AllFreeNovel
Share Us
How could he do this? Who does shit like this?
Moving to Faders Bay was supposed to be my new beginning. It was my fresh start to put the past behind me and discover who I really am on my own, but this is so far from what I had in mind. It’s barely been two days, and I’ve already got myself kidnapped by some messed-up psychopath and his friends. They’re probably going to kill me. I’m a goner and Dalton is going to be nothing but collateral damage.
“Who the hell are these guys?”
Dalton shakes his head, still working tirelessly on the tape. “No fucking clue,” he mutters. “They moved into the building a little after I did, right at the start of the school term, but I don’t think they attend classes. I never see them on campus, just in the halls. They watch everything. They know what times people leave their apartments, who they talk to, and who they don’t. It’s fucked up, Oakley. These assholes are bad news. Tell me you’re not involved with them.”
“I swear,” I say, the terror claiming every inch of me. “I’ve never met them in my life. All I know is that since the minute I got here, they’ve been following me. They came to Danny’s Bar while I was working and just sat there and watched. After my first shift when I met you outside, they were lurking in the shadows. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were following me home. It’s like some kind of sick game to them, and I just . . . I don’t know what they want with me.”
Dalton doesn’t respond, probably making a plan to never get involved with me again. I mean, fuck, not even awesome rooftop sex is worth this shit. I wouldn’t blame him if he left Faders Bay and never looked back.
“Do you . . . do you know anything about them?”
“Not really,” he murmurs. “The blonde guy lives across from me. I spoke to him once, right when he was moving in. I think his name is Sawyer or some shit like that. He seemed cool, but there was something off about him. I’ve kept my distance since then.”
“And the other two?”
“Don’t know,” he says. “From what I can tell, they’re both the silent type. They have a lot of parties, but they never actually mingle with the people who come over, just keep to themselves. The bastard across from you, his name is Zade. He’s a real fucking asshole, but that’s the extent of what I know about him. From what I can tell, the three of them are tight, almost like brothers, but there’s something more there, something fucked up. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Zade. His name is Zade.
I swallow hard, my throat getting drier by the second. I’m in real fucking trouble here.
“I . . . I think they broke into my apartment last night.”
“What?” he rushes out, his hands pausing at my wrists for a minute. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I shake my head, feeling like a fucking idiot. “I wasn’t sure if it was them or not.”
“Fuck, Oakley,” he says, clenching his jaw. “You were about to let me drop you home, knowing damn well those assholes broke into your apartment. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” I cry. “I had the locks changed. I thought it was going to be fine. I didn’t know they would take things this far.”
“Clearly it’s not fucking fine.”
Anger blooms through my chest, and if I could pull away from him, I would. “Stop acting like this is my fault,” I demand, the irrational rage making me act out against the only person who can actually help me right now. “How the hell was I supposed to know this Zade asshole is a fucking psychopath? It’s not like I went and knocked on his door and was like,‘Hey, I’ve noticed you’ve been stalking me and I’ve got some nasty kinks. Would it be a hassle if you could violently kidnap me in the middle of the night, and if it’s not too much to ask, could you possibly leave me gagged and bound in a fucking concrete prison? Mmkay, thanks.’”
“I’m not—fuck,” he cuts himself off, and a roar of frustration tears from deep in his chest. “I wasn’t trying to blame you, okay? I just wish you had told me so I knew to look out for it, or I could have taken you somewhere else. For fuck’s sake, we were in a damn hotel. We could have stayed there for the night and been fine, but we’re not. I’m fucking stuck here, getting beat simply because I spent my night fucking you.”
Guilt like I’ve never known sails through my chest and buries itself there. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, a lump forming in my throat and making it hard to breathe. “I bet you’ve never regretted screwing a girl more than you regret me.”
Dalton’s hand pauses on my wrist, his thumb gently brushing against my skin. “Don’t say that,” he murmurs. “I don’t regret you one fucking bit. I just wish things could have turned out . . . differently.”
“Oh really?” I mutter darkly, the sarcasm coming out at the worst possible time. “For a minute, I thought maybe this is exactly what you wanted.”
“Really? These fucking psychopaths are probably out there plotting how they’re going to gut us and you wanna bring out the jokes?”
“No,” I spit, the two of us clearly not vibing as well as we did up on that rooftop. “All I want to do is get the fuck out of here and never have to see them again.”
The tape finally starts to lift and Dalton does what he can to release my wrists, this small ray of hope pushing him to go faster. He grunts with the quicker movements, in more pain than I could imagine, which only has the guilt getting that much worse.
My hands come free, and just as I go to reach for the tape around my ankles, there’s another loud noise from outside our prison.
Dalton and I both freeze, our heads whipping around and following the sound as my heart races erratically, the fear completely crippling me. Last time, the noise stopped, only this time, it keeps going, sounding as though someone is standing right on the other side of the wall with heavy chains.
There’s a loud clang followed by the sound of scraping metal, and I shake my head, my eyes wide. “No, no, no, no, no,” I chant, knowing whatever it is they’ve brought me here for, this is it. This goes down now.
Will I be raped? Beat? Slaughtered like cattle?
