Page 18 of Tied in Knots
If I can’t escape them, I will live out my days as their slave because I hate confrontation and I’m a people pleaser. I will try one last time to get away, but I don’t have enough fight left in me to attempt it again after that.
I don’t know how much time passes. I stare out of the window, the headlights cutting through the dark, the rain drops glittering as they fall past the glow.
Eventually, we pull up to a large estate and drive though the enormous iron gates with a coat of arms on that I don’t see for long enough to recognise.
Up the long, long private road lined with trees and around a circular driveway at the top to pull in line with three wide paved steps, which lead up to a huge black door.
I brace myself to bolt like a hunted deer across the landscaped lawns, but there’s no chance. Marshmallows grips my arm tightly and drags me out of the car with him, holding me up as I fall out, so I don’t land flat on my face.
“Lock her in her room until she stops any thoughts of running away,” Seb says and marches off into the dark house, leaving me to be picked up again and carried up the sweeping stairs. Along the hallway with huge, creepy portraits, I’m placed in a bedroom, the door shut, and a key turned in the lock, then removed.
“Fuck!” I shout out and kick the door, stubbing my toe. “I’m still tied up!”
No answer.
I scream and scream at the door until my voice is hoarse, and I’m coughing and spluttering like a maniac. Exhausted, I rest my forehead against the white-painted door and cry tears of frustration rather than fear.
I bring my bound hands up to bang on the door again, but it’s weak and quiet, my fists bruised from previous attempts. I turn and slump down until my arse hits the floor, hunched forward because my backpack is still somehow on my back.
My tears stop suddenly when I remember my phone in the back pocket of my jeans. I scrabble with the tie, pulling viciously at it with my teeth until I’ve loosened it enough to slip my hands free. Feeling in my pocket, I curse, bunching my hand into a fist.
Marshmallows must’ve taken it from me when I was slung over his shoulder in the park.
Now, I’m truly alone with no idea what is about to happen to me.
All I know for sure, is that my twenty-first birthday is days away, and if I’m still here when I go into my first heat, I’m doomed.
ChapterTwelve
Harvey
Knowing exactly where Sebastian has holed up, I march into the wine cellar, kicking the doors in because my temper is raised, and I want him to know it.
“We shouldn’t have locked her in her room. She will never trust us!” I bellow at Sebastian, who is, as expected, behind the locked iron gates with the most expensive bottles this Manor has to offer.
He gives me a weary look and rubs his hands over his face. “After the day we have had chasing her down, do youreallywant to let her loose so she can try again? Because that is exactly what she will do. We agreed not to use excessive force, but this day turned into a shitshow. It’snothow I foresaw this going.”
“Yeah, me either,” I agree, looking down and kicking the large wooden table that somehow doesn’t wobble on this ancient, stoned floor.
“I need you to go back upstairs and make sure that Xander doesn’t do something…Xander-ish,” he adds with a sigh.
“Can’t you?” I don’t want to play guard dog to Xander today. “Or Ben, even?”
“If I leave this cage, I will end up in her bed and it’s not the right time. She is affecting me on a level so deep, I fear what I might do if I don’t calm down first. That purr…” He inhales sharply and lets out a soft growl.
“I feel the same way,” I point out softly. “And she wasn’t wriggling around all over you.”
“That’s why you need to stay over there. Her scent all over you is driving me crazy. Crazier. Just go and sit outside her door, or something. Please, Harvey. You are the only one who will keep your hands to himself right now.”
I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or not. I feel quite insulted. It’s like he doesn’t think I’m as affected by her as he is.
“Fine.” I give the table another swift kick as I leave the wine cellar, needing to get away from him before I plant my fist in his face. It’s not his fault. This day. Her. Christ, we don’t even know her name yet.
“Find out her name,” Seb calls to me softly. “I need to know it before I see her again.”
“Makes two of us,” I mumble under my breath.
But I do as I’m told. As usual. I don’t create waves. I’m not the wildcard that Xander is, or the deceptive psycho that Ben is. I’m just me, trying to get along in this world without making a big deal out of shit like everyone else.
