I smile against her and squeeze her a little bit tighter, as if using my physical strength to hold her will somehow keep us together against what’s to come.
Although I’m fucking tired too, I can’t fall into a deeper sleep than a simple doze; every noise alerts me to possible danger, and even though the sun is streaming in through the windows and the daylight chases away the phantoms of my past, I still see the memory of them; my brother and my father, leering through the windows, circling like hawks waiting to dive in for the kill.
A soft pinging sound from my phone has me snapping out of my horrid daydreams, and I fumble around behind me in blind search of the offensive rectangle. Clasping it, I bring the screen to my aching eyes and swipe open the message from Dale—the man who lives next door to me and who has his own—rather illegal—grow operation.
Summer ran into them the other night, and though they wouldn’t have hurt her, it worked for my benefit to have her be frightened enough to stay put so I could catch and punish her for that little stunt.
My eyes scan the words once, twice, and then a third time as the reality sinks in.
Saw that fucker at the hardware store ten minutes ago. Whole mountain has a BOLO.
My mouth runs dry. I knew Carter would follow closely behind Clyde. I just didn’t think he’d appear this soon.
I know he’ll wait until nightfall to attack. Know he’ll be brazen. If I can lure him in, there’s a chance I can best him one on one. But what do I do with Summer? She doesn’t need to witness that, and on the chance my brother kills me…then what?
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Comes her raspy voice. It startles me, and I drop my phone to the blankets and instead hold her gaze. There’s no point in hiding the truth from her anymore, so I nod grimly, lips clamped together. A mix of emotions flits across her features, but she settles on cold determination—a look I’ve grown accustomed to over these past few months.
It’s a look she wore when she was plotting ways to escape (or end my life, I’m sure), but it’s also a look I noticed in her videos. She wasn’t happy doing what she did, but she did it flawlessly all the same, gritting her teeth and bearing the unbearable hatred of thousands of faceless monsters just to bring smiles and happiness to the ones who appreciated her.
Sure, her line of work seems a little odd and pointless to someone like me, but what lured me in with Summer, what made me see through that shiny mask, was her kindness. How someone would leave a comment in a sea of thousands of others, asking for help, and she would. Backpacks for kids, donationsto cancer patients, volunteering at the animal shelter—all things she never advertised or filmed herself doing, but things that were right there for the world to see if they cared to look past her curated, aesthetic videos and posts to the lonely girl on the other side.
She hated her job but loved what it afforded her to do, and I loved watching her slowly realize that in the months before I was forced to take her.
She sighs, rolling gingerly onto her side and cupping her cheek, blinking up at me with exhaustion and pain laced through every sleep-crease on her face. Flicking those narrowed, green gems to my gaze, her expression becomes stony, and she says with utter seriousness: “So are we gonnaHome Alonehis ass, or what?”
I have absolutely no idea what she’s referencing, and I slowly quirk my brow at her with a bemused look on my face, silently asking for further explanation. She smacks a hand to her precious freckled cheeks and nose and shakes her head. “What kind of fucking cult doesn’t let you watchHome Alone?”
Before I can attempt to answer, she launches into a detailed explanation of the plot of this children’s movie, and I find myself laughing with how animated she’s become. I have to hand it to her, though; it is kind of a brilliant idea. Carter will expect some form of a trap.
But he won’t expect Summer to be the mastermind behind it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
KAGE
We spendthe entirety of the day and evening quickly preparing, all of the curtains and shades drawn, should Carter already be lurking in the trees surrounding my property. She’s still jumpy around me at times, a defensive, tense look to her gaze that softens when she remembers it’s me. I hate, with a burning in my heart, that I’ve been the one to make her afraid of things that move in the darkness, but I have some small bit of hope that one day it will dissipate.
I know I deserve every punishment she flings my way after we survive this, and I’ll happily accept each and every one while on my knees worshipping her.
We just have to make it through tonight.
“Do you have a torch blower?” she asks, stomping around the corner as her voice grows louder, finishing her sentence as she comes into view. Hand on her hip, she stares down at me with a fire in her gaze that is a little too unhinged for my liking, and with a snort and shake of my head, I release the trip wire I’d been trying to set and stand.
“Also, what the hell are these?” she spits with disgust potent on her tongue, producing my unopened box of cigarettes from the gas station months ago. This time, I roll my eyes and sauntertoward her, plucking the rectangle from her fingers and tossing it over my shoulder before grasping her cold hands in mine. She’s wearing one of my hoodies, the dense fabric brushing against her upper thighs. She’ll need pants. A few layers of them. Anything to hinder Carter should he?—
I bite my tongue so hard blood spurts into my mouth as I drive away those heinous thoughts. No one will hurt my Summer. No one will take what is forever mine. Even if she wants to run away after all of this, I’ll find a way to hunt her down and chain her back up.
She seems to sort of like it, and that thought gets me hard.
Her glare deepens, and her fingers dig into the backs of my hands.
“Smoking is disgusting. I can’t believe I kissed you.”
Grinning, I grip her cheeks and pull her face to mine, allowing my lips to brush over hers. The sparks that ignite between us at the simplest touch should be a warning sign to her; there is no stopping my obsession for her now, but the way she leans in just a hairsbreadth closer tells me she’s finally fallen for my charm and is reluctantly happy to be here.
Before we can get too carried away, my phone pings. Once. Twice. Then message after message streams in, igniting the night in a symphony of horror.
Our eyes catch, Summer’s glassed with a type of terror that guts me. Gritting my teeth, I hold her face between my palms and rest my forehead against hers. Clearing my throat, I focus on the word I want to say and force the air from my lungs to pass over my frayed and severed vocal cords.
