8. Tess
TESS
However they want me?
I turned the words over in my mind like a stone, running my fingers over their jagged edges.
Instinct told me it was a terrible idea — these clowns were tall, muscular, and feral. Their clothes were tattered and dirty, and if what I’d seen from them already didn’t capture the full extent of what they wanted to do to me, I probably should be scared.
But the glint of the luxury watch on Cyrus’ wrist caught my eye. It wasn’t something most people in Valemont could afford — not unless they were a part of that biker gang that took over town at the start of the summer.
There were other hints, too — the high tech keypad on the door, the plush prison bed. These fuckers had something I needed: money. Lots of it.
Temptation clawed at the walls of my stomach, eating away at my gut instinct. I couldn’t keep couchsurfing, couldn’t keep lingering around Valemont. $15k would be enough for me to pay for a few months in an apartment somewhere else. Somewhere with a beach, maybe.
Or at least somewhere with a dishwasher.
It was more money than I’d ever held on to at once. One night, one hunt, could set me up for the rest of my life.
And what was the worst thing that could happen? They killed me?
If they wanted me dead, they’d kill me regardless of whether I agreed to their game. I knew they were capable of it — had seen my attackers’ blood seeping into the concrete.
But I wasn’t dead yet. That had to count for something, right?
Call me naive, but I had a sneaking suspicion that these freaks didn’t hurt the women who stumbled into this place — not more than they had to. And if I was going to die here, I wanted to go out fighting.
Crossing my arms, I let my eyes drift over the assortment of masks in front of me, trying my best to hold their shadowy gazes. “I’ll do it… for $20k.”