“Oh, Graysin. It’s embarrassing, truly, how naive you are.” Blaine chuckled to himself, the sound hollow and forced. “I don’t have friends. That would require caring, and…” His eyes bored into mine as pointless prayers ran through my head.Please let this all go away.Please let me wake up from this nightmare. “I just don’t,” he finished.
He started to ramble then, spewing out horrendous shit I wished I could un-hear.
“She had a sweet little cunt, Graysin.” He made a chef’s kiss motion, though his hands were cuffed together. “Tight and hot and tasted like a dream. She was only the appetizer though. Do you know what the main course was?” His eyes widened, like the memory brought him so much immense joy to recount that he couldn’t contain it all. I shook my head and covered my ears. I didn’t want to hear it. His hands slammed down on the table, and I jumped, dropping mine into my lap. “Stop acting like such a child. Yes, it was you. We might not be friends, but you’ve always been a source of entertainment for me. I wanted you to enjoy the night as well. I’m notthatselfish.”
Blaine stared at me, and I couldn’t look away. While he seemed to be enjoying himself, I realized just how dead inside he was. His eyes were gorgeous, but they held no goodness. No love. No friendship. He was a monster. Plain and simple.
His upper lip curled up and he leaned closer into the table. “You were even tighter than her, in case you were wondering. I had to take my time with you. Opened you up nice and slow.” Blaine closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “Do you remember how it felt when I spread your ass and sucked on your hole?” His eyes flashed open, full of heat. “Well, of course you don’t. But I’ll never forget the way you taste. Delicious.”
I was livid. Shaking. Trying to focus on breathing. Hearing the details was so much worse than his initial confession. “Please. Please stop talking,” I begged in a raspy voice. “I don’t want to hear any more.” I could get up and walk away from the table, but it wasn’t like I could leave the room. I couldn’t truly escape him or this awful truth he was revealing.
Blaine ignored me and just kept rambling. “I fucked you after that. I lubed you up, don’t worry,” he added, seeing my horrified expression. “Olivia sat there and watched. She cried,” he said in an eerily serene voice. Blaine stared straight ahead, past me now, as if lost in the memory. “You both did. Oddest thing.”
I turned my head and puked onto the concrete floor. My body expelled the contents of my stomach, and I heaved until nothing was left but stomach acid. I wiped my mouth on my shaky hand. My whole body shivered. Being forced to listen to this, to face this truth, was worse than everything the masks and my brother had done to me combined. Hands down.
He blinked back to the present and turned his evil eyes on me. “You took my dick beautifully, like the good boy you are. Fuuuck,” he moaned obscenely. “Just thinking about it now makes my cock fill. Look what you do to me, Graysin.” He struggled to his feet and walked around the side of the table. His legs weren’t bound, but with how high he was, he didn’t seem capable of walking straight. Blaine rubbed himself with the heel of one of his handcuffed hands. “I wish I could watch you come again.” He leaned in and pressed the fingertips of one hand onto the table. “You came, Graysin, through your tears. Nutted all over your stomach.” His breath washed over me, turning my stomach as he whispered, “that’s how I knew you wanted it just as badly as me.”
Stars and black spots clouded my vision. “You’re a sociopath,” I rasped out hoarsely.
Blaine pressed his lips together into a thin line and shook his head minutely, then stepped back. His gaze crawled all over my skin, nearly bringing about another round of vomiting. “I’m not, actually,” he said. “But thank you for the armchair psychiatry.”
The door opened behind me, and I stood, turning toward it, thinking maybe I’d be able to escape, to get away from Blaine. That was all that mattered now. I couldn’t look at his slimy face a second longer. I took one step and my lightheadedness caught up with me. I stumbled and braced for incoming pain when my limbs gave out, but a pair of strong arms caught me before I hit the floor. I blinked several times, and Demon came into focus. I was aware of another one of the masks entering the room and walking toward Blaine. But all I could focus on was Demon. His brown eyes, the only part of the man I could see, were full of concern.
He pulled me in closer and whispered, “I’ve got you, kitten.” I clung to him and began sobbing. He cradled me to his chest, and I cried all the harder. Even after what Demon and his brothers had put me through, I felt the truth behind that simple statement.
I just wanted this to be over, for this all to go away. I wanted Blaine to take back all the terrible things he’d said and done. I wanted to be safe. In a weird way, here in Demon’s arms I felt the safest I had since this whole mess began on Halloween night. But I still wanted to go home. I wanted to find Kellen, and I wanted to get the hell out of here.
There was a commotion behind us, and a thump and clatter as handcuffs fell to the floor. “Goddamnit,” Devil swore under his breath. Blaine stumbled past us, tripping over me and Demon, who reached for Blaine’s leg but missed. Blaine managed to exit the small room.
Demon pulled me to my feet and sat me gently in one of the chairs as Devil rushed past. “Stay here, out of the way so you don’t end up hurt.” He gave me a stern look. “Don’t make me regret leaving you alone.” With that, he left the room as well, leaving the door open. I stood and walked on shaky legs to the doorway, then leaned against the frame and peered out.
Blaine was running, stumbling along the metal walkway that stretched between this room and a storage space. There was a staircase that led up to the third floor and down to the first floor. Wolfie came zooming up the stairs, blocking Blaine’s access to the bottom level, so he turned and headed up to the third floor with Devil on his heels. Demon and Wolfie followed.
I slipped out of the room and made my way along the walkway. I paused at the staircase and glanced up above me. I could see the four men through the grated flooring. None of them noticed me. I could leave right now. Head down to the first floor, find the exit, and get the hell out of here. I took one step down and hesitated. Blaine was up there, getting closer and closer to the ledge. I closed my eyes and took a shuddering breath. It was more morbid curiosity than anything that had me pivoting and heading up the staircase instead.
“Just give it up, Colfield,” Wolfie was saying as I crept onto the third floor and stepped beside some shelves that held old cleaning supplies. I remained hidden behind five-gallon buckets of concentrated floor cleaner. “We all know what you did. We have video of your confession. You’re not walking out of here a free man, but you can at least walk out of here alive if you’re smart about this.”
“Fuck that,” Devil muttered, taking a menacing step toward Blaine. “Why should he walk out of here alive? Why should he get another chance? Livy didn’t get another chance.”
Blaine stepped backward, nearly butting up to the safety gate behind him. I was close enough now to see his expression. He appeared calm, void of emotion once again.
“I didn’t force the pills into her mouth,” he said in a monotone voice. “I didn’t force her to swallow. She killed herself. You can’t put that shit on me,” Blaine insisted. “Besides, that stupid bitch dug her own grave.”
“What?” Demon asked sharply. “You fucking bast—”
“You said you wanted answers,” Blaine interrupted sharply. “Shut the fuck up and listen to the rest of them. You knocked me out earlier before I got through everything. Idiotic trailer trash,” he muttered under his breath. He seemed to love the sound of his own voice and was dragging this out as long as possible.
“Then let’s hear it,” Wolfie ordered. “Spit it out.”
Blaine brought his shoulders back and stood tall. “She must have gotten a little suspicious about the pictures and the texts fromGraysin.” He made air quotes when he said my name. “Because a few days later she came intomyhome, snooped throughmythings, and stumbled upon the rest of the pictures. Ones with me in them that…” He shrugged. “They didn’t show me in the best light. Ones that may have landed me in jail. Since she’d seen those photos, things couldn’t just go back to normal. So, I gave her a choice. She needed to permanently remove herself from my life, or I would destroy her pathetic family—you all, as it turns out. She knew I had the means to make it happen. To make you disappear, ruin your credit, set you up to take the fall for some crime, whatever. She knew I’d do it. So, she left school. It’s notmyfault ormyproblem that she took my instructions literally and offed herself like a moron.”
Devil stalked up to Blaine and shoved him into the railing. It shook when he collided with it, and in the momentum, he pitched over the side. Blaine managed to grab on to the vertical bars, and now hung there with his feet dangling down. The second and first floors loomed below him. I gasped loudly and ran forward. Demon grabbed me and held me back. I threw an elbow into his side, and he let go with a grunt.
Blaine’s eyes found mine as he struggled to pull himself up the bars. His hands slipped on the slick metal, and he scrambled for purchase and held on. “Graysin, please,” he pleaded calmly. “Help me up.”
I knew what I should do. I should walk over there and help him back to safety. He was a human being. But after everything that had happened, everything he’d done, I just…didn’t. I took a small step back. And another. Fury raged in his eyes once he realized I wasn’t going to help.
“You pathetic, naive, weak excuse of a man. How dare you ignore me. Don’t walk away from me!” I continued to back up until I brushed against Demon. He rested a hand on my lower back. “Get back here, Thorne!” Blaine screamed. “You owe me!” He was as red as a tomato, as angry as a hornet. Spit flew from his mouth with each word he screamed.
