Page 138 of Live for Me

“Here,” Jersey finished for her from where he stood.

I watched Trista whirl around to face him, and she immediately backed up right into Memphis.

“Jesus motherfucking Christ,” she whispered that time.

“I thought we didn’t have to whisper anymore?” Memphis asked, ever so concerned with the logistics.

“That better be you, J,” Trista screamed at him. “I don’t think we agreed to the mask thing.”

The demented chuckle turned into a blast of fucking thunder when he laughed, and I realized he was giving me the chance to move with the noise. I stepped up right behind the girls again.

I leaned down as close as I could get myself to Memphis without touching her. “Last chance. Run.”

Trista screamed again, and both girls jumped forward to spin around to face me that time. I started to back into the rows of corn behind me to disappear into the dark again, but I got to watch Jersey take advantage of that moment too. He walked right up behind Trista, slapped a hand over her mouth, put his other arm all the way around her upper body to trap her arms against her sides, and he dragged her kicking and squirming right off into the corn.

“Oh, fuck me,” Memphis said quietly when she looked behind her and realized that Trista was just gone. “Triss?” she whispered into the dark.

“Wrong name,” I mumbled while I walked directly behind her just to disappear into the rows again. I waited in silence that time to watch her while she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trying to decide what she might do. She was panicking. She whipped around to look in every direction at any noise that happened around us, but she couldn’t find me.

“Utah?” she asked, shakily that time.

I moved so I could sneak up behind her another time and she jumped when I grabbed the flannel where it sat over both her shoulders to drag it down her arms so I could lower my head to her bare skin.

“That’s closer,” I whispered and dragged part of the mask along her shoulder.

Colt.

It was all I wanted.

The way it sounded when she said it.

But she only ever called me by my actual name once I’d stripped everything else away.

She tried to breathe, and I didn’t imagine she’d be making another attempt at running with how poorly her lungs were already handling the situation.

Then this little munchkin of the corn elbowed me right in the ribs and disappeared into the darkness.

I laughed but gave her another few seconds of a head start.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

memphis

“That’s the spirit, angel!” Utah yelled from fucking somewhere. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ll pay for that one. But it’ll be more fun if you fight me every step of the way, girl.”

I had no idea how I still heard him over the sound of my own heartbeat, but it made the pounding in my ears even louder. I’d picked a different direction from the one Trista had. I wasn’t running back toward where I imagined the entrance was, but rather where I thought might be the nearest edge of the field.

He had a mask on, in the dark. He wasn’t using a flashlight. There was no way he could see out here any better than I could. I forced my legs to just stop moving for a second. All I really had to do was stay quiet. And the loudest thing about me at the moment was my breathing. I tried to suck in a giant breath just to let it back out slowly to calm the rest of me down. Then I tried just walking. It’d be so much quieter. And so much less painful. Nothing in the world could’ve prepared me for how much it stung when the fucking leaves from these cornstalks whipped me in the face while I ran through them. Most of the rest of my body was covered by my clothing, but I imagined my face was bleeding in a couple places from that shit.

I stopped cold when I took a single step out of the corn. As best I could tell, there was this little three-foot wide strip of grass between the edge of the field and the start of a motherfucking wooded area. I couldn’t see far enough in either direction to know if there was an end nearby to either the field or the woods.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I whispered to myself.

Running into the trees felt like a bad idea. Game or not, I didn’t know where I was. Utah might not know where I was. I might end up in there all night, regardless of the game we were playing. When I turned to look back into the field, my whole face smacked right into Utah’s chest.

“Fuck me!” I hissed in panic and tried to push away from him.

“That’s the plan, sugar,” he said, catching both my wrists before I managed to move anywhere. I tried to twist both arms out of his hold, but his grip only tightened. “I’m going to need you to pick a safe word. Now.”

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