Chapter 8 Lexi
Lexi
If I leave this car, I’ll never get another chance again.
The thought slams into me like a fist to the gut. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to hand out second chances to anyone. This is it. This is the only shot I have to save Axel.
I swallow hard. My throat is dry, tight. “What will I have to do?”
He shakes his head, that infuriating smirk still playing at his lips. “That’s not how this works. It’s not a fucking job interview. You’re either out or you’re in.”
My hands are shaking. I ball them into fists on my lap. “Fine. I’m in. Now tell me.”
An evil grin takes over his face. Slow. Deliberate. Like watching a predator bare its teeth.
I feel uncomfortable watching the ideas churn in his mind, like I can see the gears turning behind those cold gray eyes. What the hell is he planning?
He starts the car. The engine roars to life.
Then he takes off at full speed.
The tires screech. My body slams back against the seat. My hand shoots out to grip the door handle as the campus blurs past the window.
Oh, fuck. What the hell did I just sign up for?
“Axel’s off the hook, right?” My voice comes out smaller than I want it to.
He nods once. Short. Final.
“Do I have your word?”
“Depends if you pass this test first.”
My stomach drops. “Test?”
He nods but doesn’t elaborate. Just keeps driving, both hands on the wheel, jaw tight.
The rest of the drive is quiet. Suffocating. I watch his grip on the steering wheel tighten until his knuckles turn white. Watch his jaw tick, muscle jumping under the skin. He’s terrifying and filled with rage—rage and stories I don’t know and don’t want to know.
I’m scared about what I just agreed to.
If I were a brother, this wouldn’t be happening, right? If I were a boy, my name would’ve been Ethan, and he’d be offering me a job, a place in the hierarchy. But because I’m a girl, because I have a body he can use, I’m something else entirely.
My mind spirals. How is he going to take advantage of me? What exactly does “full access” mean?
I get sick to my stomach.
We leave campus. The streetlights disappear. Buildings give way to trees, trees to nothing. Just dark road stretching endlessly ahead, swallowed by night. And he’s flying it. He doesn’t drive safe, and I think we’re going to crash about five different times. I’m starting to panic.
In the middle of nowhere, he pulls over. Gravel crunches under the tires. He cuts the engine. My heart pounds so hard I can hear it in my ears.
“Run.”
I look at him, unable to comprehend his words. “What?”
“This is your first test.” He unbuckles his seatbelt. There’s a glint in his eyes—something wild and dangerous. “If I say run, you don’t hesitate, you don’t ask questions, you fucking run. Now.” He unlocks the car doors. “Run.”
Terror floods my veins, cold and sharp.
I unbuckle. My hands are shaking so badly I can barely get the button to release. I shove open the passenger door and bolt, shutting the car door.
My feet hit the gravel, then dirt, then forest floor. Leaves crunch under my sneakers. Branches whip at my face. I don’t stop.
I watch where my feet step, terrified of falling, of tripping over a root and being caught. I don’t dare look back. Don’t dare slow down.
Once I’m in the trees, I angle right. Not straight. Never run straight—that’s what they say, right? Make yourself unpredictable.
I sprint like my life depends on it.
Because maybe it does.
My lungs burn. My legs scream. But I keep going, searching the dark trees ahead for somewhere to hide. I spot a fallen log—massive, covered in moss—but that’s too obvious. He’d check there first.
I jump over it and keep running.
I can’t believe this is happening. It’s only the first day of classes and I’m already caught up in this bullshit. Running through the woods from a drug dealer who—
My phone rings.
The sound shatters the silence like a gunshot. I gasp, fumble for my pocket, yank it out and silence it with shaking fingers.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I just gave away my position. After all that running, all that careful footwork, and I gave it away because I forgot to silence my goddamn phone.
I change direction immediately, angling back toward the road. If I can get back to the highway, flag down a car, maybe—
I put the phone on silent, shove it back in my pocket, and run harder.
My breath comes in ragged gasps. My side aches, a sharp stitch that makes each step agony. I’m almost out of breath. I need to stop. Need to rest.
I spot another log and duck behind it, pressing my back against the rough bark. My chest heaves. Sweat drips down my temples.
In the distance, I hear footsteps.
Slow. Measured. Like he’s not even trying to catch me yet.
My heart pounds so hard I think it might explode. What the hell is he going to do when he catches me?
I know I can’t outrun him. He’s bigger, stronger, faster. But maybe I can fight him.
I look around frantically, searching for something—anything—I can use as a weapon. My fingers close around a thick branch, half-buried in leaves. I yank it free, test its weight. It’ll do.
I stand slowly, forcing my breathing to slow. In through my nose, out through my mouth. I can do this. I have to do this.
I run from tree to tree, careful not to exhaust myself completely. Save some energy. Be smart.
In the distance, I hear the car lock beep.
I freeze.
The sound echoes through the trees, unmistakable. He’s locking the car. Which means...
I relax. Just a fraction. He’s still at the car. I have time. I can figure out a game plan, call Thea, tell her where I am—
My phone flies out of my hands.
The impact jolts through my wrist, sharp and painful. The phone goes sailing through the air, disappears into the darkness.
I gasp, not knowing how he got so close to me without vividly hearing him.
“Gotcha.”
His voice is right behind me.
I turn and run full speed, but it’s only seconds before he catches me. His arm wraps around my waist, yanks me backward against his chest. His body is hard, solid, and I can feel his heart racing against my spine.
“I knew I could trick you with locking the car,” he whispers against my ear.
I kick, trying to get free. My heel connects with his shin, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“What’re you going to do to me?”
“You made this too easy.” He releases me. Steps back. “Run.”
I don’t hesitate.
I take off, forgetting about my phone, forgetting about everything except getting away. My legs pump, arms swing, lungs scream for air.
But before I can get out of the trees, he catches me again.
His body slams into mine from behind. We stumble, and he uses the momentum to spin me around, press me back against a tree. His chest heaves against mine. I can feel his heart racing—or maybe that’s mine. I can’t tell.
He grabs the front of my hoodie and yanks it up over my head, so now I’m blind.
“What the fuck!” I scream, trying to claw it off my face. The fabric blinds me, smothers me. I can’t see. Can’t breathe.
He grabs my arms, pins them above my head with one hand. His grip is iron.
“Please stop! Stop it!” I’m thrashing, panicking, because I can’t breathe through the thick fabric pressed against my nose and mouth.
“Nobody’s going to save you, Lexi.” His voice is a whisper, dark and smooth. He leans me harder against the tree. I feel the bark scrape against my shoulder blades through my shirt. “You’re all mine.”
“Fuck you!”
He leans his full body against mine, pinning me completely. “You are. And I get to do whatever I want with you.”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” My voice is raw, breaking.
He presses his face close to mine, the hoodie pockets between us like a barrier. I can feel his hot breath through the fabric. “Don’t tempt me, Lexi. I wasn’t planning on doing what you’re thinking, but on second thought...”
I push against him with my body, trying to create space. But instead, I feel how hard his body is. How solid. How—
Oh god.
“I can’t believe this bullshit!” I snarl through the fabric. “You’re fucking sick!”
“You haven’t seen anything yet, Lexi,” he whispers.
Something wraps around my wrists. Rope. Rough and tight.
“Are you fucking tying me up!” I’m shouting, all the fight draining out of me. “Are you fucking serious—”
He doesn’t listen. Just keeps winding the rope around my wrists, then moves down to my ankles. I feel him crouch, feel the rope cutting into my skin as he ties my legs.
Then he’s tying me to the tree.
The bark digs into my back. The rope bites into my wrists and ankles. I can’t move. Can’t see. Can barely breathe.
When he stops touching me, the silence is worse than anything.
“Are you still there?” My voice cracks. “Don’t leave me here!”
I hear sticks rustling. Footsteps. Moving away.
“Hey!” I scream. “Don’t fucking leave me out here all alone! What the hell’s wrong with you!”
The footsteps fade.
Then nothing.
Just the sound of wind through the trees. The distant hoot of an owl. The rustle of leaves.
I’m alone.
Tied to a tree in the middle of nowhere, blind, helpless.
And he’s gone.
“Hey!” My voice echoes through the forest. “Hey, asshole!”
Nothing.
Tears burn behind my eyes, soak into the hoodie fabric. My wrists throb where the rope cuts in. My legs are shaking, barely supporting my weight.
How long is he going to leave me here?
What if he doesn’t come back?
What if something finds me first—an animal, a person, something worse like a serial killer?
I try to steady my breathing. Try to think. But all I can think is…
Is he leaving me here all night?
I’m going to piss myself.
Tied to a tree because I tried to save my brother.
Time stretches. Seconds feel like hours. My legs go numb. My shoulders scream from being held above my head.
I hear something in the distance. Footsteps again. Coming closer.
“I don’t even know your name.” My voice is hoarse.
It’s silent.
“He fucking left me out here,” I whisper to myself. “Unbelievable.”
Silence.
Time stretches. My heart stops racing. My breath relaxes. I slump against the tree and try to breathe through the thick fabric. It feels like hours pass when I hear rustling footsteps.
Then laughter.
Low. Dark. Familiar.
“You fucking left me out here for hours!” I shout.
“Peaceful, isn’t it?” His voice cuts through the darkness.
Relief and rage war in my chest. “You fucking asshole!”
He’s close now. I can feel him standing in front of me, can feel the heat radiating off his body.
“This was your test,” he says. “And you failed.”
“What?”
“I told you to run. You ran. Good. But then you stopped to hide. Your phone rang. You got distracted.” His fingers brush against my cheek through the hoodie. I flinch. “If I was really hunting you, you’d be dead.”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe later.”
I feel him working at the ropes around my ankles. They loosen, fall away. Then my wrists. The circulation rushes back in painful pins and needles.
He yanks the hoodie off my head.
I gasp for air, blinking in the darkness. He’s standing right in front of me, close enough to touch. His face is unreadable in the shadows.
Once the rope runs free, I grab it and wrap it around his neck. He immediately puts his hand between the rope and his neck as I squeeze.
“You crazy––”
“You’re fucking with the wrong bitch!” I snap, pulling tighter.
He let’s me. He doesn’t fight. Not really. Then he starts tapping my forearm.
“This isn’t a respectable grapple you can tap out from!” I whisper in his ear. The audacity!
“We’re…even…” he manages to say. And I release before I actually kill him. His face is turning a different color under the moonlight.
But that was the wrong fucking move. He spins his large body around, trapping me on the ground. I try to kick him off, but instead of resorting to torturing me, he presses against my center, finding my clit immediately and rubs.
I shriek from the abrupt change of pace.
I thought he would strangle me, and instead, he’s diving straight between my legs.
I kick, but he’s strong enough to stop me.
He’s rubbing me fucking hard, hard enough that I might combust. I haven’t been touched in a very long time, and it’s almost like he knows.
“What’re you––”
“Shh,” he says, rubbing his hard cock against my leg. “You know exactly what I’m doing. Now, get your ass over here and stop fighting me.”
He pulls me down, and once the pressure is off my clit, I can think clearly again. I lean up and pull him into a headlock. The good thing about being a younger sister to an older brother means I’m not afraid of kicking a guy’s ass. This one is no exception.
“Wild little thing,” he says when I pull him into a headlock. And again, instead of trying to hurt me, he starts tickling my ribs.
My body is highly sensitive, so I start squirming. “Stop!”
“You have me in a headlock,” he whispers as I slowly release naturally. “I’m tickling you, and I need to stop?”
He starts tickling me harder, and I can’t help the jerky movements and laughter leaving my throat. Fuck! This is worse than being tortured.
“He pins my arms above my head, holding me down my wrists and sits on my legs. “Gotcha,” he murmurs, leaning down. “You’re stuck, Lexi. What’re you going to do now?”
“Did I pass the test?” I dare to ask.
He leans down, looking at my lips. “Judging by how sensitive your pussy is, I don’t think you can handle all of me, so no.”
I seethe, “I knew you just wanted to fuck me! You sick asshole!”
“Asshole is your favorite word. I wonder what yours feels like.”
“Fuck you!”
He rakes a finger down my chest, and even with the thick hoodie on, I can feel the lightness on my skin. Then he touches the top of my jeans. I gasp and he cocks his head at me.
“Have you never been touched before?” he asks.
I inhale, holding my breath. I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing anything about me.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
He licks his lips. “Let’s play a little game, shall we? I ask the questions, and if you don’t answer, you get punished.”
“And if you don’t answer my questions––”
“Ah,” he stops me, shaking his head. “Only I get to ask. Understand? My game, my rules.”
I suck in a breath, feeling his weight against me.
The things that I do for my brother…