Page 25 of Katie 2
The engine roars to life as I slam the door behind me, speeding down the road. The town slips away behind us, swallowed by the dark, and I head toward the woods. Katie’s eyes flick to me every so often, her lips parted like she wants to speak, but she knows better than to break the quiet.
Not yet.
When I finally pull the truck to a stop, the only sound is the faint hum of the engine, the rustling of leaves in the wind. We’re deep enough in the woods now that no one will hear her if she screams—when she screams. But I know this dirt road like the back of my hand, just like I know that no one will come out here at this time of night, this time of year. Every sound thatwillleave Katie’s throat will be mine, just like her body, just like her heart.
“Get out,” I command, my voice sharp.
She doesn’t protest. Slowly, she opens the door and steps out, her boots crunching against the gravel.
I stop by the truck and watch her for a moment. She knows what will happen out here. She knows the rules of this game.
“You should’ve stayed away from him,” I mutter, the words slipping out before I can stop them.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she whispers. “You’re the one who—”
I cut her off by snatching her closer, her breath catching again, but I don’t kiss her.
Not yet.
“You’re still here,” I say softly, almost as if to myself. “And you’ll stay.”
Her breath comes faster now, and for a split second, I wonder what she’s thinking. I know what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling. This tension. The raw, unsaid things that hang between us like a storm ready to break. She’s trembling, but I don’t think it’s fear anymore. She’s been through worse with me.
I let go of her wrist for a moment, stepping back to watch her as she steadies herself, like I’m waiting for her to make the next move.
“I never wanted him. I never wanted to leave!” she says, her voice small, almost lost in the space between us. “But you left me first.”
Her words hang there in the dark air, a sharp bite. And it stings more than I want to admit.
I reach for her again, grabbing her chin with two fingers and tilting her face back up toward me. I can see the rawness in her eyes now, the vulnerability that she hides so well. The fact that she lets me see it, that’s my power.
“Do you hear that?” I smile as the wind carries Dan’s voice.
Katie’s eyes search mine as she listens to the voices in the wind. “What is that, Brad?”
I tug the leather belt, watching it tighten around her skin until she gasps. “If you find him first, I won’t kill him.”
She gulps and finally realizes this isn’t a game anymore. This is real—this is me.
“He means nothing, Brad,” she says, but my need for pain doesn’t ebb. It’s too late for that.
“Run, Katie,” I sneer down at her.
“I don’t want to run away from you,” she whispers, her voice breaking, but she can’t try to lure me back from the dark. Not when its claws have already sliced into my soul.
I push her back against the truck, my knee between her legs. My fingers trail over her jaw, down her neck, curving over her breasts.
“Show me you’re mine… only mine.” My hand lingers on her pants, my cock already hard for her.
Not yet.
The temptation to break her down, to ruin her the same way she’s ruined me, it’s almost too much. I want to hurt her in a way that leaves a scar deeper than any I could leave on her skin. I want her to feel this, to understand that she made a choice, just like I did.
She looks up at me, her eyes wide, lips parted. I can see the conflict in her, the way her emotions shift from fear to something else, something darker. “I’ve shown you every day,” she whispers, and the words draw a snort from me. “It’s never enough. Now I’m saying I don’t want to run and—”
“Do you want to find him?” I ask as the wind carries Dan’s recording again.
“What did you do?” She steps away from me, toward the sound of Dan’s voice, and the action hurts me, cuts deep inside me as she turns from me.
