Page 67 of Road to Redemption

If the ride was running, I was certain the skeleton would pop out from inside.

I kept moving, skipping through the ghostly bedrooms.

Until I made it to the dark forest, all I could see was the vague silhouette of trees.

Perfect.

I could hear Spencer and Leo calling to each other, their voices echoing off the walls of the enclosed ride.

As I moved through the forest, their footsteps got louder. One of them was hot on my tail.

I zipped between the cut-out trunks, trying to find one to hide behind.

Once the sound of my angels’ feet faded, I turned a corner, quick to press my body into the flat tree-trunk.

I barely had a second to think before a hand was pining my chest to the wood and even less time to realize it wasn’t Leo or Spencer.

Instead, I was face to face with another clown who laughed in my face as she pressed a flat palm into my chest. The words were a rolled cackle. “Out of luck.”

35

KIERA

“You walked right into my trap.” The clown let another laugh rip through their chest. “But you like to run, don’t you?” She reached her hand up toward my face, brushing a strand of red hair from my face with the blade of her bloody ax.

My heart raced in my chest, trying to push against her palm. Her grip was firm, pressing back into my body with equal force. And I could barely even see her eyes through the creepy mask over her face.

Unlike the other, this one was more fitted to her face, only a buzzcut visible instead of the long, curly hair of her friend.

It was still ghastly white, something I should have spotted even in the darkness of this park ride. Red circled her lips and matching diamonds were over the eyes. Rather than blood splatter, black paint dripped down the mask.

Shit.

The clown stepped closer, pressing her body into mine. Even through her creepy costume, I could tell that she was muscular — strong enough to keep me right where she wanted me.

And she wasn’t afraid to use force.

My lovers weren’t gentle. In fact, they were the opposite.

But I knew they were nothing like whoever the fuck this psychopath was.

A whimper escaped my lips as the clown pressed against me, compressing my lungs.

Dom was right to warn us. As the clown traced the edge of my jaw with the blade of her hand axe, I knew she was right. And because I ignored her, wrote off her concern, I was going to die in this abandoned, haunted ride.

“Loser pays the score.” The clown muttered as the cold metal shifted down my neck.

Just as I was accepting that I was going to die in this dark forest, alone and without my protectors, hands reached out of the darkness.

She wasn’t going to fuck me, she was going to torture me before she killed me.

Grabbing the clown's clothes, Dom and Spencer ripped her away from me. Lady’s barking told me I was safe now.

Roaring, Dom threw the clown to the ground while she tried to catch her breath. “She’s ours, you fucking freak.” She’d been running from the moment she got back to Feverpoint.

“You stepped into our playground.” The clown hissed back, rising back to her feet. Her voice was muffled by the mask in front of her face.

Dom stepped closer to the clown, still a few inches taller than the clown. “It isn’t dark yet. We followed your goddamn rules. She’s not your toy to play with.”