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If I’m not there, how will they find me?
My breathing picks up again, a fresh wave of terror rocking me to my core, and I whip my head up to take in the rest of my prison, needing something to focus on. Something to help me determine where I am.
Brick walls stare back at me from every direction, and I notice the absence of any natural light. Only the single bulb hanging from the roof offers any illumination, and as I force my heart to slow down and my brain tothinkinstead of panic, I notice the wall in front of me is covered in photos.
Leaning forward, I rake my eyes over them, each one more terrifying than the last. Images of me on campus, more of Wilder and Hawk at the frat, and of Kai coming and going from the house and his work. But what really freaks the shit out of me are the photos of me on all fours on my bed, Wilder crouched between my legs. Me sound asleep on Hawk’s lap in the living room. The three of us the night Wilder told me to suck his cock. Kai and I out on our dinner date, dancing in the club, practically fucking against the side of his car. Every intimate moment I’ve shared with them, all of it is on the wall for me to see. Privy to the eyes of this psycho. Fear and fury twist around one another in my gut, forming a two-headed, pissed-off serpent, ready to strike when this asshole shows his face.
While I wait, I catalog each photo to memory. Every private moment, stolen. Any sense of safety and security, ripped away. Every solitary moment where I felt weak, powerless, or lost was on display for him to gawk at and revel over.
How. Fucking. Dare. He.
This ismylife. These aremymoments.Mymemories. He has no right to them. No right to invade them, to take them as his own, to tarnish them. These photos make me look weak, cheap, easy, yet what they don’t capture is the very real connection I’m forming with Kai, the battle Hawk is slowly losing with himself, the war waging inside Wilder that only ever lessens when he’s doing what he thinks he has to do—punish me.
It doesn’t show how we’re all stripping back our defenses and slowly forming one cohesive bond. Self-reliant, yet we’re learning to lean on one another. Right now, it’s fragile and easily broken, but I know that, given a bit of time, a little love, and some attention, we could form something durable and special. Something most people search a lifetime for and never find. The one thing I never thought to plan for but can’t live without. I made the mistake once of turning my back on this feeling, and I lived to regret it. I won’t make the same mistake twice. This time, I’m fighting. I’ll fight my own fears, Wilder’s demons, this psycho, because I’m sick of feeling empty. Sick of being numb. Sick of being scared and living life the way society dictates.
The disengaging of a lock, followed by the sound of a heavy door being opened from somewhere behind me threatens to shatter my resolve, but I hold firm. I’m doing this for Kai, for Hawk, for Wilder, but most importantly, I’m doing this for me. I don’t know how much time has passed, but all of them were on their way to me. I trust Kai to figure it out. I trust Hawk to do whatever is necessary, and I trust Wilder to bring his usual brand of crazy to the table and do what needs to be done.
Footsteps echo out behind me. The sound of someone descending wooden stairs makes me think I must be in some sort of a basement or underground room, which would explain the lack of windows and the fact I can no longer hear the raging storm outside.
With each step the person takes toward me, I have to work to push back my fear, refusing to let them see me scared.
There’s movement in the corner of my eye as they walk past, and I take in their worn boots, jeans, and slim build before they turn to face me.
“Hey, Em.”
My brain goes on the fritz as my eyes bounce all over the person in front of me and I struggle to put the pieces together and figure out what I missed—because I sure as fuck missed something.
I have to lick my dry lips, only managing to force out a single sentence. “You’remy stalker?”
Epilogue
WILDER
“See you at the inauguration, initiate,” the hooded asshole calls after tossing me out of the car.
All I can do is snarl at him, as I climb out of the muddy fucking puddle he shoved me into. I jump to my feet in time to watch the back wheels of the souped-up Honda Civic spin as one of the asshole’s friends applies too much gas. I give the car both of my middle fingers as it speeds away through the campus car parking lot, the crude gesture doing nothing to abate my anger.
Only when the high wail of the modified engine has petered off into the distance, do I turn with a scowl on my face and slowly trudge through the downpour, across campus back to the frat house. I’ve been wearing the same clothing for the past two days and desperately need a shower—ideally a warm one, rather than the freezing cold shower I’m currently subjected to.
I don’t know what the fucking point was of that last task, but I’m guessing by the asshole’s remark that I passed. They had me sequestered in some sort of interrogation room the entire time, demanding to know which initiate blabbed about the King’s Elite to an outsider.How the fuck should I know?
All I could tell them was that it wasn’t me, but that didn’t stop some dude I’d never met before from screaming in my face, denying me fucking food and piss breaks, insisting that I knew who it was and demanding that I give him a name.
Took until about half an hour ago for him to finally fucking realize I didn’t know jack shit.Fucking douche canoe.
I pull out my phone, intent on cursing Robbie out for not giving me a heads-up. I’d at least have made sure I ate and pissed before I was so rudely kidnapped, taken hostage, and denied my basic human rights!
However, I pull up short when I find more than a dozen missed calls and texts from Hawk and Kai.What the hell could have happened in the space of forty-eight hours?Pretty much all of them are from this morning, so I doubt it was because they were worried about me after I stormed out of the house. Something must have happened, and my body tenses as my sluggish, sleep-deprived brain connects the dots. Emilia.
The phone vibrates in my hand, Hawk’s caller ID flashing on the screen. I immediately answer, bringing the device to my ear.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Hawk roars down the line. He doesn’t wait for me to answer before firing out his next question. “Where are you? Get to Emilia’s classroom.Now.She’s missing.”
Something in my chest lurches at those two words, but it’s his next ones that push me into action.
“Her stalker has her.”
Hanging up, I take off in a sprint across campus.
Emilia ismineto break and torment. I won’t let this psycho of hers do the job for me.
