Chapter 20
TWENTY
Between the two bottles of wine we share over the next few hours, both Bo and I are a giggling mess as I paint a string of Christmas lights across his chest. He’s festively wearing boxer briefs with candy canes on them, and I’ve put on the pajama set that makes me look like a gingerbread cookie.
Snickering from my spot next to him on the couch, I try to catch my breath. “Should I paint gumdrops over these?” I ask, running my brush over his nipple.
He gasps, stomach curling at the sensation. “Get that fucking thing off me, you know I hate being tickled.”
I start laughing so hard that I fall off the couch, which makes him burst out again at my clumsiness. We’d decided to get wasted as a distraction from the nerves, and it’s working way too well.
“One more of these,” Bo says, leaning up and grabbing more of the Christmas wrapping supplies. “We won’t have any presents to wrap except ourselves, so lets make it fucking hot.”
I’m still lying on the floor when he pats a little bow on top of my head and wraps a ribbon around my neck. “X-rated Cindy Lou Who.”
My head falls back and I cackle, the first time I’ve really just laughed in so long. Wine is great for making months worth of stress slip away, until I’m focused only on the thought of what tomorrow will bring. Christmas with my new favorite people and picking any place on the map for us to go.
“I need to get off the floor,” I say, not moving an inch.
“Here,” Bo says, reaching down to grab my hand. Yanking me up, I fly off the floor and fall across his lap. “We need to make a snack, I’m starving.”
The phone Jesse left for us starts vibrating and we both gasp, reaching for it at the same time. Bo grabs it first, sticking out his tongue at me and answering when Noah’s name crosses the screen.
The screen turns black, and I can make out Noah’s face from the inside of a very dark car, his outline barely recognizable in the light from his dashboard.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, searching the screen for any hint that he’s hurt.
“We’re fine. Just waiting for Landon to come back through. He texted they’re running about ten minutes late, so I thought I’d let you know. I can feel your stress from here,” he teases.
I look guiltily at Bo. “We’ve actually done a great job of distracting ourselves,” I admit.
“What’s that on your neck?”
“I decorated her,” Bo says proudly, reaching around me to play with the ribbon while I smile softly at the phone.
The dark view of the car shakes as the phone is snatched from Noah’s hand, and Jesse’s sharp eyes fill the screen. His head is tilted, tongue flicking his lip ring. “Let me see,” he hisses at Noah before turning back to me. “Oh, fuck yeah, Em. You look good wrapped up like that.”
I giggle and twist the phone so Bo’s on the screen over my shoulder. “I painted him for you, Jesse. We can't wait to see you.”
A wide grin stretches across his face. “Are you drunk?”
I nod. “No.”
He laughs. “Oh, fuck yes. You’re in for it tonight, Noah.”
Bo pulls me back to his chest. “Sorry, I had to distract her. She was worried sick, but this seemed to help.” His chin rests on my shoulder and I lick my lips at his warm breath on my collarbone.
Noah takes the phone back and places it on the dashboard, eyes locked on mine. I bite my lip, knowing he likes what he sees. Knowing he wishes he had stayed back with me.
Jesse pops a brow at Bo. “We don’t want that at all.” He tilts his head toward Noah. “What do you think? Should we let them get a little bit of stress out?”
Noah grins, and my heart trips at the sight. “Only if they set that camera up and follow directions.”
My eyes widen, my stomach immediately doing that tingling thing it does when Noah bosses us around.
“Can you do that?” Jesse asks, focusing back on Bo and me.
“Yes, sir.” Bo uses that sultry, brat voice of his that makes Jesse insane.
He props the phone up on the coffee table to face the couch, and sits back behind me, pulling my back to his chest. My nervous hands grip his thighs, suddenly feeling antsy and warm.
Wine is quite the aphrodisiac, I’ll need to remember that.
“Emma,” Noah says, his voice low. “Are you already getting turned on?”
I swear he can read my mind. “I like when you direct me. Um, us.”
His smirk doesn’t waver, but is interrupted by the bite of his teeth as he watches me flush. To anyone else, he might look dangerous like this, but all I see is that possessive need he saves for me. He owns me and he loves it.
I love it.
“You two are so good for us,” he says. “Bo. Ribbon around her wrists. Tight.”
My heart slams as I shift forward for Bo to pick up the ribbon and tie my wrists in front of me for Noah to see. With a final knot added, he looks up at the phone and tugs to show how snug it is, his mouth hovering right over my ear. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“Good boy,” Noah praises, causing a visceral reaction in the both of us. Even Jesse groans, shifting in his seat. “Now take off her shirt, I don’t care if you have to tear it.”
Bo follows each direction until we’re both left only in our underwear, my hands still bound in front of me as I lie back against Bo’s warm chest.
“Spread her legs so we can see you play with her.”
The words are said even and low but my body lights up at them—at the attention. Physically, from Bo, as his hand slides down my stomach to my underwear and pauses for just a beat before dipping inside. But also from the knowledge that both Jesse and Noah are watching us, that they are hard for us.
I moan as he rolls my clit under his finger, my head falling back against his shoulder as he latches his lips to the pulse point on my neck and sucks.
“Does that feel good, Em?” Noah asks, and I nod, as my mouth falls open on a breathless moan.
A rough voice cuts in from behind us. “It looks like it does.”
I shoot up, twisting in Bo’s lap as he launches to his feet, pushing me behind him.
“Fuck.” I barely hear him, the disbelief evident in Noah’s almost silent shock. “Fuck!” he screams louder. “Goddamit, Jesse, go!” There’s more shouting, like he’s directing everyone nearby to drive. To get back here. That it was a trick.
It was a trick.
By the time my head catches up with reality, my scream is silenced by a large hand wrapping around the front of my face. I’m yanked backward into the chest of a stranger, though I gave everything I could trying to keep a hold of Bo’s hand.
“Bo!” My terrified scream is muffled by the calloused hand as it covers my mouth and nose. Breathing through the tiny gap in his fingers is damn near impossible, and I start to lose my grip, my struggle slowing.
I’ve never seen Bo look the way he does right now. I’m sure the same fear sits inside him, but he looks violent. Angry as our chances of escaping dwindle with each new man that enters the room with their gun drawn. Headlights shine through the windows.
Bo manages to wrestle past the man holding him back and land a punch on mine, and I gulp in air when his hand slips from my face to grab his bleeding nose.
That’s when Bo’s familiar hand finds mine, grabbing me tightly and yanking me toward the doors.
“Jesse, Noah! We’re gonna run, get back here now.
Please.” His voice breaks on the last word, and I hate that I’m crying already.
I need to be strong. He needs me to be strong so we can get out of this alive.
Noah’s desperate yell cuts through the chaos. “Don’t you fucking lose her, Bo!”
The command is cut off by a large blast as the windows on the far side of the living room explode, glass shooting inward as we crouch, covering our heads.
I don’t even realize I’m screaming until Bo pulls me into his chest, shielding me from the razor sharp debris reflecting the scene back at us in a million terrible fragments.
“Jesse, they’re everywhere.” I hear it in his voice. The knowledge that we aren’t getting out of this. The men step toward us, crunching the glass beneath their boots, leering and terrifying.
‘Run, please, Bo. We’re on our way,” Jesse shouts, and I can hear the desperation in every word as it fills the room. “You hear that, you pieces of shit? I’m coming for every single on of you, and I’ll string you from the fucking trees!”
Bo scoots us back until we hit a wall as three more men enter the room, guns pointed at us. My legs shake as I start to picture what comes next.
Death? Hopefully quick.
But if not… terrible things are going to happen. To me. To Bo. I sob into his hand as I try to block out the nightmare. This time it’s real, though. There’s no escaping this one.
“Emma, can you hear me?” Noah yells, and the man closest to the phone walks over and picks it up from the table, turning it toward him.
Tugging up on his mask, Landon smiles back at Noah.
“Sorry boys, but these little presents need to be delivered to someone much worse than you.” He drops the phone to the ground and turns to stalk toward us, my eyes wide.
Bo’s growling in my ear, clutching me to his chest possessively as Landon approaches us, but the butt of a gun kicks out from somewhere to the side and a sickening crack silences him.
I scream again, absolutely helpless to stem the hysteria that enters my voice as I try to hold him up, trying to assess his injury through the blood now covering the side of his face.
My Bo. Jesse’s voice threatens vaguely in the background, but it's quieter. Turned out. The only thing I can process is all of the vibrant red coating Bo’s skin, and slickening my hands as I’m torn away from him.
Hands are on me, lifting me into a bridal hold as I fight with all my strength, but the man just laughs as I struggle, finally throwing me over his shoulder instead.
The wind is knocked from my lungs as my chest collides with his back.
A moment later, pain explodes over my underwear as he spanks me, the contact from his hand burning. I can’t lock the scream inside.
I can't even breathe, sobbing as the fear strangles me and I’m carried out the door, away from my safety.
The way I’m lopped over his shoulder has my hair hanging in my eyes, effectively blinding me to what’s going on.
The man carrying me stops for a moment and I hear a car door open before I'm slammed backward into the back of a van, my head banging hard against the metal floor.
“Come here.” His voice crawls across my skin like an insect as he yanks me closer. A zip tie appears from his back pocket, and he circles the band around my feet until I can't pull them apart. My legs are shoved back inside the van just as Bo’s unconscious body is dumped next to mine.
His face is bloodied, eyes closed. The horror expands, seeping further inside me as the door is slammed shut once more and we’re flung into complete and total darkness.