Page 25 of Fear the Reapers
This was a mistake. I could fix it and get her ass out of here, but she needed to stop drawing attention to us. The surrounding hyenas would forget about her if she didn’t give them anything to remember.
She shook out of my grip and jerked her body away in a flash.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I hissed, latching onto her elbow to stop her retreating footsteps.
“Away from you.” She spat just as the song changed, causing every eye in the room to stare.
FUCK.
Chapter 15
Stevie
Fuck DC.
Fuck Atlas. Fuck whatever he wanted to refer to himself as and fuck his piece of shit brothers who brought me here. I could’ve stayed blissfully unaware of who DC really was, but now I had to face the cold, hard truth. The DC I knew was dead, and in his place was Atlas, a man that stood for every single thing I hated.
I mean, who the hell did he think he was? Grabbing me like I belonged to him? Last time I checked, he had a fucking fiance to worry about. Asshole.
And what was his problem with the bartender? Sure, Jacob was a little extra friendly, but who cares? He was falling for my flirty drunken damsel act and I didn’t owe DC, no, Atlas, an explanation for my behavior.
For someone so obsessed with what I was doing, he completely missed the reason I flirted with Jacob to begin with. Being a drunk, flirty girl was the easiest way to get someone’s guard down. When I held Jacob’s arm to thank him for the last drink, my other hand slipped into his back pocket and plucked out his iPhone. Of course Atlas was too preoccupied with trying to control me to notice.
I wasn’t stupid enough to steal it. Jacob would eventually put two and two together if the phone stayed missing. My plan was to borrow it and give it back, with everyone none-the-wiser. Of course, Atlas had to come in and ruin everything.
Now Jacob was on edge, and he’d probably stay far away from me for his own preservation. It made it harder, but not impossible. I just needed to do it quickly.
Barrelling for an empty restroom stall, I slipped Jacob’s phone from my pocket and punched in Alex’s number, praying she wasn’t already asleep.
“Hello?” She answered, the sound of her voice bringing a wave of relief.
Thank god she was okay.
“Hello?” She continued. “Is anyone there?”
Shit. I had been so relieved to hear her talk that I had completely forgotten to say something.
“Hey, Al.” I croaked, doing a shit job of reigning in my emotions.
“Stevie! Is that you? Dude, I’ve been trying to call you and text you for the last two nights. Where are you? Are you okay? What happened?”
“Yes, it’s me.” I said, laughing while holding back the tears that threatened to fall, “I’m okay. I’m safe. They confiscated my phone, so I had to borrow someone else’s to call you.”
“Stevie, I-”
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.” I said, cutting her off. “I just wanted to say that I love you and that you need to get out of town.”
“Wait, what?” She asked, “What do you mean?”
Fuck. I couldn’t tell her about how Malcolm had fucking lied to both of us. She’d probably try something stupid to help me escape and end up getting herself caught up in the mess. I released a shaky breath before continuing, knowing another lie was going to spill from my lips.
“I’ll get out of here, but Malcolm’s debt is huge and it might take longer than we expected to pay it off. As soon as school is out, I need you to move somewhere far away. I will find you when I get out of here, but Caspian isn’t safe for you anymore.”
“No, what? I’m not leaving you! I can’t! I-”
“You have to.” I urged. “I need to know you’re safe.”
I could hear breathing change and I knew she was on the precipice of crying. I wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay, but impending footsteps sounded at the entrance of the bathroom and I knew my time was up.
