Do. Not. Look at him. Do not!
“Look at me, Cadee.”
Stay strong.
“Look. At. Me. Cadee.” He pauses. Then his voice softens. “Please.”
Fuck. I look. And man… why? Why does this animal have to have those eyes? Piercing. I know. It’s overused in books. Every blue-eyed man has a piercing gaze. I get it.
But it’s just true with this one. These blue eyes of his are not reminiscent of the sky or the long, brilliant feathers of a peacock. Oh, they’re that color. An intense, almost surreal blue. But they are dark. They are the depths of despair. Lightning in a thundercloud. The flame of a gas fire. They are poison. Pure poison.
“I don’t know what he’s doing. I swear to God, I do not know. And I don’t understand why he’s gotten you involved. If I could stop it, I would.”
“Then do it!” I yell it. Right up in his face. “Tell him.”
He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “That’s not going to help anything. What’s done is done. He doesn’t need to know about it.”
“You would say that,” I whisper. “Because you made this happen. You did this to me.”
He walks away.
“All of it! This is all your fault. You killed my dad, you killed—”
He spins around and yells, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You are everything that’s wrong in my life, Cooper Valcourt! Everything! It’s all your fault.”
He actually laughs and throws up his hands. “Fine. You want to make it all my fault? It’s all my fault.”
“‘Get on your knees, Cadee!’ You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You and your bully friends! You made my life miserable that year. Do you have any idea what you did to me?” I scream it. So loud he rushes forward and cups his hand over my mouth.
“Shut up!” he growls down into my face. He grabs me by the hair and twists it up in his fist until he’s pulling on my scalp. “Just… calm the fuck down.”
I breathe hard into his palm, my chest heaving. And then… that’s it. I have reached the end of my self-control and the tears spill down my cheeks and slide over his fingers.
All that sadness I’ve been holding in for the last two weeks suddenly comes pouring out. And this is the worst time. I don’t want to do this in front of anyone, let alone Cooper Valcourt.
But I can’t stop. And then I’m sobbing. Like gasping for breath sobbing.
And what does Cooper do? Just… stares at me. And that look. I swear to God, I want to slap his face again.
“I’m going to take care of things. Do you understand me?”
I shake my head as I wipe my eyes and try to breathe past his hand.
“Wrong answer.” He pushes his body against mine again. “Wrong answer, Cadee! You’re coming home with me. I have fifteen fucking minutes to get you there and take a pic of you in your new room or—”
I force his hand off my mouth and suddenly the tears are gone, but the anger is back. “Or what?” I take a step forward and he takes one back. “Or what, Cooper? I’m not going home with you! I’m not! Whatever your father is up to, I don’t want any part of it!”
And then—I don’t know quite what happens—he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. I don’t even understand how he managed such a complicated move in the span of one moment.
“I’m done trying to reason with you,” he growls, walking down the hallway.
“Put me down!” I grab the flesh just above his hip and dig my nails into his skin.
He slaps my ass. Hard.
And then we’re in the stairwell and he’s practically running down the stairs. He kicks the door open at the bottom and doesn’t stop.
Ax and Lars follow us. I can see their feet.
“What the hell?” Lars laughs.
“She’s unreasonable. I don’t care what anyone thinks. We’ll cut through the woods and hit the lake that way.”
“You’re kidnapping me!” I scream. I catch the eye of a group of people. All high-school students. “He’s kidnapping me! Call the sheriff!”
They… laugh.
“This isn’t a joke!”
“Hey, Cooper!” some girl calls. “You can kidnap me instead, if you want. I’m willing!”
“Call the sheriff!” I yell again.
Ax leans his face down so I can see him. Smiles at me. “No one’s calling the sheriff, sweetie. And even if they did, he wouldn’t dare interfere. Orders of the Chairman. Don’t you know what this place is yet, Cadee? You’ve spent your whole life here. They’re all dirty. They all work for him. And if he wants you to live in his house, that’s where you’re gonna live, little girl. Better get used to it.”
Then we’re in the woods and Cooper does not slow his pace or put me down. Just carries me down a well-worn bridle path towards the gate that leads to the student cottages.
I go quiet. Mostly because being carried over a man’s shoulder is pretty high up there on the uncomfortable scale and a sharp pain shoots across my ribcage with every step and it’s pretty hard to breathe.
But also because Cooper’s hands are gripping my ass and the back of my thighs. And even though it’s super inappropriate and I should not find certain spots on my body all afire with tingles from his touch—that’s exactly what’s happening.
“That’s better,” Ax says. He’s walking behind me.
I swipe my unruly hair out of my face and tilt my head up so I can see him. “What’s better?”
“You.” He flashes me a wild grin that makes him look even crazier than I know him to be. “All quiet and tame.” He’s whispering. Not so Cooper and Lars can’t hear him. Just because that’s what he does when he’s being a dick.
I know this because…
“Don’t talk to her.” Cooper cuts off my thoughts.
Ax jogs a few paces until he’s standing directly to my right. “But I think I might like to do nasty things to her, Coop.”
“No. She’s not one of us. She’s a…” He stops.
“I’m not one of you?” I should not feel slighted because Cooper thinks Ax can do better than me, but screw them! “Not a whore? A slutty little puppet you can control?”
“Aren’t you?” Cooper says.
“Whoa.” Lars laughs. “Burn.”
“Well, are you?” Ax whispers into my ear. “Or aren’t you?”
“Fuck you, Ax!”
I’m not normally the kind of girl who swears. Also not the kind of girl who gets carried over the shoulder of a man in the woods. But this walk is so long, I’m starting to get used to the idea of being both.
Ax drops back so he’s behind me again. “You sure about that? You’re flashing your pussy at everyone right now. Those shorts you’re wearing?” He winces, then holds his thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart. “Little bit too short for the over-the-shoulder carry, sweetheart.”
I struggle and squirm in Cooper’s embrace. “What?”
“Ax.” Cooper’s voice is loud and commanding. “Don’t rile her up. We’re almost there.”