“Violence and Anger. Both of them are lethal from what I’ve heard. You don’t want to know them. I avoid those two as much as possible. They have short fuses and will explode over nothing.”
All three of them approached the entrance to the trail leading into the woods, Tanner casting me one last arrogant glance before they laughed and took off in chase of Brad.
I suddenly felt sorry for any person who was running from those three. Why anybody would agree to it was beyond me.
“Are you okay? Did Tanner hurt you?”
I shook my head, finally opening my mouth to answer, “No, he just kissed me.”
Most guys would have been upset to know the girl they were dating had been kissed by another man, but Clayton only chuckled as he pulled his mask into place.
“He was messing with you. Don’t think anything of it.”
Except it was hard for me not to think anything of it. That kiss - that moment when Tanner’s tongue took possession of my mouth and his hand held me in place - had shaken me to the core, waking something inside me I’d never felt before.
Not wanting to talk about it, I changed the subject.
“How long does Brad have to run from them?”
Clayton scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck and glanced at the trail leading into the shadowed confines of the woods.
“Two hours. The horn will blow again in a half hour for three more to start the chase, and a half hour after that for the last three to go in. If he can somehow escape all of them, he’ll be fine. But if they find him...”
His voice trailed off, his face turning back to me. Through the reflection in the large eyes of his mask I saw how freaked out I looked in that moment.
“Brad will be fine. It’s just a game. You’ll see.”
Just a game...yeah, one only a masochist would willingly play.
“Come on, let’s go see if we can find Everly and peel her off Jase for an hour or two.”
Nodding my head, I wrapped my arm with Clayton’s and wandered off to find my roommate. Eventually we found her just as the second horn blew, her hand waving goodbye to Jase as he stripped down to run off into the woods.
Even though I wasn’t the person being hunted, I spent the rest of the time stealing glances at that trail leading into the woods, my heart beating faster when I wondered what they were doing to Brad where nobody could see them.
The two hours passed quickly as students drank more and became more rowdy with the deepening night, many people practically fucking out in the open where anybody could watch them.
While I was quiet for the most part due to everything that had happened, Clayton and Everly laughed and drank, unbothered by what was going on around us.
The horn blew again at the end of the two hours and I jumped in place at the sound of it.
We all turned to stare of the trail leading into the woods, people laughing and cheering as Tanner and the rest of his group emerged carrying Brad between them.
Hogtied, covered in what looked like mud, and stripped down to nothing but his boxers, Brad’s body thumped heavily against the ground when they dropped him at the head of the trail.
Panic rose up inside me so fast that I felt dizzy from it.
My hand tightened over Clayton’s arm, my eyes locked on Brad’s unmoving body.
Voice barely a whisper, I couldn’t help the words that poured over my lips.
“Oh my God. Please tell me he isn’t dead.”
Racing forward, my legs moving as quickly as they could in the ridiculous weight of the clothes I was wearing, I ignored Clayton’s shout for me to stop, ignored Everly laughing and calling out that it was all a big joke.
Brad looked dead where they’d dropped him on the ground, his body unmoving, a puddle leaking out from beneath his legs. Maybe he was just unconscious, but seeing what I assumed was urine leak out to create a ruddy path with the dry dirt beneath him, I hoped that hadn’t been a sign that his body had given out.
Above him, the Inferno boys laughed, one kicking a cloud of dirt at his legs, pointing at the rivulet of urine working a path away from his body like it was the funniest thing in the world.
Around me, students jeered and hollered, the music still loud and pumping as I closed the distance to the trail and dropped down at Brad’s head to check and see if he was breathing.
“He’s fine, Luca,” Gabriel said, laughter implicit in his voice. “He passed out. “We didn’t kill him.”
They were all laughing, nine distinct, dark voices taking pleasure in Brad’s helplessness and my fear. Fuckers. I wanted to hog-tie every one of their asses to see how much they liked it.
“Somebody help me untie him.”
The knots in the rope were too tight for me to remove, angry red lines in Brad’s skin from how they’d used the ropes to carry him. He was breathing as far as I could tell, his back moving with every shallow inhalation.
Glancing up at nine grinning faces, sweat beading down their chests that glimmered in the firelight around us, I demanded, “Somebody help me.”
My eyes sought Gabriel first. He was laughing too hard, his white teeth sparkling in the flickering firelight. Scanning my gaze over the rest of them, I landed on Tanner who stood back, his scowl partially hidden in shadow.
Anger surged through me, sweat trickling down between my breasts from the heat of the fire surrounding us.
One by one, the Inferno boys dismissed me, taking turns stepping around Brad and me to make their way to the main party, admirers clapping them on the back and cheering them on. As each one moved away from where I crouched next to a helpless hogtied man, my frustration spiked higher. It only served to short-circuit my rational mind, to make me act without thinking of the consequences.
Only Tanner remained as I glared up at his arrogant face, his lips curling into an amused grin as he dismissed me like the others and moved to step around me.
I should have thought before I reached out to grab his leg, should have remembered I was dealing with an asshole who couldn’t care less about the problems he caused.
Not having expected me to block his path, Tanner tripped when my fingers locked on his ankle, his body tumbling forward to land on the ground with a heavy thump.
The crowd behind us went silent, only the music lingering within the shadows of night.
Pushing up on his arms, Tanner twisted around to look at me. One would think there would be fury in his eyes, but what I found there was somehow more terrifying.
Enjoyment.
Challenge.
Ruthlessness toward a woman who had made the stupid mistake of touching him without permission.
His voice was a low rumble of thunder beneath the music, so soft that only I could hear it.
“I didn’t realize you wanted to play.”
His dark eyes glimmered and his mouth twisted at the corners.
“I suggest you run.”
Fuck...
Instinct took over, another moment where my logical mind packed its bags and took a sudden vacation. Pushing to my feet, I wasn’t faster than him, and with his large body blocking the path leading back to the party, the only direction left was into the woods.
My body was moving faster than my thoughts, my feet tripping over the skirt of my gown as I raced into the shadows.
Running through the woods at night is not something I would recommend, but doing so in a mask and Victorian gown only made it that much harder.
The music faded into the distance as I fled, my pulse hammering in my throat as my ears pricked at every tiny noise. I didn’t hear the pounding of footsteps behind me that it didn’t mean much.