If he is part of it and he’s leading me out here for some sick sacrificial ritual, then I’m fucked, but for the sake of my own sanity, I try to believe he’s not tricking me.
It’s just…
If he’s not a part of this, how did he know I needed saving?
I want to ask, but I’m afraid of alerting him that I’m suspicious. If he thinks I trust him, then he won’t feel the need to keep as close an eye on me. If I let him know I’m not so sure about him and he is a bad guy, then I’m giving up the only advantage I have.
My words come out in fractured pieces since I’m out of breath from running so hard. “Did they shoot again? I didn’t… it didn’t seem like they did.”
He glances at me but doesn’t answer.
I don’t have the breath to spare talking, so I don’t ask anything else.
To my immense relief, when I look up ahead a minute later, I see more than just a blur of trees and darkness.
I see the glow of streetlights splashed across pavement.
I could cry, I’m so relieved.
I can finally stop running. I keep walking fast, my heart pounding as I try to catch my breath.
Tomorrow, I beef up my cardio routine. It’s decided.
As long as I make it to tomorrow.
A potent cocktail of fear and relief—and fear to feel relieved—swirl around me in a dizzying funnel cloud that sweeps me off my feet as soon as I can breathe again. We’re walking now—at a brisk pace, sure, but he’s not even looking over his shoulder.
Almost like he’s not worried about them catching up to us.
A wave of distrust swells up, and it occurs to me… I don’t need him anymore.
If he really is my savior and not a part of this trap, then he has done his job. He got me out of the basement in one piece. I’ll send him a card or something, but I don’t need to stay with him now. I don’t need to risk trusting him.
I can keep running on my own.
I don’t know where to go, but I look around, trying to get a grasp on my location. I go to reach for my phone, then realize my purse is back in that damn basement.
Shit.
My gaze darts to the masked man. He’s looking up the road like he’s waiting for someone to come meet us. His back is to me.
This is my chance.
My mind is made up at the same moment he turns, and although I feel a sharp spike of fear at having given up my head start, the course has already been set.
I turn away from him and start running like my life depends on it.
Because maybe it does.