Using the wall beside me, I pull myself up to standing and drag my body through the house, moving toward my old room.
The rusty gate screeches from out the front, and I jump. Shit, he’s worked out where I am. I should have kept running, but this is where I stashed my stuff earlier. I can’t leave without it when that bag has my only possessions in it. I suck in a breath and move faster, sprinting into my old room to grab my backpack. I sling it over my shoulder then make a dash for the back door as fast as my cut-up feet will take me. No clue where I’m going, all I know is I need to get away from Kasen.
A rotted floorboard crumbles under my weight, sending me flying through the air. “Fuck,” I cry as splinters embed in my palms and the fall rips open my knees. I suck in ragged breaths, trying not to let the fresh pain take over. I have to keep fighting, keep running, but I’mso beaten down I’m not sure where to find the energy to keep going. Every muscle in my body screams at me to stop, begs me to just give up.
Heavy footsteps approach, and I try with all I have left in me to get to my feet and scamper away from him, but it’s too late.
I shrink back, wishing I could seep through the floorboards and disappear.
Keller leers over me, his evil eyes boring into my soul. Fixing me to the spot, paralyzed with fear.
No, not Keller, it’s Kasen looming over me, his expression just as menacing. His frame is so similar to his late father’s, so much taller than I remember, he would have to be a good six-three or four. And scarily, the spitting image of him. The shadow of his bicep flexing is enough of a warning that I stand no chance against him in a physical altercation. But would he hurt me? He used to be one of my boys, one of my closest mates. “Don’t look at me like that, Dove, you’re acting crazy. I’m here to help you.”
I shake my head, a whimper slipping from my lips. “I don’t want your help,” I whisper.
“You know this place is set to be knocked down any day now,” he snips, his eyes raking over me coldly.
“I’m aware,” I spit back at him, a fresh wave of anger radiating through me because, fuck, I wasn’t, and that reality hurts more than I want to admit to him. Just another thing he and his family are taking from me.
“You can’t stay here,” he growls like I’m an idiot.
I glare at him. It’s his fucking fault these old homes are set to be destroyed. This was his neighborhood as well, he should feel a sense of nostalgia here just like I do, but he’s just like his father, and that sends sickness straight to my gut. “You swore to all of us you would neverturn into your old man, and now look at you,” I seethe back at him. It might take every last bit of energy I have left in me, but I need him to know it.
His posture stiffens, and his glare turns icy. “Get your stuff. I’m taking you home with me.” His fingers wrap around my bicep, strong and determined when I’m feeling so damn weak it hurts. I haven’t eaten in days. Combine that with being nearly beaten to death then having to run for my life and I have simply run out of the will to move my body. Even though I know I need to dig deep and find something, because there is no way in hell I’m leaving this place with the likes of him.
I shove at him, using my long nails to inflict as much damage as I can. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I hiss hysterically, ready for the fight of my life.
His eyes narrow into slits and darken to the black of the midnight sky. “Either you grab your shit and walk out of here with me right now, or I carry you out of here over my shoulder. Either way, no girl of mine is staying in this rat-infested dump another second.”
Girl of his?! What the actual. My head swims, fresh beads of sweat trickling down my spine. “Lucky for me I’m not your girl, and I prefer the rats in here to the snakes out there. You might have the rest of the citizens of Deadwater Bay jumping when you snap your fingers, but I won’t be,” I bite back. Thankfully my sassy mouth is still working, even if my body has given up the fight.
He takes a step back from me, a look of delight in his eyes. “Suit yourself,” he mutters, then the next thing I know, I’m being thrown over his shoulder.
A pained groan flies from my lips, but it doesn’t stop him. He marches out of my childhood home with me over his shoulder like asack of potatoes. Fresh pain surges through me, stabbing through my chest, my backpack filled with my stuff discarded where I fell.
“What are you doing? Put me the fuck down, asshole.” I struggle against his grip on me, even though it’s impossible. He got strong. Like Olympic-weightlifter strong.
“Citizen’s arrest. You shot a man tonight,” he mutters, a hint of amusement in his tone.
I slap his back with the palm of my hand, hoping to inflict damage. “You fucking shot someone as well,” I spit back. “You can’t just take me out of here. I don’t want to go with you.”
“Yeah, but I had a good excuse. He was trying to hurt my little birdie.”
My heart constricts. He can’t say shit like that to me, not when he’s the reason I now have nothing. “I’m not your little anything, asshole,” I spit back, hoping my hostility toward him might stop him.
“That’s where you’re wrong. This is my fucking town, and if I say you’re mine, you are.” His voice is filled with cruel delight and so much power I realize I was wrong earlier. I should be scared of him.
“I’m warning you, Kasen, if you don’t fucking let me go, you’re going to regret it.” My words hold no edge in my current state. I can hardly breathe and don’t sound even mildly threatening, but I’m deadly serious. When I get my strength back, he will be first to suffer.
The laugh that resonates through him is sinister and cruel. “Threaten me all you want, birdie, we both know you’re in trouble, and you need me.”
“I don’t fucking need you. I don’t need anyone,” I spit back as he marches me from my childhood home toward a fancy-looking silver Range Rover, one of those oversized things that guzzle fuel and don’t fit in normal-sized parking spots.
Where the hell did that come from? He followed me on foot.
The car door opens, but I can’t see who the driver is at this angle of upside down. Which one of his goons did he call to help him? River, Bodhi, or his younger brother Jayden?
“Well, well, well, looks like the big bad king dragged in a cute little bird this time,” comes his deep voice from behind me, and I know instantly who it is. Bodhi Slater.
