Page 82 of Veiled in Brick

I murmured, “What?” in a mousy tone that made Liam’s head turn to me.

I kept my eyes on the road, though I could tell that he was looking at me with intent. I tried with all my might to keep a soft grin on my lips or a casual expression on my face, but it was no use because although the number on my phone was declared as unknown, it was dawning on me that the male voice was not. I prayed that I was wrong, hoping that my anxiety was imposing an assumption on me, and he spoke again.

“Was my message not received? Was I too subtle?” the man questioned me, and I tried to assess the grit in his tone. I was unable to respond as I had matched the sound to one that I had heard in the past—one that forced me to remember the scent of fake cinnamon and the feeling of my body being held against the ground. “Does your silence mean that I’ve gotten under your skin as much as you’ve gotten under mine?”

My breath started to shake, and Liam called to me, “Zoey?”

I stammered a bevy of um’s and ah’s into the speaker, exact words never coming to my mind. The memory of my recent encounter with the man who had pinned me to the ground and made known his desire to force himself upon me was ripe in my brain, the thought replaying until I could feel the coolness of the stones against my cheek. I shifted my grip on the steering wheel, and it brushed the scrape that had yet to heal on my palm.

“Hmm,” the man hummed in what sounded like delight. “I like that—knowing that I’m on your mind. I was there before we even met, though—wasn’t I, Zoey?”

“I—what are you talking about?” I asked in a whisper.

“Zoey?” Liam had now sat up beside me as he said my name. My eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, and I found that Luke and Claire had done the same, both watching me with concerned gazes.

“I could see you looking this way and that down the street,” the man noted. “Before you even knew I existed, you sensed me as I watched you.” His voice deepened, “And when I knew I needed to be more bold—to make myself known—I could feel your pulse hammering in your throat when I had you underneath me. You were quiet. I liked that.” He emitted a noise akin to a quiet moan, and bile rose in my throat. “I like that I can affect you like that—”

I finally found my voice and spat, “Shut the fuck up.”

Claire spoke from the back seat, “Whoa, whoa, Zoey, what’s—”

“Zoey,” Liam ushered me, “what’s going on; look at me.”

“There she is,” the man cooed in my ear. “You’re normally such a loud little thing. You were loud with James.” I gasped, his mentioning of James hitting me in the gut. “The sex sounded good,” he continued, muttering in a voice that chilled me through, “It’s not like that with Liam, though…is it, Zoey?” My breath rattled, the fear that this man had instilled in me blossoming further at the sound of Liam’s name. “You…you call his name like it’s a goddamn prayer. It’s…desperation. It’s so…emphatic. It’s like I can feel you coming.” He moaned again, the sound sexual to the point that I wondered if he were touching himself, and I cringed. It turned my stomach sour, and though it made me want to yank my phone from my ear and chuck it as far away as I possibly could, I couldn’t find it in me to do so. Instead, I listened in horror as the sound of moist skin-on-skin filtered through the speaker. “Is your heart pounding now?” He whispered, “You can’t run forever. I’ll find you—I’m going to feel your heartbeat from the inside.”

His words along with the increasing speed of the wet, schlicking sounds in the background made me retch, and I saw Liam’s body flinch at my reaction in my peripheral vision. He spat out something along the lines of, “Fuck this,” and reached to tear the phone from my grip.

Saliva pooled in my mouth, and I snapped my head over my right shoulder to check my blind spots. All lanes clear, I jerked the wheel to steer to the side of the road, slammed on the brakes, and just as Liam was speaking a coarse greeting into my phone, I was putting the car in park. My seatbelt was off, Liam glanced at my phone with a pinched expression as it appeared that no one was on the line, and I opened my door with just enough time to fully exit the vehicle, take two steps forward, and vomit on the pavement.

It splattered below me, Liam’s voice called to me urgently, and my stomach turned again. I heaved once more, emptying the remaining contents of my stomach, and I breathed slow and heavy—in and out, thrice—until I was certain that the action wouldn’t be repeated. I spat on the concrete, my hands on my upper thighs as I exhaled heavily.

Liam’s touch was on my upper back, rubbing back and forth as he muttered, “Jesus, Zoey, what was that? Are you okay?”

I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and straightened up to find Liam staring at me wide-eyed. I swallowed, my mouth coated in the bitter taste of bile, and I just…looked at him. Any response I had was simply gone. I wasn’t okay. I knew I wasn’t okay, but all I could discern was an odd sensation of numbness that was pouring over my brain like molasses, smooth and slow. It covered me like a blanket until Liam could stand my silence no longer and he gripped both of my biceps tightly, shaking me to wake me to reality.

“Zoey, please.”

The way that he pleaded cut the thread that was holding me together, and suddenly, the numbness that I had briefly imposed upon myself disappeared. My breaths came in a staccato—short, quick bursts that had no regular rhythm as they left my lips—and what seemed to be a fist had thrust directly into my chest and squeezed at my heart. The grip remained strong, prevailing through the gusts of wind in my lungs, and the sensation spread from my sternum outward in a hot, bursting wave that threatened to crumple me.

I placed a hand on my diaphragm and whimpered, “Fuck.”

“Breathe, Zoey,” Liam instructed me quietly, and prickles spanned from the base of my neck up to the sides of my face.

I glanced to the ground, feeling my breathing approach hyperventilation, and I spoke between exhales as I began to feel faint, “I need to sit.”

“Okay,” he replied in a soft tone. “Let’s just get back in the car and—”

I shook my head rapidly. “Claire and Luke, I—I don’t—don’t want…”

Not a word said, Liam guided me forward with a hand on my back, away from the car, and to the right. The soles of my shoes touched gravel, and then grass, and I sank to the ground. He went with me, sitting in a similar fashion with his legs bent before him, and his touch brushed up and down my back.

“Are you dizzy?” he asked gently. I nodded, and he murmured, “Head between your legs, Zo’, you’re good.”

I followed his instruction, a car door slammed, and Claire’s anxious voice trilled, “Zoey, are you—”

I muttered a weak, “Go away, Claire,” that was only loud enough for Liam to hear.

Liam called back to her immediately, “She’s fine!”

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