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I trace the bruises on her neck with my fingertips. I’m obsessed with the way she shivers at my light touch so I keep that light pressure all the way down her arm. I grab her hand and bring the palm to my lips.
“How are you, aside from physically?” I ask.
“Is the guy who fucked my face and then spread a rumor about me having STDs really asking about how I’m doing emotionally?” She pulls her hand away from me and moves to the other chair. “I don’t know how I’m doing emotionally. I can’t trust you. You’re all liars. You’re terrible people. Now you’re being nice? Why? Because we found someone bigger and badder than you?”
I look into the flames of the fire to avoid the uncomfortable knowledge that she’s right. We have been total monsters to her. Why should she trust us? Will she ever come around to trusting us, beyond the trust we have right now with a psycho on the loose?
“I feel confused,” she says quietly. “I feel angry. I feel stupid.”
“Why stupid?”
Her eyes gloss over as her nostrils flare once. “Because as horrible as you three have been to me, I want all three of you on some level, and some really stupid and naive part of me trusts you. And that terrifies me.” She scoffs as if she can’t believe she just said all that out loud.
My eyes meet Cody’s over her shoulder. He’s been listening the whole time. He sets down the spoon that he was holding and kneels in front of her, running his hands up and down her thighs.
“Everything is different now.We’redifferent now.”
ChapterFifteen
Sincerity pours from Cody as he kneels at my feet. The light from the fire turns his eyes from a warm brown to a molten gold as he looks up at me. His hands grip my thighs firmly and with a possession I shouldn’t like as much as I do. It’s so fucked up how one touch from any of these three makes my brain short circuit.
“What are you guys talking about?” West steps out of the bathroom, still running a towel through his wet hair. All he has on is a pair of sweatpants that should be illegal with the way they hang low on his hips. A muscle in his jaw ticks when he sees Cody’s hands spread over my thighs.
“We’re just about to tell Violet everything. So she can start to trust us.” Blake holds West’s eyes in some sort of silent standoff.
West finally nods and looks over at the soup on the little stove. “Let’s tell her while we eat.”
Cody gives my legs a squeeze before pushing to his feet. “Stay there. We’ll bring you a bowl.”
“Do you want a blanket or anything?” Blake asks as Cody walks away. “Even with the fire it’s a little chilly in here now the sun’s down.”
“Yeah, that’d be great.” I actually do feel chilled. He probably noticed my goosebumps.
Blake hands me a large flannel blanket that I lay across my legs and West brings me a giant mug full of beef stew and a sleeve of crackers. It feels weird, having them wait on me like this. After everything they’ve put me through, to see them taking care of me is so strange.
I blow on a spoonful of the stew as I wait for them to come join me. I’m pretty sure this came from a can, but after everything I’ve been through the past two days, I’m starving. It’s definitely better than the protein bars I’ve been living off.
West takes the seat across from me. Cody sits down at my feet, giving me a nervous smile as he does so. Blake is the last one to join us and he brings me another glass of water and two ibuprofen he’s managed to hunt down in a supply closet. I take them and then look at each of them, ready for whatever kind of confession they’re about to hit me with.
“I guess I’ll start.” Blake looks at me, his deep brown eyes drilling into mine. “The first thing you should know is that we’ve had this planned for a while.”
“Everything but the creepy hiker,” Cody interjects.
“Yeah,” Blake nods. “But you being the target of the hunt. We weren’t going to let you win. It was never in the plans. We had a tracker hidden in your pack.”
“Then what was the point?” Blood begins to roar in my ears as I rub my brow. “Just to spend one last weekend tormenting me?”
I don’t understand how they can be so cruel. What kind of sick joke is this? Then to turn around and act like they care, like they didn’t want me to get hurt. Heat builds behind my eyes in sharp pin points as I fight like hell not to cry.
“No.” West moves to the edge of his chair and puts down his bowl. “We wanted a way to ensure we could have you near us this summer. We were always going to pay your college tuition.”
“We have everything all set up for you to go to school with us,” Cody adds.
“I didn’t apply to Wilson U…” How could they have everything set up for me at a university I didn’t apply to.
“We did.” West looks me dead in the eyes with no shame.
The roaring in my ears turns to ringing as I realize that means they would have stolen private information. Transcripts. Medical records.
