Page 23 of The Catcher

I felt a cold trickle of fear. Maybe this was more than just teasing and bullying me. I thought by now he would have given it up.

It might’ve been smarter to say nothing, but I said, “Why?”

He said nothing, and I asked again, “Why, Tanner?”

I didn’t think I wanted to know the answer to the fucking question, but it hung in the air, heavy.

“Because I won’t stop until I take you,” he said, his voice cold and devoid of any scrap of sympathy or emotion.

The lock scraped and complained under his fingers, and I turned and ran out of my hotel room and down the hallway.

Stairs or elevator? Surely he’d be able to hear me going down the staircase.

The question was decided for me when the elevator opened with a soft ding in front of me.

I hurried inside, pressing myself against one wall, and jamming my thumb into theclosebutton.

After a moment of hesitation, I selected the eighth floor. I didn’t want to be trapped in the elevator for long.

This eighth-floor hallway was quiet and deserted this late at night. I slipped down it as quickly as I could, keeping close to the wall, hoping the shadows would hide me.

He wouldn’t know which floor I had gotten off on. If I was lucky, I could hide for a bit, then go down one floor. I wouldcheck carefully, then sneak down to my hotel room, barricade both entrances, and not leave until the next morning.

A door opened behind me.

It might not mean anything.

It might be someone else going to their room.

Or a late-night cleaner.

I froze in the shadows, hoping I was hidden, waiting for the sound of a hotel room door opening.

But I didn’t hear it.

Should I try to move? If it was him, should I try to run or hope the darkness of the hall and the shadows would hide me?

Wouldn’t I hear if he was moving?

I tried to listen, but I was so panicky that all I heard was my blood rushing in my ears.

Were those soft sounds behind me?

Suddenly I felt a hard hand grab me by the shoulder and spin me around.

“I found you,” Tanner hissed. “I win, you lose. Get used to it, Emrys.”

For one pivotal moment I was frozen in fear, the smell of him, the game, the uniform, dirt and smoke and heat, and by the time I drew in a breath to scream for help, it was too late.

He had his hand firmly over my mouth.

“Do I have to fucking impregnate you to get you to stop running away from me?” he growled.

I screamed as loud as I could, screamed until I didn’t have any more breath left, but his big hand was clamped across my mouth so tightly that not a sound came out. He drug me down the hallway, backing into random doors to test them, and one of them opened to a lounge area. This late at night, it was dark and deserted, just some sofas and chairs surrounding a quiet TV and some tables.

My skin began to prickle with the certainty that I wasn’t going to be able to escape him this time, and he drug me to the couch and shoved my face down on it, still keeping his hand on my mouth. With the other hand he ripped off my pajama shorts.

“Be a good girl,” Tanner ordered, and I screamed again, as hard as I could against his hand, but once again it was muffled.

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