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“What are you talking about! What choice?”
She places both hands on her hips and leans in close, eyes narrowed to slits like a snake about to strike.
“The choice as to whether you want to be a whore, or a princess. You’ve got the crown, thanks to Dex and I stuffing the ballot box at Homecoming, and you certainly have the money. But I don’t know, it’s a tough choice, considering you’re halfway to whore as well, given what you’ve been up to this summer.”
She looks maniacal. Come to think of it, she was rail thin, too. “Are you doing blow again? You know, coke went out with the eighties. Maybe you should get some help.”
“Oh, shut up bitch and choose!”
“Choose what!” I shout back. “You’re not making any sense!”
She tips her head back and lets out a heavy sigh. “I told him this was not going to be easy. That you were not cut out for this. But he wouldn’t listen.”
The sound of the front door opening and closing shifts my attention to the door, and when I hear footsteps on the marble in the foyer, I look back to Courtney.
“Tick tock,” she flashes me a wicked smile. “What’s it going to be—give in, or become nothing more than a picture on a flier?”
The skin on my arms pricks, sending tiny hairs shooting up. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. A lifetime of wealth and power beyond your wildest dreams, or poof…bye bye Ellery Butler. Into oblivion yougo.”
I don’t believe it. That flier wasn’t just a joke. It was a threat. One she, and I can only imagine Royce, or whomever was coming up the stairs, meant to make good on if I didn’t get out of here right now.
My heart starts to race, pulse pounding in my ears, and when I look to the window, the flash of a memory hits.
“Darlin…” My father crouches down in front of me as we stand next to my bedroom window. “If you ever see or hear anything that sounds wrong, you do not come out of this room. You open the window, use the trellis like a ladder, and get help. Do you hear me, princess?”
I turn and run to the open window, thanking God for the cooler weather we’ve been having so I don’t lose precious seconds lifting it, and swinging one foot over the ledge, feel around for the trellis. When I feel it underfoot, I climb down quickly, keeping my eyes trained on the slats below.
“She’s getting away!” Courtney shouts as the phone in my room starts to ring.
“Shit, Court!” I hear Royce yell angrily. “You had one job!”
“Don’t yell at her!” Dex comes to his sister’s defense.
Climbing as fast as I can manage with bare feet, I look up, and when I see all three of their heads sticking out the window, I look back down and climb faster.
“Shit.” Royce hits the window ledge and ducks back inside. “We need to get her before she gets away.”
If he uses the back stairs, I have about a minute until he reaches me. Two, if he uses the main stairs.
Not wanting to give him any chance of catching me, I look down, and seeing that I have only a few feet left to go, jump off and start running.
Without thinking, I head to the beach and run straight as fast as I can. When I see the light coming from Cruz’s backyard,I push myself harder, lungs burning to the point of pain. I’m almost there, legs feeling a bit like jelly, and just when it feels like they are about to give out, someone grabs me from behind.
“No!” I scream as one arm wraps around my waist, and another covers my mouth, cutting off my scream.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Royce whispers in my ear. His breath is hot yet sends a chill down my spine. “I’ve had a lot of practice playing cat and mouse the past year.”
A feral growl curls up his throat, as he rubs a sliver of exposed skin on my stomach with his thumb. “Of course, they didn’t smell like you.”
My kicking and thrashing comes to an abrupt stop, as the icy grip of his hold and callous undercurrent of his words, sends my stomach roiling.
“There you go,” he moans with approval as he drags me away from the house, and down to the decrepit wooden pier close by. “Don’t fight it.”
Once the shadows swallow us, he sets me down. Seeing my chance, I try to make a run for it, but he reaches out and grabs my hair, throwing me down to the ground.
Bracing my fall with both hands, I spit out a mouthful of sand, as he flips me over and straddles my legs. “Get off me!”
