Fuck my life.
Couldn’t a girl kidnap and torture someone without a man needing to come along and try and help?
Chapter 2
Thea
“Are you fucking serious right now?” I asked, lifting my head and turning around to look at Jude.
“Whatcha got in the trunk?” he asked, grinning his stupid grin at me.
“What are the chances of you getting out of the car and going home?” I grumbled half-heartedly.
“Less than zero,” he cheerfully answered.
Sometimes I just wanted to punch stupid Jude in his stupid face. Is this what having brothers was supposed to be like? Because if so, Jude was killing it.
The fucking jerk face.
“Don’t you have a sheriff to harass?” I tried one last time.
“Nope! Paul is off tonight.”
I didn’t bother replying. I put the car in reverse, backed out of the spot, and made my way out of the lot and toward the little backwoods, abandoned cabin not too far away that I’d discovered. Jude didn’t bother to ask where we were going. He just hummed along with the radio, which was still quietly playing the Beatles. The fucker had even messed with my streaming.
Whatever. He obviously wasn’t planning on interfering, because there was no way he didn’t know who was in the trunk. So fine, I’d have a little help with Rick the Dick. I had a feeling Jude would be okay with bending the rules. After all, Liam and Atlas had threatened Rick. (I think that had pissed Josh off. But then again, I wasn’t planning on threatening Rick in order to make him stay away from Josh. I was planning on teaching him an important life lesson.)
We drove for about a half hour, and I made my way into a more secluded area, eventually pulling off a two-lane road and onto a barely noticeable dirt side road. I drove for another mile, then cut off onto a path that barely fit the car. We eventually pulled into an open area that housed the cabin.
“Very horror movie, Thea. Love the ambiance,” Jude commented.
He hopped out of the car, and I heard him opening the trunk and grabbing Rick to bring him inside. I was still sitting in the driver’s set, cursing the existence of brothers.
Because the cabin wasn’t empty.
“Jude, who the fuck is here?” I shouted to his back as he walked up the steps, Rick thrown over his shoulder.
He just waved a hand at me, kicking the door to the cabin open.
I probably should have been able to smell who was here, but again—I hadn’t really mastered the whole smell thing. Ifeltthat someone was here as soon as I’d pulled in, and I somehow knew it was one of the hellhounds, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to tell them all apart yet.
I sighed and got out of the car. I guessed there was only one way to find out.
I trudged up the stairs and looked through the open door. Liam was sitting at a rickety table inside the one room cabin,Jude behind his shoulder, staring at whatever he was doing. Rick the Dick had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor.
“I’m wiping your presence and any signs of your car from any cameras at or on the way to the club, along with traces of the idiot’s rideshare so he could go break into your car,” Liam said, typing away at the computer.
Well, at least I wasn’t “the idiot.” That counted for something, I guess. I gave Jude a dirty look, but he just smiled and winked at me.
“He didn’t rat you out. I covered your tracks after you hacked into Rick’s therapist’s files. I have no idea how Jude knew what you were up to,” Liam admitted, not looking up from his computer.
“My keen intuition, baby,” Jude joked, grabbing one of the other chairs at the table, flipping it around, and sitting in it.
I was at the end of my fucking patience. Here I was, just trying to torture a guy in a little peace, and everyone had to butt in and get involved. I still didn’t know how they even figured out what I was doing. Like, were they tracking me?
Well, Liam probably was, but how the fuck had Jude known if Liam hadn’t told him?
With that, I heard the sound of an engine, and I felt another hellhound presence.
