My heart rate picks up when the sheriff begins shining his flashlight in our direction. Talon takes a couple of steps back as the light beam hits my face. I contemplate trying to free myself, running out to the sheriff and telling him everything, but I can’t squirm out of his arms.
His raspy breath hits the fold of my neck. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just stand here and be quiet like a good little girl.” His firm grasp tightens around me with my arms still behind my back. Bony fingers hit the skin of my waist while the other is still shielding my mouth from saying a word.
Picking me up again, he continues to walk backwards, until the only thing I can see out the window is a small flicker of light that resembles a firefly. Slowly fading into the distance, it’s gone. The sheriff is likely still there, but his presence diminishes from my vision as Talon spins me around to face him. “You are going to walk up these stairs, slowly and quietly. If you say a single word, I’ll be forced to use this.” He holds up a ring of duct tape.
“This has to be some sort of Halloween joke. Come on, Talon. You aren’t seriously—” I stop when he begins pulling the gray tape off of the roll. He tears a long piece off and the sound of the tape ripping makes my body jolt.
“Walk.” His voice is demanding and full of warning.
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I take a deep breath and begin walking up the wooden staircase. It’s so dark. I have no idea what exactly I’m walking up to. For all I know, there could be holes in these stairs and one wrong step could send me flying into a cave.
Walking directly behind me, Talon places both hands on either side of my waist, guiding my steps and sending waves of chills through my entire body. If I were to stop abruptly, his face would plant right into my ass. The closer I get to the top, the more I notice that burning smell again. “What’s up here?” I mutter under my breath.
He doesn’t respond. Instead, he turns my body when we reach the top of the stairs, pointing me to the left, in the direction of a bedroom that shows a glint of light coming from a lantern.
A thick black sheet hangs over the only window in the room, and other than the lantern in the center, it’s completely empty. Colorful graffiti is written all over the four walls. So much so, that I can’t tell what color of paint is beneath them.
“What is this place, and why am I here?” I ask, looking all around at the artwork. It’s apparent that it’s the job of many because it’s all scattered and each piece is different.
“You talk too much. That’s why you’re here.”
A small breeze hits my bare legs, carrying that smell into the room. Turning around to face the door, I notice a room across from us with the windows wide open, and there they are: Tommy, Lars, and Zed. All three standing there, with their arms crossed over their chests, glaring at me.
“Come on in, boys.” Talon waves his hand through the air. When they join us, Talon tosses something in the air to Lars who catches it with his eyes still pinned on me.
Once he spins it around and begins pressing his fingers into it, the sparkle of purple glitter catches my eye. “Hey, that’s my phone.” I jump toward him, but Zed’s arms wrap around me.
“Calm down, Little Thorn.” He sweeps his fingers over my neck, moving any stray strands behind my ear. “I heard you were a feisty little thing. Maybe you can show me just how feisty you can get.” His hushed tone alarms every cell in my body.
I look over to Talon, who is watching us intently. Instead of focusing on whatever Lars is doing on my phone, his gaze is secured on Zed’s fingers that are creeping underneath my hoodie, grazing against the skin covering my rib cage. Fear washes over me, more intensely than the fear of being in this house with these guys—a fear of what they plan to do with me. They could do whatever they wanted, and no one would ever know. They could rape me, kill me, and bury me on this property, and I’d just be deemed a missing person forever.
Lars tosses the phone back to Talon. “It’s done,” he says with the phone midair. Talon swings around just in time to catch it.
“What’s done?” I raise my voice. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”
Talon thumbs through my phone. When he hits the button on the side to shut it off, I assume he’s going to hand it back to me, but instead, he sticks it in the back pocket of his black pants. “Go check the fire,” he says, looking at Tommy, who nods in agreement.
Lars and Zed continue to stand around. “Go with him, dumbasses, and close the door on your way out,” he snaps.
It’s obvious who the puppet master is in the group.
My entire body jumps when the door slams shut. “Talon, I swear, I’m not planning on telling anyone what I heard. You have my word. Now, can I just go?”
“Marni. Marni. Marni.” He circles around me. “You really fucked yourself when you decided to be a nosey little shit.” His index finger trails across my cheek, over my nose, and around my head. Jerking my ponytail, he pulls the black scrunchie out, and my hair falls carelessly around my face. My body tenses up, and I close my eyes. “What am I going to do with you?” he tsks.
“I told you—”
“Shut up,” he shouts, sending my brows to my forehead and the contents of my stomach into my throat. “You don’t get to tell me anything. You’re gonna listen to me.” He takes my chin between his thumb and index finger, gripping it tightly. “You might think you have something on all of us, but that’s not the case. Do you understand me?”
Nodding, I swallow hard.
“Good, because you don’t know a damn thing. But, we do. We know about your secret relationship with Josh Moran.”
“Josh Moran? As in Josh Moran who’s obsessed with me? I barely even know the guy.” I really don’t know him well. I’m aware that he’s had a crush on me for the last couple of years. Even asked me out a few times, but I turned him down—in a not-so-nice way.
A couple of months ago, he began acting very odd. Showing up at my house unannounced. I even caught him in my yard in the middle of the night once. Dad was out of town and I was feeling very uneasy about the whole situation, so I went and stayed in LA for a couple of weeks. Josh is creepy, and he’s a jerk who treats women like he is a gift to them, even if we aren’t interested in the package.
Tucking my hair behind my ears, his hands drop to mine. Taking both of my hands in his, he begins tracing his index finger over my palm. Following each line engraved in my hand like it’s some sort of puzzle. “Yep, that’s him.” His nail begins digging into my skin as he drags it on the surface of my vein.
Shrieking at the pain, I jerk away. This time, he lets me. I run my hand over my wrist and notice the red-line he left. Talon reaches in his back pocket and pulls out my phone then slams it into my chest. “What did you guys do to my phone?”
“Go ahead, look at your text messages.” He walks over to the window. No longer worried that I might make an escape or scream at the top of my lungs.
Something tells me, he has me right where he wants me.
Something tells me that I’m stuck here, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I unlock my phone and pull up my text messages. “I didn’t send these,” I say, when I notice that there are messages from Josh. I click on the number and don’t recognize it. “Whose number is this?”