35. Kiera
KIERA
“You walked right into my trap.” The clown let another laugh rip through their chest. “But you like to run, don’t you?” She reached her hand up toward my face, brushing a strand of red hair from my face with the blade of her bloody ax.
My heart raced in my chest, trying to push against her palm. Her grip was firm, pressing back into my body with equal force. And I could barely even see her eyes through the creepy mask over her face.
Unlike the other, this one was more fitted to her face, only a buzzcut visible instead of the long, curly hair of her friend.
It was still ghastly white, something I should have spotted even in the darkness of this park ride. Red circled her lips and matching diamonds were over the eyes. Rather than blood splatter, black paint dripped down the mask.
Shit.
The clown stepped closer, pressing her body into mine. Even through her creepy costume, I could tell that she was muscular — strong enough to keep me right where she wanted me.
And she wasn’t afraid to use force.
My lovers weren’t gentle. In fact, they were the opposite.
But I knew they were nothing like whoever the fuck this psychopath was.
A whimper escaped my lips as the clown pressed against me, compressing my lungs.
Dom was right to warn us. As the clown traced the edge of my jaw with the blade of her hand axe, I knew she was right. And because I ignored her, wrote off her concern, I was going to die in this abandoned, haunted ride.
“Loser pays the score.” The clown muttered as the cold metal shifted down my neck.
Just as I was accepting that I was going to die in this dark forest, alone and without my protectors, hands reached out of the darkness.
She wasn’t going to fuck me, she was going to torture me before she killed me.
Grabbing the clown's clothes, Dom and Spencer ripped her away from me. Lady’s barking told me I was safe now.
Roaring, Dom threw the clown to the ground while she tried to catch her breath. “She’s ours, you fucking freak.” She’d been running from the moment she got back to Feverpoint.
“You stepped into our playground.” The clown hissed back, rising back to her feet. Her voice was muffled by the mask in front of her face.
Dom stepped closer to the clown, still a few inches taller than the clown. “It isn’t dark yet. We followed your goddamn rules. She’s not your toy to play with.”
The clown licked her lips as her eyes darted back to mine, stepping even closer to Dom. “It’s always dark here.”
Leo and Spencer closed in on her, ready to put this freak into her place. Next to them, Lady growled and snarled at the intruders.
I was about to watch my angels fight some freakish clown with a bloody ax in the dark. No one was backing off.
A cackle ripped out of her chest, finally taking a step back. “You should see your faces!”
Dom, Leo, and Spencer weren’t laughing. Deadpan, all of them stood at attention. Dom’s temple vein bulged out of her head, Leo’s nose rose to a snarl, and Spencer’s arms flexed as she prepared to throw a punch.
“We’ll see who’s fucking laughing.” Leo snapped, lifting her fists.
But not before Dom stuck her arm out and held the doctor back.
From the darkness, two more clowns appeared from the abyss of the fake forest’s darkness. I recognized one of the masks, the same we’d seen outside — the one with red splatters and black around its mouth.
The other, taller than all of them, stood with crossed arms. Her clothes were tattered and ripped too. Her mask had wide, gaping eyes and mouth. But twine stitched across the edges of each hole. Swallowing, the mask sent a shiver down my spine.
Her voice was deep when she spoke, the words reverberating off of every surface. “Time for our biker friends to head back to their shelter. They won’t like what happens next.”
I could feel Dom wanting to challenge them. She didn’t like giving in — to anyone.
But she was responsible for keeping all of us safe, and despite how the clowns had pushed their luck by cornering me like that, Dom knew how to keep me safe.
“Don’t touch what’s ours.” Dom snarled before grabbing my arm and guiding me out of the ride, Lady, Leo, and Spencer covering our backs.
The sun outside nearly blinded me after so much time in the darkened space.
All of us covered our eyes as we marched back toward the safehouse. Dom was fuming, her chest heaving with anger as she checked the time. Sunset was an hour away but none of us had any desire to cut it close again.
Dom barely looked behind her until we were back in the safehouse and the door slammed closed behind us. “Are you three fucking stupid?”
Spencer scoffed. “Chill, asshole. The dog needed to piss.”
“And how did the key to solving all of our problems end up alone inside a dark amusement park ride?”
Now in the safety of our apartment, I felt my body start to shake. “We were just trying to have fun.”
Leo grabbed a blanket off the couch and wrapped it around me as Spencer rubbed my back. “You’re okay, Princess.”
Shaking her head, Dom moved toward the kitchen. “You never fucking listen to me. Stop pushing your luck and making it impossible to keep you safe. God forbid I try to protect you because we need you. I need you.”
Despite the confession, Dom’s words were biting.
She does care. Not just about the shares, but about me.
Dom tried to steady her breath. “What would have happened if I hadn’t showed up?”
Maybe Leo and Spencer could have taken those three psychos, but they would have been outnumbered.
The last thing I wanted was to see where those freaks would have taken me, what they would have done to me. Whoever they were, they weren’t interested in following anyone else’s rules. They played by their own code.
Shaking it off, Dom ripped her phone out of her pocket and started dialing a number. “I’m getting us out of here.” Impatient to leave, Dom was going to push The Oracle.
Before she could press call, her phone dinged with a text from an unmarked number.
Dom huffed out a laugh. “Lucky girl.”
“What?” Spencer pressed.
Her blue eyes pierced mine. “We go home tomorrow.”