Page 92 of Redeemed

I nod. When he moves the bacon so it’s in front of my face, I bite down on his fingers. He draws back with a surprised grunt, and the bacon drops to the floor.

“Ohhh,” Lucas says while he laughs. “Someone’s in trouble now.”

“Bad, bad girl.” Xander shakes his head, his smirk growing.

“Do youwantto be punished?” Colton growls. “Is that it?”

Before I can fire back a retort, Colton grabs the hair at the base of my neck and shoves me to the ground. The bacon is right in front of my face, and when I try to cringe away, he holds me in place.

“Eat it.”

“Colt—”

“Now.The more you try to defy us, the harder we’ll be on you.”

Cheeks burning, I eat the piece of bacon from the ground. The idea of calling Ben and begging him to pick me up flits through my mind for the briefest second. When I asked Colton to take me in, I was drunk and terrified out of my mind. It was a stupid decision.

But it would put him and Julie in harm’s way.

Even sober, there’s no denying that. Isaiah knows about my connection to Julie. If he’s smart, he’ll periodically check their house to see if I’m hiding with them. And if he finds me there, well… I know what he’s capable of. It’ll be even worse if he’s not alone.

Isaiah would see it as fighting the lion to protect the one lost sheep to bring it back to the herd. If it’s God’s will, anything can be justified—even slaughtering two very kind, very innocent people.

I shiver at the thought. There’s no way I can let that happen.

Which means I’m stuck here.

So when Colton makes me eat more scrambled eggs out of his hand, I do so without protest. Once he’s deemed I’ve eaten enough, he takes his plate to the sink and washes his hands.

“You can sit at the table now,” is all he tells me when he returns to his chair.

My knees ache as I stand, but it barely compares to the embarrassment that courses through me when I realize Xander and Lucas are watching me. Their smirks tell me they were probably staring at me the entire time, witnessing Colton treating me like a dog.

As I lower myself into the chair beside Colton, the embarrassment morphs into pain. Sitting with the three of them like this is too familiar. Freshman year, we were inseparable. Our schedules didn’t allow the four of us to be together often, but it was rare to find one of us alone.

I hate the boys now, viscerally, but I miss those times. I miss how comfortable I felt around them. How safe I was.

“We need to discuss our arrangement,” Colton says. “How long do you think that guy will keep coming after you for?”

I laugh helplessly. “I don’t think he’ll ever stop.”

“Do you want him dead?” Xander asks.

My jaw drops.“What?Dead? Absolutely not!”

Lucas narrows his eyes. “Why?”

My mind immediately goes to Isaiah’s family—his younger siblings, his parents. It’d break them if Isaiah died. I already hurt my family enough by leaving. I can’t do that to his, too, no matter how much I don’t want to go back.

“I… I just don’t want to do something that extreme.”

Xander pouts. “That complicates things.”

“So you need protection until he gives up,” Colton states. “We can give that to you.”

My gut reaction is to say no—to snap and say I don’t need anything from them. But Colton is right. If it hadn’t been for him, I’d be with Isaiah right now, on our way back to Cornerstone.

Or I’d be dead.

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