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“Guess again.”
His hands reach for me, grasping painfully at my upper arms. I try to fight him off, but my hands are bound in front of me with a length of rope.
“You know kidnapping is a crime, right?”
The malicious grin he must wears is obvious in his voice. “There is no crime unless someone reports it. It will be weeks before anyone misses you.”
“Nolan?” I guess. “Cole has bigger pecs.”
“Shut up.”
He hauls me out of the car and drops me hard on the ground. Without my hands free, I can’t do anything to break my fall. My knees hit the snow-covered ground and I bite back a gasp of pain.
“Such a gentleman,” I grouse, hoping I sound more angry than scared.
“I really hope I’m the one who gets to catch you. Finally, take care of that mouth of yours, once and for all.”
The threat washes over me with painful awareness. “What are you talking about?”
He shoves me forward with a harsh laugh, forcing me to stumble ahead of him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
My hands are still tied together. “You planning to undo these?”
He laughs again. “Nope.”
Running my mouth might not have been the smartest decision. “Okay, be a dick.”
“Oh, I will.”
I’m not dressed for this weather. Melted snow soaks into the knees of my pajama pants from where I landed on the ground. The thin sweater I have on isn’t meant for this kind of weather, and does nothing to shield me from the chill wind.
But the last thing I’m thinking about is the cold when Nolan pushes me into a clearing and I’m surrounded by half-a-dozen guys in Havoc masks.
Nolan shoves me hard enough that I hit the ground again and let out a curse.
A few of the nearby guys laugh.
I try to pick out Drake in the crowd, not sure if I’m hoping that he’s here or not. I would have appreciated a warning that I was going to be fucking kidnapped.
But I’m not the only one who has been shoved to the ground.
A few guys are pushed to their knees on either side of me, until we form a circle in the clearing. None of them are wearing masks and I recognize them as Havoc House pledges. One of them meets my curious gaze, apprehension written all over his face.
I raise my eyebrow in question, but he quickly looks away with a shake of his head.
What the fuck is going on?
“Pledges.” The guy who steps into the center of the clearing immediately commands all the attention. He whips off his mask with a flourish. “Welcome to the gauntlet.”
Fucking Brady Caldwell.
I barely know this guy and I already hate him.
“You’re here because you think you have what it takes to make it in Havoc House. Let’s just say that I have my doubts, but I’m willing to give you the chance to prove yourselves.” Brady walks down the line of pledges, pausing behind me as tension tightens my spine. “Your challenge is simple, just make it back to campus. Havoc House is a mile that way.” Because he is standing right behind me, I can’t see the direction that he points. When I crane my head to look at him, his arm has already fallen back to his side. “If you can’t stand a little snow and darkness, then you aren’t strong enough to be one of us.”
“That’s it?” Someone says from the far end of the line. “We just have to walk back to campus?”
“Technically, we’re still on campus. Just a part of it that is very difficult to get to and technically off-limits to students,” Brady corrects him, voice deceptively mild. “But no, getting through the woods isn’t going to be the hard part. Keeping us from catching you is.”
