Because I could feel this one’s erection against me. This was making him hot.
Disgust roiled in my stomach, inching up my throat.
Above me, the guy’s eyes crinkled behind his mask. Like he was smiling. Like he knew what I realized and was getting off on that too.
There was a loud crash, the sound of wood splintering. The coffee table, I assumed.
Liam.
Even as I thought it, though, a fist came out of nowhere, ramming hard into the guy’s jaw.
His body flew off of me, and I scrambled up, making my way toward where Liam and the other man were scuffling on the floor.
I heard a crunch.
Saw blood.
My heart lurched.
I flipped over onto all fours, ready to crawl over there and grab the guy.
But my ankles were seized.
Pain jolted up my foot and leg as I was dragged viciously backward, needing to whip my head back to avoid whacking my face on the ground.
He dropped my ankles as suddenly as he grabbed them, reaching down to grab a fistful of my hair and pulling back until I saw stars, until the sting made my eyes automatically flood with tears, until I had no choice but to sit back on my screaming ankle to ease the pain.
I smelled something potent then.
Sweet.
In a sickly way.
It got closer to my face, and I remembered what had that smell.
Chloroform.
Panic swelled.
I had to fight.
I had to—
As the rag closed over my face, the last thing I saw was the other guy slamming Liam’s head into the floor.
And everything went blank.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Liam
It was the talking that woke me up.
Usually, at some point in the night, the streaming services went back to that ‘Are you still watching?’ screen, and with no one to click the button, the house went silent.
So hearing voices when my phone said it was just after four in the morning had me sitting up.
Then I was worried it was about Charlotte since she was sick. She had this thing where her fevers went crazy and she would hallucinate.
