* * *
“Please, let me go,” I mutter as he drags me across the cold, harsh ground.
Pine cones are stuck in my hair, and some have already ripped out, but my pain doesn’t seem to matter to him at all.
“Liam!” I yell to get his attention. “Please.”
He glances at me over his shoulder with a vicious smirk on his lips. “You know, I do love the sound of you begging.”
I’m too stunned to speak but not too shocked to get flustered by that comment.
Damn. He was never this straightforward when we were younger.
Then again, a lot has changed for both of us in the three years he was gone.
“You don’t want to do this,” I say as he drags me back to his cabin.
“Oh, yes, I do,” he replies, the sincerity in his voice making goose bumps erupt on my skin.
He opens the door and hauls me inside like fresh meat.
Oh, God, what if he intends to gut me?
Blood is already on his face. God knows who it belongs to, but if he can hurt and kill other people, there’s no telling what he could do to me.
Especially in this remote area at this little cabin the size of a vacation home. There’s a small kitchen in the corner with huge knives that make my skin crawl, probably ones he could use to butcher me. And the big, wooden hand-crafted table in the middle surely looks big enough for a body.
Fuck.
“Please don’t kill me,” I mutter. “I’m too young to die.”
He snorts. “I’ve killed enough, don’t fucking worry.”
Oh, God. I knew it.
That blood.
“Who did you kill?” I ask.
If I’m gonna make him pay, I have to do all of his victims justice. I need to remember their names and tell their family once this is over. Once I get out of this mess.
“A deer.”
What?
A … deer?
He kicks the door shut and suddenly grabs the rope with both hands and lifts me up. My squeal is cut short by the way I’m thrown over his shoulder.
“Put me down right now!” I growl, but of course, he ignores me.
He carries me toward a small room in the back, behind a bunch of boxes and a one-person bed. A door he opens, and he puts me down on the floor in the middle. This room only contains a giant box, and it’s goddamn freezing in here.
“Wait, what are you doing?” I ask.
“Showing you your room,” he mocks, waving his hand. “Enjoy.”
When he attempts to close the door, I crawl toward him as best as I can with these ropes constricting every muscle in my body. “Wait! Don’t leave me like this!”