Page 76 of Give Me Perfect Love

Cain stands up. “You know I can’t resist you like this.” His voice is filled with thick lust. My stomach recoils. I look at Claire.

She shakes her head at me, begging me to look away with her eyes as he pulls himself out of his unbuttoned pants. “I’m sorry,” I mouth to her. “I’m so sorry.” Tears spill over my eyelashes, burning my chapped skin. I should have listened to her. All those times she told me she had a bad feeling.

She knew something wasn’t right.

She knew and I chalked it up to paranoia.

Stupid, stupid girl.I cry more as my friend closes her eyes.

He drops to his knees and panic speeds up my pulse even more. He grips onto her legs, pulling them apart, but she fights back, wiggling and trying to keep her thighs shut.

“No, Cain,” she says. “Don’t do this.” But she’s too weak and he yanks her legs open, causing her to howl in pain as he breaks ligaments. He moves over her, and I can’t watch as I hear him grunt and her cry more.

The sounds yank me back in time.

Musk and dank weed.

Marlboro Reds and cheap whiskey.

It’s all too much.

I shake my head and cut my wrists, trying to get out of these restraints, trying to help my friend.

But then my ears prick, hearing a new sound. My eyes move around the room wildly as I try to listen for it again.

It’s the front door! Someone bangs on it. He must have locked it. My eyes shut as my throat pulls air from my lungs and I scream bloody murder.

A fist connects with my jaw, causing me to see stars. My head sways, as does the chair I’m in, and I hit the floor with a hard hit to my shoulder and a knock of my head. My vision fades out again, but I try to fight it.

“You little cunt. Shut the fuck up!” he barks. I blink my eyes and look in front of me. Claire lies there with a bleak expression. “Can’t anyone see the closed sign on the goddamn door?” he says. His dick hangs from his pants and his sweat stinks up the room we’re in. He’s on his knees still, panting.

I listen for the door again, but there’s no other sound. No, no, no. Did they not hear me? My eyes prick with more tears. This can’t be happening to us.

My shoulder aches, my muscles remonstrating in pain from tearing Saw’s house apart and being restrained. My face feels like it’s already swelling from the hard blow.

And then it all happens at once. A loud crash comes from the front. Cain snaps his head in that direction and jumps up before running out of the kitchen.

My eyes grow wide as I look at Claire. She matches my expression.

“Are you okay?” I ask, knowing she’s not. Knowing that no matter what she does now, she’ll always remember this moment. The moment that fuck took her without her consent. Part of me wonders if this isn’t the first time, though.

A piece of me thinks that maybe my best friend has secrets in her filing cabinet also. She blinks and starts to cry. I look down at her dress pulled up to her waist as a loud ruckus sounds in the dining room. “We have to get out of here,” I say. “I have no idea who is out there.”

“Whoever it is,” she says, sniffing. “He’ll kill them.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Bryce

It’s after eleven now and an icy rain has started up. I’m knee bouncing and my nerves are bad. Jace is in the back seat chain smoking because he’s worried, too. Hell, even Ben is. Bad thoughts cross my mind and I can’t shake them.

Why couldn’t Austin get in touch with Claire? Why couldn’t she answer and say everything was okay?

I wouldn’t be so fucking worried then. I rub a hand down my face, wishing Claire’s work was closer.

“Go faster,” I urge Ben.

“Traffic’s bad,” he says. “It’s the weekend.”

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