CHAPTER 5 — BELLE
We enter the barn, and there are three men. When you add Tony and Ajax in, that makes five, just like the video. A shiver runs up my spine.
The one with the red hair is dressed similarly to Tony, in a plaid shirt and jeans.
He looks like a farmer. The one with the jet black hair looks like he could be Ajax’s dad.
Lean, buff, a bit mean, to be honest, but also hot.
He’s also wearing jeans, but paired with a wife beater.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in a gang.
The one with gray hair looks completely different. He looks distinguished, like a CEO or something along those lines. He’s wearing a suit.
The redhead approaches first.
“You’ve been having some trouble in school recently,” he says as he slowly walks towards me.
I’m caught off guard. I hadn’t spent too much time thinking about where this was going. But it was certainly not here.
“Ajax tells us you’ve been slacking on your schoolwork. Is that right?”
He’s right in front of me now, and when I breathe in, I taste peppermint at the back of my throat.
He’s tall, maybe even an inch or so taller than Ajax, and Ajax is really tall.
His voice is low, and he has that same Southern drawl as Tony.
There’s nothing playful about his expression, though.
He looks dead serious. Suddenly, I feel a little bit frightened.
“I said, young lady,” he says, tilting my chin upwards. “Is that right?”
I don’t know what to say.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asks, smiling viciously. “I’m sure I can find a way to fix that. If you don’t want to start talking, I have ways to make you talk.”
I stumble back, and suddenly, my left heel hits against the wood. I look back. I’m up against the wall.
He chuckles, and my heart races faster. He places his hands on either side of me against the barn door.
“Nowhere to go, little girl,” he says. “So, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“I’m sorry?” I squeak.
“Sorry for what?”
I rack my brain. I’m honestly not sure exactly what I’m sorry for.
He shakes his head. “What a shame. Apologizing, and you don’t even know what you’re sorry for. That’s even worse, because it means you lied to me just now. And if there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s liars.”
Oh my God. He moves his hands closer together, and now they’re on either side of my head.
“You really don’t know what you did, did you?” he asks. “Hmm. Does this jog your memory? One girl, out in the middle of the country. She turns down the local farmer, and he comes to find her.”
Then it dawns on me. He’s talking about me reading that smutty book the other week.
I was texting Ajax, and I told him I was studying when I really wasn’t.
I was reading a smutty romance book. He found me.
Caught me. It was all part of a game for Ajax and me, as it usually is.
But if I didn’t know better, I’d think this man was serious.
Of course, I know that this has been planned, but I suddenly feel ashamed. This man knows my darkest secrets, knows that I read these degenerate things. I’m embarrassed. I look away, but he grabs my chin again.
“Look at me,” he says. “Don’t think you can weasel out of this. You have a serious problem. You can’t focus because your head is filled with degeneracy. And do you know what the only way is to get rid of that?”
I look at him.
“Get it out of your system,” he says, smiling wickedly.