Chapter 15
ASHLEY
Carly: Ugh, I fucking hate the wilderness. Stilettos were such a bad idea too. Next DB event? Sneakers. Deal?
Ashley: OMG agreed! Why do we keep conforming to fashion when they’re making us do shit like hike through the woods in the pitch-black?
Carly: It’s such a good question. Sneakers would have been a cute look with ball gowns too. We’re dumb as fuck sometimes.
Ashley: LOL you’re not wrong. Tell the boys they’d better take good care of you, or there will be trouble, all right?
Carly: Ha, I already threatened them with you taking a vow of chastity. They didn’t believe me, but at the same time they’ve also been exceptionally courteous.
T wo hours hadn’t seemed like a lot of time back when the countdown started, but after just twenty minutes hiking in heels, it felt like a whole fucking lifetime.
Royce had assured me that the cabin marked on our map was only an hour’s hike at most, but I think his memory was of a teen boy’s pace in proper footwear.
Not having a girl in a ball gown tripping every fifty yards.
“So…you two seem to be getting along a little better today,” Royce commented, cutting the quiet of the forest as I untangled myself from yet another spiky branch that’d caught my dress.
“Better than what?” Nate asked in a carefully flat tone of voice. “We get along just fine. Don’t we, Layne?”
My jaw clenched, I snapped off the spiky twig and heaved a sigh. “Sure. Just great.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Squirrel,” Royce said with a sigh. “What did you wanna talk about the other morning, Nate?”
Shut up, Nate. Just shut up!
“I wanted to apologize for plotting to send Ashley to rehab in Switzerland,” Nate lied in that bland bullshit voice, like he wasn’t even trying to be convincing. “It wasn’t fair to discuss that plan with Carina behind her back, even though it was with her best interests at heart.”
He was lying to avoid Royce knowing we’d fucked, but still, I couldn’t help spluttering in outrage. “You’re so full of shit, Essex! If your mom hadn’t stolen that document and had me committed, you would have gone ahead with that plan with zero fucking regrets.”
His shoulders shifted in a shrug ahead of me, only obvious thanks to the stark white of his suit jacket under the moonlight. “I never said I wouldn’t have done it, if that’s what it took. But you know perfectly well that I have plenty of regrets .”
Crap. That was far too close to the truth. Nate paused to turn around and lock eyes with me.
“Ah-hah, see, now we’re getting somewhere,” Royce murmured thoughtfully. “You’ll feel better when you get it off your chest, Nate. Just be honest.”
“Or don’t,” I snapped. “We could simply walk in silence.”
“Aw, come on,” Royce teased. “It’s not healthy for friends to hold on to resentments, especially in life-or-death situations.”
I scoffed. “Oh, well, good thing Nate and I aren’t friends, then.”
As if the universe wanted to smack me for my bullshit, my heel caught on something and I lost my balance, forward momentum sending me flying…until strong hands wrapped around my waist and saved me from face-planting the dirt.
“What are we, then?” Nate asked with his lips against my ear. “Hmm? If we aren’t friends…what are we, Duckling?”
A full-body shiver ran through me, but it wasn’t from fear or revulsion like it should be. Nope, it was pure, concentrated desire that made me weak at the knees and forgetting to breathe.
“How much time do we have left?” I asked, changing the subject as I physically wrenched myself free of his far-too-intimate embrace.
Royce hadn’t missed anything, though, and looked at the two of us with sly suspicion all over his face, even while he offered me his hand.
I took it, grateful for the balance as we continued through the woods.
“Still over an hour. We’re doing fine for time,” he said, checking his watch. “If I remember correctly, the cabin we’ve been assigned is at the bottom of this next valley, near a stream.”
“And there’re ten of these cabins in this forest?” I asked, desperate to keep the conversation on safe subjects. “I’m surprised you remember the way after all this time.”
“We do have a map,” Nate muttered, stalking past us to take the lead once more, and I flipped him my middle finger.
Royce just chuckled, shaking his head. “If Nate had pigtails, I feel like you’d be pulling them.”
I wanted to act outraged and demand to know what that was supposed to mean, but I wasn’t actually that dense; I knew perfectly well. And he wasn’t wrong. So I shut my mouth and gritted my teeth as we continued on through the dark woods in relative silence.
“Ha, see!” Royce exclaimed sometime later. “Told you. Our accommodation for the night and with forty-five minutes to spare.”
The cabin in question was tiny, built out of whole logs, with a warm glow coming from the little windows. The door was closed and locked with a combination, which Nate entered with barely even a moment’s thought.
“How’d you know what the entry combination is?” I let curiosity get the better of me as he twisted the handle and pushed the door open.
“It’s on the map,” he told me with a smirk, stepping aside and gesturing for me to enter the cabin. “After you, friend .”
I rolled my eyes and stepped inside the small hut with Royce hot on my heels. “Huh. This is…not what I expected,” I admitted, surveying the space. “Um…are you sure these are the cabins from your survival camp, Royce?”
He barked a laugh, shaking his head. “Uh, yes, but they’ve definitely redecorated.” He placed our gift-wrapped package down on the tiny table and planted his hands on his hips. “So. How’s this going to work if you two can barely tolerate one another awake?”
Nate and I glared at each other, then I shifted my gaze to the bed—the singular bed, which seemed barely big enough for two, let alone three.
“This feels like a setup,” I muttered. “One bed in a wilderness cabin? They could have easily fit bunk beds here.”
Nate just blew out an exasperated breath and shrugged out of his jacket, hanging it over the back of the one and only chair we’d been provided with.
“Let’s see if they gave us any food or water.
” He opened the little cabinet beside the bed and pulled out a basket of supplies to look through.
“Okay, they’ve given us protein bars, which is better than nothing, and a few packets of trail mix.
Water. Electrolyte powder. Tiniest first-aid kit on earth.
Air compressor.” He pulled out each item and placed it on the table as he announced it, but I was still fixated on the sleeping arrangement.
There was no way I could sleep with the two of them in that tiny bed. We’d be on top of each other.
“Oh, they gave us all the fun supplies,” Royce laughed as he pulled out another basket of supplies. “Vodka, caviar, chocolate-covered strawberries, condoms, lube…” His devilish smirk turned my way, and I tried to bite back my smile as I shook my head.
“Fuck, you weren’t kidding,” Nate muttered, peering through Royce’s basket now. “They’ve even included cocaine and ecstasy, if vodka wasn’t hard enough for a good time.” He held up a pair of little bags, both stamped with a black and white duck.
Come to think of it, there were several ducks placed around the room in either black or white. Just in case there was any confusion about whether we were in the right cabin, I guessed.
“I’ll pass,” I told them with a grin. “Getting high in a wilderness cabin sounds like the start of a slasher movie, and I don’t want to die in act one.”
“Okay, well, if we’re not getting fucked up and fucking,” Royce said with a disappointed sigh, “then we should just try to get some sleep, so we can start fresh tomorrow morning. Unless you two are scared you’ll give in to the attraction when your guard is down and you’re all snuggled up together.”
I gasped so sharply, I choked on my saliva, but it wasn’t enough to disguise Nate’s muttered response: “Again?”
My face heated instantly, and I smacked him in the arm only to have Nate groan and close his eyes with a little headshake.
“ What was that, Nate?” Royce purred, his eyes bright like a predator with the scent of blood. “Did you just say again as in, you’ve already given in to this electric attraction when your guard was down? Interesting.”
Nate didn’t deny it. Just shrugged.
“What the fuck?” I exclaimed in a strangled whisper.
“He already knows, Layne. He’s just toying with us now. Right, Royce?”
Royce’s grin spread wide. “Well, I do now. I was just guessing before. Educated guess, sure, but still just a hunch.”
My head felt like it was about to explode. “Nate! We agreed to?—”
“No, Layne, we didn’t agree to shit, ” he said, cutting me off with a growl of annoyance. “I wanted to talk about it, and you acted like a fucking child and pretended nothing had happened, even though you could literally see the scratches and bruises that you made .”
Royce’s jaw dropped, his eyes wide as he looked between the two of us.
“Well, fuck. This just got good. Was there any popcorn in that supply basket?” Then he gasped and snapped his fingers.
“Wait, that was Squirrel that bruised your face the day you got back? You said it was one of the hospital staff!”
Nate huffed a frustrated sound. “No, you asked if it was an orderly, and I deflected.”
“Still. Now I feel lied to and cheated on,” Royce muttered sullenly, and a wash of panic flooded through me, making my stomach churn.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, tears burning at the backs of my eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but I never wanted to?—”
“Oh, fuck, Squirrel baby, I’m teasing.” Royce closed the gap between us and cupped my face in his hands, leaning down to kiss my lips.
“Shit, gorgeous, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.
I’ve made my peace sharing you with Carter and Heath because I love them almost as much as I love you.
Nate’s the same. I can tolerate this because I want you both to be happy. ”
Christ, he really was incredible, but I couldn’t hold my tongue.
“That makes one of you,” I said with an edge of bitterness.
“The reason I refused to talk about it, Essex , is because you made your feelings perfectly clear the night of your birthday. You’re not willing to share, and I’m never going to choose. ”
Royce’s brows rose in surprise, and he took a step back to consider his friend for a moment.
Then he chuckled. “I see. This all makes a lot more sense now. That’s what you were being so cagey about when we asked what’d happened that night.
You two hooked up, then Nate got cold feet and ruined it all. Right?”
I jerked a nod, not caring to lie to him anymore. It was stupid in the first place, and I’d only kept the secret because I was fucking embarrassed .
Royce watched his friend for a moment, his head tilted thoughtfully and his gaze shrewd, but he said nothing more while Nate grew visibly irritated.
“What?” Nate finally snapped. “If you’re expecting an apology?—”
“I’m not an idiot,” Royce scoffed, then shrugged and tugged his black tie loose. No one spoke as he casually, calmly stripped out of his suit and neatly folded it.
“What…are you doing?” I finally cracked, confused and a little turned on. In my defense, Royce was hotter than the damn sun, and he was down to just his boxer briefs, which did very little to conceal anything.
Royce tossed me one of those sly half smiles as he pulled back the blankets on the bed. “Going to sleep, obviously. Are you two?”
Perplexed, I glanced at Nate, who was glaring at Royce. “I’ll sleep here, thanks,” Nate muttered, getting comfy in the single chair. And by comfy, he shifted around and grimaced, since it was a hard, wooden chair.
“Suit yourself,” Royce said with a yawn, shuffling over in the bed to make space. “Squirrel?”
This felt like a trap. Royce was definitely up to no good here, but at the same time, I was intrigued . Who the fuck needed Society-provided stimulants when you could just get stuck between a rock and a hard place instead? Best adrenaline imaginable.