33. Nim
Chapter 33
Nim
I was angry when I was in front of Sheriff Di Toro. There was a quiver in my stomach, and my cheeks felt hot. This? What I’m feeling right now? It’s motherfucking rage.
How dare Silasthrow Romi around like that? And after everything she did for me? If I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he would brutally assault me for even trying, I’d be clawing his eyes out right now.
But I have to choose my battles if I’m going to win this war. After he threw me in the car and told me to put my seatbelt on, he hasn’t said a word, hasn’t touched me. We’re on Academy Road now, headed back to school.
But just because I can’t use my fists, that doesn’t mean I can’t still attack him.
“You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being,” I tell him, injecting as much hate into my words as I can.
Silas frowns. “Now why’d you say something like that, princess?”
“Because you’re a gutless fuck who thinks it’s okay to hit girls.”
“You talking about that little love tap I gave you back in Silverash?” Silas glances over at me with a scowl on his face. “I apologize if I hurt your feelings, but we don’t grow such delicate little flowers around here.”
“All you have are weeds and parasites.”
Silas’s frown deepens. “You’re right about that,” he mutters, which kind of shocks me. “So tell me, which parasite sponsored you?”
I let out a silent huff of a laugh. “Wouldn’t I love to know,” I say, more to myself than to him. “Why do you care, anyway?”
“Because that’s not how things are supposed to work,” Silas says. “You don’t have the grade average to get into this place, yet here you are.”
“I’m sorry, am I too dumb for you?” I lean back, incredulity twisting my mouth with disgust.
He tilts his head, letting out a mirthless laugh. “I don’t know what you are, princess, but you’re not Academy material.”
“And criminal scum like you and your friends are?”
“Is that what you told Sheriff Di Toro?”
My body goes ice-cold, like I decided to jump into Scarstone’s pitch-black water. When I turn to look at Silas, his face is set in a stony scowl. “How do you know about that? Did Romi tell you?”
“Would you have gone to the cops if we’d left you alone?” he asks quietly and, for once, like he’s genuinely interested in my answer. He even sends that scowl my way when I don’t answer immediately, prompting me.
I look away, tease my bottom lip with my teeth. I guess it doesn’t matter how he knows. I guess it doesn’t even matter that I finally got up the courage to report them. That’s why Thatcher left so suddenly. That’s why Di Toro told me it was a “police matter” now. I’m guessing police matters around here very rarely affect the public good.
“If I’d known it wouldn’t have mattered, then no. I wouldn’t have bothered.” I hug myself hard, my scrambling mind going blank. What’s the point of trying to fight these guys when I’m so obviously outgunned?
“I wouldn’t say it doesn’t matter,” Silas says, sounding grumpy about it. But I can’t tell if that’s because he’s miffed or because he always sounds like that.
I hate how he’s so in control when he’s driving. Like he could close his eyes and we’d still get to our destination in one piece.He lifts his hips off the seat and hunts around in the back pocket of his jeans.
It’s the first time I’ve seen him without his school uniform or camo gear on. He’s wearing dark jeans, a dark brown leather field jacket and white sneakers that, while clean, look like they’ve been walked to death.Yet he’s driving a car like this? People with money are so fucking weird.
He hands over a piece of paper. “You were very thorough.”
I already know what it is before I fold it open, so my heart only sinks marginally when I recognize the statement I’d signed in Thatcher’s office. I smooth it out over my thigh, and then wonder why the fuck I’m treating it like it’s worth even the paper it’s written on. I crumple it up and toss it out the window.
Silas slams on the brakes so hard, the seatbelt cuts into my chest as I’m thrown forward. I gasp, my head snapping forward, hair flying in my face. I’m still recovering when Silas gets out of the car, walks down the road and retrieves the piece of paper.
If my fucking seatbelt hadn’t locked, I’d have been out of that car and into the woods already. But either he did it on purpose—stopping fast enough to keep me in place—or he’s the luckiest son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever known.
“You fucking piece of shit,” I snap when he slides back into the car seat.
“Do you treat everything in your life with such disrespect?” he asks, venom on his words as he turns to study me. The balled-up report is still in his hand, but he starts working at it, opening it up, smoothing it out as he watches me.
“Garbage like that?” I cut my eyes to the worthless police statement. “Like you?” I glare at him. “Sure.”
His slap catches me off guard. Hair flies into my face, sticking against my wide-open mouth as I gasp in pain.
“It’s time we taught you some fucking manners,” he says.
My stomach flips over at the cold fury in his voice. I unlatch my seatbelt, but when I tug at the door handle, nothing happens.
Silas ignores me. He puts the car into drive and carries on down the rutted path for all of three yards before he presses another button on the console and methodically ramps the BMW between two fir trees. I don’t know how the fuck he does it—and I’m too busy trying to escape to really pay much attention—but a minute or so later we’re parked between the trees, the road out of sight.
Alone.
Trapped.
When I try to scramble into the back seat, Silas shoves me so hard between my shoulders that I end up sprawling into the footwell behind the passenger seat. I knock my knee against the console going over, but I desperately push away the pain so I can keep a level head.
It doesn’t help.
Silas’s long legs slide easily into the back, and before I can attempt to fend him off, he grabs the front of my shirt and yanks me onto the back seat with him.My heart clangs in my chest the instant my ass hits the leather seat. I try to scramble up, but suddenly there’s a switchblade pressed to my throat.
If I thought I felt shock before, when I saw my signature on that police statement, it’s nothing compared to what I’m feeling now. Panic rolls in hot-cold waves through my rigid body as my fingertips and toes go numb.
“No,” I whisper. “Please.”
“This is going to go one of two ways, princess,” Silas says. Fury turns his blue irises into thunderclouds. “You’re going to learn how to show someone respect, or you’re walking back to the Academy dressed in nothing but that tangled hair of yours.” He glances up, his expression turning even stonier. “You are a fucking mess, aren’t you?” he adds, as if quoting someone.
I lift a trembling hand. “What do you want?” I murmur as evenly as possible, which in this situation isn’t saying much.
He studies me for a minute, and then purses his mouth. It’s wide, pale, but when he’s not openly scowling there’s a curve to the edges of his lips. Maybe that’s why he always pulls such an angry face—he doesn’t want people to think he’s smiling at them.
“Take off your clothes.”
“Silas, please.”
There’s a flinch in his eyes when I say his name. I won’t lie, it feels fucking weird calling him that to his face instead of “piece of shit”.
“Strip, or I’ll cut it off.” He runs the tip of his blade over my shirt, leaving a small tear in the fabric.
He was wrong. This wasn’t going to go one of two ways. He’s going to get whatever the fuck he wants from me, and it’ll leave me scarred and humiliated.
Again.
But what fucking choice do I have? I know what he’s capable of. What any of them are. He could just as easily slide that blade over my throat and leave me out here to rot.How long would it take them to find my body, even if Romi ever got up the courage to tell them that Silas had kidnapped me?
Trying to make my hands stop shaking doesn’t work, so I stop trying. Who knows, maybe he’ll feel sorry for me if he sees how scared I am. To that end, I don’t even bother trying to bottle up the fear worming its way through me.
What worries me the most is how calm he is. Like pointing a knife at someone and telling them to strip happens every day.
His eyes drop to watch my hands, but they flicker back up to my face every few seconds as if to make sure I’m still appropriately terrified. I try to think of a way to escape, but I’d first have to get out of this car. That, or get into the driver’s seat. I’m not fooling myself—I know I won’t be able to drive this car more than a yard or two before hitting a tree. The biggest vehicle I ever drove was Peggy’s Toyota. This thing is twice its size.
“I don’t have all day, princess,” Silas says, when I hesitate to take off my bra, although he says it in a voice that suggests he’s lying.
I swallow, force my hands behind me, and unlatch my bra. I shrug it off and quickly wrap my arm around my breasts. Silas doesn’t seem as interested in my naked body as he does in the clothes he takes from me and neatly folds up before placing them on the driver’s seat in front.
He also knows I’m going nowhere near there.
“Are you going to rape me?” I ask, a tremor in my voice. “Because it’s a bit cramped in here for that.”
The side of his mouth twitches. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I don’t know what he’s referring to, but then his eyes dart down to my panties. “Everything.”
Fuck.
I lift my hips and shimmy out of my underwear, but instead of handing it to him, I toss it in his face. On instinct, he makes a grab for it with both hands, and the knife leaves my throat.
Forcing my terrified body to respond, I surge forward, aiming straight for the driver’s seat. Silas grabs at me, but now that I’m naked there’s nothing for him to hold onto. His hands slide over my ass, down my thigh. Only when he reaches my ankle does he manage to latch on.
But by then I’ve hit the door lock release button I saw him press earlier, and my hand is already on the handle. I turn and kick him in the face, but I miss his nose and get him on the jaw instead. There’s a click of teeth, and he recoils just long enough for me to yank my ankle out of his grip.
I yell when I fall onto the forest floor, dried pine needles piercing my hands and knees. I struggle to get my balance, but surge forward regardless, trying to get as much distance between Silas and me as possible.
It’s chilly out here without any clothes on, but I try not to think about that. Or about the fact that I can hear sneakers hitting the forest floor very close behind me.
I just keep hurtling forward, my legs barely scrambling fast enough. I’m not sure if I’m actually running as much as just taking a long time to fall down. It doesn’t matter—I’m getting away.
Panting, naked, I press on trying to ignore the sounds of pursuit ever closer behind me. I have to split my attention between the tangled forest floor and the way ahead as I avoid impenetrable patches of foliage and exposed roots while forcing myself not to whimper in fear.
At first, I think I’m imagining it, but when I dart around a tree I see it again.
There’s a building up ahead. At first I think it might even be the Academy. Same dark stone, same rearing architecture. But it’s not. It’s just a narrow, multi-level building in the middle of nowhere.
It doesn’t matter. There might be people in there. Maybe even a teacher. And I’m sorry, but if they see a naked girl running screaming through the woods chased by a guy with a knife, there’s no way in hell they can just brush that under the fucking carpet.
But I never get to find out because a second later, something massive streaks through the trees and slams into me from the side.
“Again?” I yell to the world at large.
Mason twists, landing on his shoulder, my body slamming into his as we collide with the forest floor. We skid for a yard before the dead leaves and pine needles eventually slow us down to a stop.
I’m so shocked that I just lay there curled up on top of him, his arms wrapped around me, for all the world like we’re having a quick cuddle in the middle of the fucking woods.
“Fuck,” he mumbles, the arm around my waist tightening as he pushes into a sit with the other. He closes his eyes, his head bobbing forward before he stiffens his neck. When those amber eyes open again, there’s a touch of frustration in them.
“They said no strenuous activity,” he mumbles. Then his eyes rake down my body, taking in my breasts before I can slap my arm around them. There’s a sudden lustful sparkle in his eyes. “But fuck it, baby girl, you’re worth it.”