Page 38 of Off the Rails

“Okay, sweetheart,” Nash smirked.

“I’m being serious,” I crossed my arms. “You’d better enjoy this while it lasts, because come Saturday morning I’m gone. Back to civilization and cell service.”

“Cell service? Is that all it would take to make you stay?” Nash whipped a brand-new phone from her pocket, holding it up between two fingers.

My brow furrowed. “You don’t need to brag. Besides, if I wanted to borrow a phone, I’d go find a phone booth.”

“Who said anything about borrowing?” Nash held the phone out toward me.

I looked down at the smooth screen, then back up at Nash. “That isn’t the cracked piece of shit I came here with.”

“You smashed the old one pretty good.” Nash shrugged. “Thought it was time for an upgrade, since you’ll be staying here a while.”

Scowling, I took the phone from Nash’s hand. This thing was a huge upgrade from the old brick I’d brought in here. “I’m not staying.”

But Nash ignored my weak protests, nodding to the device in my hand instead. “A few ground rules about the phone. We gave it a few upgrades: no calls to 911. And any texts with the words ‘kidnapped,’ ‘killed,’ ‘murder,’ or anything else we don’t like will fry the processor chip. If you fry it, it’ll be a long time before you get another, so I’d tread carefully if I were you. Sound good?”

I frowned, sizing up her outstretched hand. ‘Exploding phone’ sounded like some bullshit she’d pulled out of an action movie. She couldn’t possibly make a phone self-detonate… could she?

But then again, these freaks had unimaginable wealth and unnatural wit. Maybe they had figured it out — or maybe they paid someone who could.

Either way, it didn’t really matter. I had no plans on leaving here without my money. And in the meantime, I needed a way to get in contact with my job before I lost it.

“Deal,” I murmured, letting her broad palm close around my finger. When she touched me, a charge shivered through me: a snap somewhere between static electricity and lightning.

I pulled my hand back quickly, but when I met her gaze, there was no recognition of the feeling. Just that same, charming smile she’d trained on me from the moment I walked through Feverpoint’s gates.

“Eggs for breakfast?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” I murmured, flopping back on the couch with my new phone as she got to work in the kitchen.

But despite having my first connection back to civilization, all I could focus on was Nash. Every new thing I learned about these freaks made me more intrigued.

They didn’t exactly live up to the rumors. But they didn’t dispel them either.

Every time I thought that they were kind or charming, the image of those men bleeding out on the path flashed in my mind.

Maybe they deserved it. But what had I done to earn the needle in my arm and the invitation to this sick and twisted game?

I wasn’t sure. But with each passing day, two things became clearer: I had no idea who my captors really were, and my life depended on finding out.

21

BLADE

I’d have been more worried about scaring off my Trinket if we weren’t holding her captive. But if the rain wasn’t enough to keep her inside today, Nash’s watchful eye should do the trick.

Lucky bastard.

I’d have done anything to be locked up with our little prisoner right now. Nowhere for her to run or hide, how fun was that?. But there was work to be done — that lost wallet wasn’t going to find itself.

I coursed through the park, letting the rain soak through my clothes as my eyes searched every dark nook and cranny. The wallet could be anywhere. Trinket had covered quite a bit of ground in her vain attempt to escape us the night we found her.

Laughter bubbled from my chest at the memory of her thrashing, fighting so uselessly for her life. And lava pooled in my gut at the thought of her so desperate and needy when I finally got her to myself.

God, she felt unbelievable — so soft and warm and soaking fucking wet. She could pretend all she wanted, but I knew exactly how badly she wanted me. But all of her need didn’t hold a candle to the inferno she lit inside of me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Fuck, I’d been up all night touching myself about it, practically drilling a hold through the mattress as I bucked against my own fingers again and again. Mary, Mary, Mary.