Molly didn’t say anything and she kept her head down, but I noticed her body stiffen and her fingers curl into fists then uncurl.
“Molly. I’m just trying to figure out why I found my boyfriend in bed with your two roommates. It just seems so …” Yeah, it was unlike him. “Ream’s not like that.” Because he was forced as a teenager to have sex with adults. The more I thought about it, the less it made sense. Ream choosing to randomly have sex with two strangers? Why? To get off? But he wouldn’t get off on that, he said so himself. That sex was meaningless until me.
Until me.
“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think.”
My eyes widened at her thoughtless retort, and there was an edge in her voice. She peered up at me and for a brief second I saw the corners of her lips curl up, but then it was gone so fast I thought I imagined it.
“I’m sorry. God, Kat. I’m just not getting along with my roommates after that stuff with Ream and with my ex back … I’ve been uptight.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” What I wanted to say was “try being in my shoes bitch.” Because despite always liking Molly, I suddenly hated her. She destroyed everything. Ream was locked inside himself, hating who he was and thinking he wasn’t worth anything. I was living on edge, afraid to wake up in the morning and not feel him next to me.
“Listen, I better get ready for work.” She turned to the door, her hand on the knob, then she said, “Maybe you should just leave him alone. Forget him.”
Whoa. Did Molly want Ream for herself? “Did you fuck him too, Molly? Or did you just let your friends take advantage of a drunk rock star so they could brag about it?” The anger in my voice tightened. “Because he was mine, damn it. Mine.” I don’t know why I said it. Pissed off. Feeling like I was falling apart again after seeing Ream at the farm. Whatever it was, it made Molly react. She swung around and hit me across the face so hard I went falling backwards and stumbled down the steps until I landed on my ass.
I held my hand to my cheek in complete shock. Holy shit. What the hell?
The door opened.
Confusion, then sudden panic grabbed hold.
“Do I have to clean up your mess again, Alexa?” My breath hitched as I recognized Lance’s voice.
Alexa? Molly was … who was Alexa?
Lance strode toward me and I scuttled back on my butt then tried to turn around and get my footing, but his arm looped around my waist and he picked me off the ground. I started screaming, but his hand plastered over my mouth and muffled the sound.
I inhaled frantically through my nose, the scent of his cologne churning my stomach. He picked me up and carried my flailing body into the house.
***
I was dumped in the foyer and my knees hit the hard unforgiving wood floor. I started to scramble away when I heard the distinct click of a gun. Shit, I’d never forget that sound for the rest of my life.
“You move again, I’ll blow off your leg.” Molly gripped the gun casually with one hand as she pointed at me. “It’ll be messy, so I’d prefer if you stayed quiet and behaved yourself.”
“What do you want to do with her?” Lance asked, casually leaning against the door as if this was a conversation about the weather.
“We can’t leave her here. She’ll have to come with us.”
“Molly? Why?” Her hand was steady as a rock and there wasn’t a single part of her that I recognized. Her shoulders were back and her eyes met mine, hard and fierce. She sneered at me like she wanted to kill me with her bare hands. I wasn’t stupid enough to give her attitude because there was no doubt in my mind she’d shoot me. This wasn’t Molly at all; this woman was Alexa, whoever the hell that was.
“Meet us out back.” I glanced up at Lance on the phone to someone. This was a man I’d kissed, dated, and let into my life.
He put his phone back in his pocket and then strode into the other room and came back with a coiled yellow rope. “Hands, princess.” I started to back away and he chuckled. “Alexa, she thinks she can get away.”
He grabbed my hands and pulled them together in front of me then tightly wrapped the rope around them. Then he leaned in close and seized the bottom of my blouse. I panicked and started fighting, kicking and screaming, trying to crawl away with my hands tied in front of me. I felt like a seal out of water attempting to escape.
His hand came down on the back of my neck. Then he pulled and there was a loud tearing sound. He gripped a handful of my hair, yanked backwards, then straddled me and gagged me with the piece of material he’d torn from my blouse. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and walked down a hallway out the back door and then through a wooden gate into a back alley.
Lance tossed me into the backseat of a rusted old car with tinted windows and jumped in after me. I made a dive for the other door, but Molly was there with the gun pointed at me. She got in and then I heard the locks click as the driver pulled away.
“You best behave, princess.”
“I’m not a goddamn princess, fuckhead,” I muffled under the gag.
Lance’s brows rose. “Perhaps not … anymore.” A cold shiver ran over me as I saw his eyes pause on the scar on my cheek. Then he looked at Molly. “I think you overestimated Ben.” Who the hell was Ben? “He fucked it up. Her face should’ve been a lot worse.”
Oh my God. Lance knew who attacked me? Had he helped the intruder get in the building? Maybe that’s why the security cameras never caught the guy because Lance had let him in the back door. And if Molly was in on it then the perpetrator could’ve been kept informed as to when Matt was coming home. I shook with fury. They did this. All of this. But why?