Savage Hearts

If anything, the brief break in the cruelty is worse, the knowledge that the reprieve won’t last for long making my aching stomach feel like it’s turning inside out.

“When I saw Jeremy and J.D. heading for the parking lot with that hot little thing in the red dress, I knew Danny had something to do with it.” His hand moves in a circle, caressing my gurgling belly, making me shudder. “They don’t have the creativity to convince a girl to fuck them both at the same time, no matter how much they’ve been wanting an excuse to get their cocks out in the same room again. So I followed them and then I followed you, Danny. I didn’t realize you were here too, Sam, until you came out of the house, but I’m not surprised. You two have done everything together, haven’t you? Since you were kids?”

Sam doesn’t offer an answer, but Todd obviously doesn’t need one. He’s perfectly happy listening to the sound of his own voice.

He turns to me and sighs, the feel of his breath hot on my neck sending a fresh wave of dread shivering across my skin. “And now here we all are, ready to learn some important lessons from each other. I am going to learn never to leave someone alive who should be dead, and you are going to learn how stupid you were to fuck with someone meaner and smarter than you are.”

Sam claps her hands together, slowly and deliberately, drawing Todd’s attention back to her. “That’s a real hero story, Todd. So you’re the big winner. What are you going to do now, go rape some girls in Disney World?”

The knife leaves my neck, but Todd’s hand replaces it, squeezing tight. “No, Sam. I was thinking, since you and Danny love to share experiences so much, that I’d fuck his ass while you watch. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”

I have time to see Sam’s face go white and then Todd’s palm hits hard between my shoulder blades.

With my arms and legs bound, I can’t keep my balance. I fall forward, my face in the dirt and my ass in the air.

Bile pushing up my throat, I try to crawl away, but Todd is already behind me, cutting through the waistband of my jeans. There is an ugly ripping sound as the fabric gives beneath his jerking hands and then my boxers are down around my thighs and Todd’s knife is pressing into my stomach.

“Don’t take a step away from that tree,” Todd barks. “You do and his intestines will be on the ground before you can take another one.”

“Please don’t,” Sam begs. “Please don’t hurt him. Please!”

“But hurting’s the fun part.”

I feel him tugging at his clothes behind me and then his erection bobs free, falling heavy and thick against my ass cheek, and it feels so wrong I can’t control my response.

I lurch forward, instinctively trying to escape, but he tilts the blade, jabbing it into the thin skin below my navel, piercing the skin, summoning a stream of blood that rushes down my thigh.

White-hot pain follows a second later, making me scream.

The pain is bad enough to stop me cold and suddenly I am aware of a hundred things all at once.

I’m aware of the breeze stirring my hair, of the heavy leaves slapping against the trunk of the tree, of Sam’s tortured cry as Todd adjusts himself behind me, and the moans coming from the pit as J.D. and Jeremy begin to wake up. I’m aware of the blood coursing through my veins and the terror screaming in my head and a softer voice deep inside that insists I can survive this.

I can survive and when it’s over, Todd’s guard will be down.

Not even a monster can fight back in the middle of coming his brains out.

I grit my teeth and plan what happens next. I imagine the way I’m going to wait until he reaches the end and then hurl my body backward, pushing with my legs until he’s pinned to the dirt with the air knocked out of him. Maybe the knife will fly out of his hand. But even if he keeps it, that moment of surprise will be enough for Sam to turn the tables on him. By the time I roll away, she’ll have the baseball bat in her hands, beating the shit out of him.

I know it will happen. I can see it as clearly as I can see anything.

It’s as clear as my memories of making love to Sam last night under the stars, of the way she looks running out of the ocean with her hair slicked back and her cheeks pink from the sun, of the way she smiled at me the day I told her I loved her for the first time. I was only a kid, but I knew then that I would do anything for her.