Page 2 of Catch Me

“I’m not going to do anything to you, babe,” the guy says, a spark of mischief in his eyes. “We’re just going to take some pictures.”

I try to get up, to push past him, but he uses his weight to push me back onto the bed. Following after me, he lands with his knee at the apex of my thighs and my hands pinned above my head.

“I wanted her clothes off before we had any bed pics,” Sasha snaps.

“She fought back. What did you want me to do?”

I try to wiggle out of his grip. “You two are crazy.” I pull my leg up to try to push him off, but all he does is sink more of his body weight onto me.

“Shit, I’m getting hard,” he says, humor lacing his voice. “I like it rough, Sasha. You better watch out.”

“Just pull her shirt up. I need something incriminating. When Reid sees that she left him just to hook up with other guys, he’ll drop her so damn fast.”

He holds my hands over my head and reaches down with his other. Slowly, he lifts my shirt up, and when his fingers touch my bare skin, my body ices over. In the next instant, I thrash, looking for any way to get this guy off me.

“Hold her down,” Sasha screeches.

“She’s stronger than she looks.”

He goes up on his knees to try to pin me down harder, but he’s made a fatal mistake. I bring my knee up, and it connects with his balls.

He groans. “Fuck. Bitch!”

I push him off me and move toward the door, but it careens open the second I start for it. My eyes try to adjust to the new light in the room, and at first, all I see is a hulking figure filling the doorway, but when the figure steps in, I almost collapse in relief.

“Briar!”

“Lex!”

He makes it to me in three strides and holds me to his side. His body is warm, vibrating underneath my touch with barely concealed anger as he takes the scene in. “What the fuck?”

I shake in his arms, and he holds me closer, stepping in front of me so he shields my body.

Sasha has the good sense to look a little scared. Her eyes round for a fraction of a second, but then her facade clicks into place. “Really?” she asks, looking over at the guy who’s still clutching his balls protectively.

“Fuck you,” he groans. “That fucking hurt.”

“You’re about to hurt a lot fucking worse.” Lex takes a step toward his sprawled body on the bed, but hesitates. I can tell he doesn’t want to let go of me, and right now, I don’t want to let him go either. I’m cracking into pieces at his side.

“Whatever,” Sasha says, yanking on his arm to help him off the bed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Lex moves in front of the door, taking me with him. “I don’t think so. The police are on their way. They want to talk to you about a picture you have on your phone.”

Sasha’s face colors. She moves her phone in front of her face and taps the screen a few times. It takes me a second to realize she’s deleting the pictures she’s just took.

“It doesn’t matter if you delete it,” Lex says, gripping my forearm. “They’ve already seen it. They know you have it.”

“There are other pictures!” I move forward and snatch her cell out of her hand. She gives it up willingly and when I look through her photo album, I realize why. She’s deleted all the ones she’s just taken.

Now it’s my word against theirs.

I throw her phone back at her. It hits her chest, past her outstretched hands, and falls to the ground.

Sasha glares at it between her feet and then moves her wicked gaze to look me in the eyes. “You think that’s the only thing I had planned. You’re wrong.”

Sirens echo behind us. I know I should be scared that the police will be here soon and the fact that I’m a runaway and the photo and the piece of shit guy across from me who looks like he’s about to crap himself, but I’m caught by the lifelessness in Sasha’s eyes.

She truly means what she says. She has it out for us, and she’s not going to stop until she gets it.

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