CHAPTER TWENTY
CODIE
He left. He fucking left. That shady fucker tied me to my bed and walked out. Did I deserve this? That would depend on who you asked. Stray would say most definitely.
Maybe he wasn’t wrong. I’d been a stone-cold bitch to him. In my defense, he’d blackmailed me into this whole situation. He had footage of me. Photos that I would never want anyone to see. He wasn’t giving me a lot of options here.
I had a lot of time to think while waiting for Athena to come home. Knowing that she would see me like this had me absolutely mortified. That’s why Stray did it. This was his way of punishing me.
Why would he bother unless this was starting to become more to him than an exchange of pleasure? Storm thought he genuinely liked me. I assumed I was just another number to him. An addition to his body count. Maybe I’d been wrong.
That didn’t excuse what he’d done though.
Leaving me tied up after forcing himself on me was complete psychopath behavior.
I supposed I should be thankful. I still had all of my organs.
He’d taken the knife with him, so I couldn’t even make a futile attempt at grabbing it with my feet and somehow cutting the rope.
I’d probably only stab myself inadvertently anyway.
It took a significant amount of time for me to calm down completely.
There was a part of me that wanted to burst into tears.
I’d gotten myself into this situation. If I hadn’t gone looking for trouble, I wouldn’t have found it in Stray Hurley.
Crying was a no go. My nose would stuff up.
I would probably suffocate since my mouth was taped shut.
Instead, I fought back that emotion and focused on anger. I should be pissed off about this. He had taken it too far tonight. Attacking me in my bedroom was too much. My apartment had been the only place for me to hide away without Stray lurking. Now he’d taken that too.
I couldn’t let this keep going. Something had to be done to make this finally stop. Since Stray had a lot of blackmail material on me now, my options were limited.
My mind wandered back to the incident in the campus parking lot. To Noah coming to my aid by stabbing Stray’s tire. Venom were known as thugs for hire. Guys that would do anything for a price. They could help me.
Bringing them into this wouldn’t come without risks.
Someone may seriously get hurt. I didn’t want to make things worse than they already were.
I didn’t know what else to do. All I knew was that if I didn’t find a way to break this tie with Stray, I never would.
And that thought chilled me to the bone.
I had no idea what time it was when I finally heard the apartment door open again. This time I recognized Athena’s soft tread as she did her best to be quiet. Cringing because of what she was about to see, I shuffled closer to the headboard and banged my bound fists against it.
Athena opened the bedroom door right away. “Is everything okay, Codie? What’s all the noise ab—”
Her words died as she took in the sight of me with my mouth taped and my hands tied above my head. I was thankful Stray had been thoughtful enough to cover me with the sheet. I still wanted to kick his ass for this though.
“Holy shit.” Athena recovered, rushing over to the bed. “What happened? Oh my God, are you all right?”
She immediately tore the tape off my mouth. I was pretty sure my lips had been ripped off with it.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Can you free my hands?” I could only imagine what this looked like to her. No doubt she was thinking the worst.
Athena tried to pick at the knots, but the rope was too tight. She went to the kitchen, returning with a knife that she used to carefully cut me free. “Who did this? Are you sure you’re okay? We need to call the police.”
She picked up my phone from the bedside table, ready to call 911. My hands were too numb to snatch it from her. Vigorously shaking my head, I said, “No, don’t. You don’t have to call them.”
“Of course I do. This is crazy, Codie. Whoever did this needs to be caught. Do you know who it was?” She started punching in the numbers.
Somehow, I managed to knock the phone from her hands while clutching the sheet to cover my nakedness. “Please don’t call. It was Stray.”
Her brows shot up as she stared at me, aghast. “Stray did this? Did he hurt you? What the fuck is going on here?”
“Just don’t call anyone. I’ll tell you everything.” What choice did I have? Athena was one of my best friends, and I’d been keeping her in the dark. Now Stray had come into the home I shared with her. She deserved to know.
I sat up in the bed, wrapping the sheet around me. Feeling humiliated, I did my best to rub some feeling back into my hands and wrists. Rope burns marked my skin. One of many reminders that it had been real. That Stray had been here.
“You’re really freaking me out here, Codie. I don’t like this.” Athena sat on the bed next to me, her gaze on my wounded wrists.
I took several deep breaths before I started. “Stray was the one who tied me to the bed. We’ve been seeing one another. No, that’s not entirely true. Let me start at the beginning. It all started when Luna and I were at the Venom rave a few weeks ago.”
Athena listened attentively as I told her everything.
How I’d put myself in danger at the rave, knowing that my drink was drugged.
Stray had been there to stop the guy from taking me to another location.
He forced me to tell him about my dangerous, adrenaline seeking behavior.
The blackmail. The encounters that had followed. All of it.
She rubbed her hand over her face, shaking her head in disbelief. “Wow. I had a feeling something was going on with you two. I had no idea it was so messed up. Are you sure you don’t want to call the police? What if he takes things too far? He might hurt you.”
“No police. I got myself into this. Somehow, I’ll get myself out. Bringing the cops into it won’t help anything. That will only make things worse.” If the authorities went after Stray, my blackmail material would be exposed. The cops would see it. That was the last thing I wanted.
“Has he done anything to hurt you? Tell me the truth.” The concern in her green eyes made me feel like shit for not telling her sooner.
“No, he hasn’t hurt me. It’s not like that. I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t think he would do that.” I wasn’t sure why I was trying to make her feel better about Stray. Just hours ago I’d been certain he was going to harvest my organs.
Athena chewed her lip before asking, “Do you have feelings for him?”
I opened my mouth to emphatically tell her that I most certainly did not.
The words would not come. How could I have feelings for someone who had been blackmailing me?
At the same time I remembered the way he’d beat the shit out of the guy who drugged me.
The way he always tried to flirt with me in front of our friends. His goofy grin when we bantered.
Finally, I said, “I don’t know. Sometimes I hate him more than anything. Sometimes I can’t get enough of him. It’s complicated.”
Athena patted my leg through the sheet. “Sounds to me like you’re head over heels in love with this guy and you can’t admit it to yourself.
You’ve never given any guy a real chance, Codie.
Maybe Stray isn’t worth one. Maybe he is.
That’s for you to decide. I wish you would’ve told me sooner though. ”
“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept this from you.” Now that the adrenaline had fully subsided, the crash that often followed hit me hard. I started yawning, my eyelids heavy.
“It’s super fucking late. I’m going to head to bed. Unless you want to talk some more.” Athena stifled a yawn of her own.
“You should get some sleep,” I said. “I’m going to do the same. I’m really sorry you had to find out this way. Thanks for being so understanding.”
Athena rose with a soft chuckle. “I’m not sure I do understand, but I’m here for you, girl.”
After she left the room, I flopped backwards on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I smelled Stray all over me. Fuck, he was working his way too deep inside me. Somehow I needed to purge him from my system before it was too late.
Anguish filled me. Some hard choices would have to be made. I knew what I had to do.