TWO YEARS AGO,
Jostling someone awake had the same effect as if they were forced to walk down a dark alley at night in a city with an active serial killer. A person’s heart leaped forward, trying to break through their ribs, caging them in while every single nerve ending lit up with alertness.
Thanks to my sister, this was a feeling I’d become used to over the years. Since our parents nailed her window shut, Trina used mine as her secret escape.
Two or three times a week, I’d be woken up by the sound of her feet landing on my floor. I used to get mad at her but quickly realized that was a wasted effort. Trina was going to do what Trina wanted to do.
So when that feeling pulled me out of dreamland, my first thought was, ‘What did Trina do now?’ Except there was no light thud from the other side of my room or whispered apology. Just a sense of unease and icy shivers that pulsed down my spine, causing my skin to prick up in goosebumps.
The alarm tickling at the back of my brain wasn’t caused by my sister sneaking into my room. It was something else—an intense sensation of eyes on me.
I was being watched.
The oppressive stare weighed me down, pressing my body into the mattress.
No…that wasn’t what it was.
Someone was sitting on me! Someone a lot heavier than my sister.
This was the part where I should be panicking. My body was responding properly. My heart beat wildly in my chest as my lungs struggled to work. Riley and Shelby would be screaming by now. Even Trina would’ve thrashed about, but the only thing my brain would let me do was slowly flutter my eyelids open.
A million things flew through my mind in that short time. What was happening? Who was in my room? Should I turn the light on? Should I grab a weapon? Or was I in trouble again? My knees were still raw from the last pile of rice I was forced to kneel on.
The face I saw staring down at me sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
“Hello, Little Bird.”
Preston Whitley!
A quick piercing squeak vibrated through my ears, followed by muffled incoherent whines. It took a second for me to realize that the sound wasn’t just ringing through my ears. It was vibrating up my throat. I was the one screaming.
Not that it was doing any good, considering Preston had his hand clamped over my mouth. His fingers dug into my cheeks, grinding my tender inner flesh against my teeth. My mouth was parched, and the dull ache caused by his grip made me whimper.
But I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
Preston Whitley wasn’t just some guy. He was the guy the boogeyman hid from. My only hope was to keep emptying my lungs into his palm while I prayed that my parents would hear me. Why I thought that would help, I wasn’t sure. All the intelligence in the world didn’t matter when instinct took over.
Preston gave my head a firm shake. “Quiet down, Little Bird.”
My mind snapped back. I knew this man and the things his little society did. The fact that he thought he could order me around was nothing short of cute. Part of me wanted to smile when I opened my mouth and let out another muffled scream.
That was my first mistake. While I’d dealt with threats before—consequences of revealing people’s secrets—Preston Whitley wasn’t like other men.
I didn’t think he was a man at all. He was every parent’s worst nightmare. He was the monster hiding in your closet, the dark temptations my father preached about to his flock—kind of ironic, considering my lack of compassion. Then again, my father didn’t know about my non-existent empathy.
No one did.
“I see we have a communication problem. So, I’ll make this real simple for you. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” Preston tsked while pulling a pistol out from behind him. “Or, I’ll go in the next room and fuck your mother with this.”
Was it wrong that I was curious how that would work? A woman’s vagina was meant to stretch, but the barrel of a gun didn’t have any give. Would it hurt? Would it tear?
“Tell me, Little Bird, why don’t you seem scared?” Preston tipped his head and cocked a brow down at me. “You know I’ll do it.”
Oh, I was scared, just not of his threat.
“Maybe I should visit your sister’s room instead?”
