Chapter 36 #2
My heart hammers in my chest at the way he says I love him. I can’t love someone like him. It’s not possible. I don’t want to love anyone; it’s the only way to keep myself safe. And right now, I’m stuck here because I was starting to trust them, because I was stupidly falling for them.
“What’s it going to be? You trust us to take care of you. Come back down to our apartment with us. Jagger will make us all dinner, or we can order takeout, whatever you want. Then we can talk all this over.”
I hate that he’s trying to be sweet. It’s all tricks, it has to be. I can’t trust them. My brother would never lie to me. He just wouldn’t. “No. I’m not some toy for you to mess with.”
“I’ll even let you have your phone back.”
That makes me sit up a little taller. My phone back means calling my brother.
“Do you know the rules of this game, Daisy? If you refuse a dare, you get a punishment chosen by the other player. Do you want me to punish you?”
“I didn’t even agree to play,” I whine. He doesn’t play fair, and he knows it.
“I’m sure I heard you agree.”
“Cruz,” I warn, fresh fear rocketing through me because I have no idea what he’s going to do next.
“Choose, sweetheart, you want to accept that dare or do you receive my punishment?”
Fuck, I don’t want either, but this is what they do.
They make it impossible for me. He knows he holds all the power here, and I have no place to escape to.
“The dare,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
At least the dare gives me a chance to escape.
I know it’s not a good one, but it’s something.
I can walk out of here with him and, as soon as I see my first chance, bolt.
He twists the door handle, his eyes locking on me as the door opens.
He could have done that right from the start, but that’s not his way; he likes to toy with his prey first. I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the light from the hallway.
He shakes his head as if disappointed, and I have no idea why.
I’m playing his messed-up game, aren’t I?
“I will never do anything to hurt you, little darlin’.
Never. You’re mine to protect. All you need to do is trust me. ”
I suck in a ragged breath, staring up at him. “You are already hurting me, keeping me locked up with you and your brothers when you know all I want is my independence.”
His eyes flash with hurt before he forces a grin. “One day you will see it was for your own good.” He holds a hand out to help me up.
I’m so weak I want to break down and cry.
I can’t stand the way he’s looking at me, or the tension now so thick in the air that it hurts.
I was starting to believe my life could be different, that I could have some happiness.
But now I don’t have faith in any of it.
“How much are they going to pay you?” I spit back at him.
“Who?” He raises a pierced brow.
“Whoever has offered you the big payday to hand me over? Is it my papa you’re in with?”
He takes a step back, running a hand through his long hair. “I’m not the bad guy, Daisy,” he says like he did the first night I met him, and I believe him just as much as I did that night—not at all.
I stare back at him, waiting for him to snatch my hands up and drag me back to the apartment. But he just keeps staring back at me with a look I don’t understand on his face. Hurt?
He runs his tongue over his bottom lip, playing with his lip ring, and it’s as if he makes a decision.
But I’m not sticking around to work out what it is. My heart surges with adrenaline, I leap to my feet, and run.
He tries to snatch me up, but I have the element of surprise and squeeze past him before he can grab hold of me. “You can’t escape us.” His voice is sad as he follows behind me, but it doesn’t sound like he’s running.
I don’t look back at him. I take off for the other end of the hallway, moving as quickly as my bare feet will take me, my hair wild as it flies out behind me like a cape.
My heart hammers so loudly I can hear it. I start toward the stairs, but as I do, Asher appears in the doorway. Fuck. I spin on my heel, my bare feet slapping against the plastic as I run in the opposite direction.
“Daisy,” Asher calls, sounding desperate, but I don’t look back.
I find a second stairwell right down the far end of the building and shove open the door and run right into Jagger’s six-pack.
He pins my hands in front of me, his eyes narrowed, and glares down his nose.
“You just love doing things the fucking hard way, don’t you?
” He backs me until we’re out of the doorway.
Asher cages me in on the other side, his hands pressing to my waist.
A whimper escapes me because I know I’m screwed. Against one of them, I have a chance; two it’s impossible. “Get your hands off me,” I growl at Jagger and Asher with so much hate in my voice I hardly recognize it.
“Not going to happen till you’re safely back inside,” Jagger says, his eyes locking with mine, so intense they scare me.
Not because I’m afraid of what he’s going to do to me when he gets me back into the apartment but because of the depths that they affect me.
“If you know what’s good for you, you will do as you’re told from now on.
You can’t escape us, so don’t fucking try it again. ”
“Give my stuff back,” I cry, staring back up at the brutal man I was falling for, wondering how I ever let it happen.
“So you can call your brother and he can fill your head with lies. Don’t think so.” He stares back at me, the two of us locked in a silent stare-off that I’m not going to back down from.
“I hate you,” I whisper, my words filled with venom.
The elevator chimes behind us, and I glance toward it, wondering who else they called in for backup. Their sister? My heart nearly stops when two masked men step off the elevator.
“Get down!” Cruz calls from behind us.
Gunshots pierce the air. One. Two. Three. Vibrating through the mostly empty space.
I scream as Jagger and Asher shield my body, taking me down with them. I hit my head with a bang on something hard on my way to the carpet below, sudden dizziness coming over me. My vision blurs, and it all goes black.
“Little princess,” Asher’s voice rasps from over my shoulder. He sounds close, and I realize his body is wrapped protectively around mine from behind. We’re on the ground, and he cradles my head gently, but I wince, fresh pain rushing through me making me feel hot and clammy.
Jagger is just as close, his arm cushioning me, his solid chest at my front. I’m cocooned by their bodies. Protected and I think safe.
More gunshots go off, but this time they are closer, from one of the boys’ guns, I think.
With them so close I can’t tell because I can't see anything other than them. I try to search past Asher, looking for Cruz, but I can’t find him.
Goosebumps erupt over my skin, a terrible sinking feeling coming over me. He better be okay.
My head throbs as I fight to stop the room from spinning as I look into Jagger’s terrified eyes. “Are you okay, flower?” he rasps.
My body shivers as pain and fear wash over me.
Wetness soaks my dress, making it stick uncomfortably to my skin.
I press my fingertips to the damp mess, wondering where it’s coming from?
Did a plumbing pipe break over us? When I hold my hand up, red coats my fingers, and my heart lurches out of my chest as the color drains from my face.
“Who’s been shot?” My voice shakes as panic takes over.
The End