Page 72 of Surface Scratch
“What are you—” Caleb’s words were cut off as Andrew’s mouth closed over his. Caleb tried to drop his weight to get away, but Andrew gripped his face tighter, his chest crushing against Caleb’s.
His stomach reached a sickening boil as Andrew thrust his tongue into Caleb’s mouth, aggressively exploring him as Caleb struggled to pull his face away. He pulled the knife from his pocket, his finger on the release button.I can’t stab Andrew. I can’t kill someone again.He felt Andrew’s other hand pulling at the bottom of his hoodie.
Andrew’s aggressive kissing was nothing like Marcus’s. He didn’t smell right. He didn’ttasteright. The fingertips slipping up beneath his shirt were too warm. Almost burning hot. This was wrong. This was all wrong.
Caleb squeezed his eyes shut and bit down as hard as he could.
Andrew screamed as he jerked back, his hand coming up to his mouth, brow pinched as he braced himself against the washing machine.
Caleb stumbled toward the bathroom, spitting out the coppery blood that filled his mouth. He stared at Andrew, his heart pounding in his temples and his hand aching against the metal handle of his knife.
“Did you just fucking bite me?” Andrew cried out. He pulled his hand away, revealing the slimy mixture of saliva and blood dripping down his face.
Caleb spat again, the taste of Andrew’s blood on his tongue making him gag.
“It appears our friend here has picked up some bad habits from Marcus Graves,” a deep voice said from his living room.
Caleb’s blood ran cold. Who was that? Shit, had he left the door unlocked?
A man with gray hair stepped into the hallway with him, pulling a blood-stained bandanna away from the lower half of his face, a lead pipe slung over his shoulder. Caleb froze as the man flashed a grin at him, several of his teeth missing and his lower lip marred by yellowish bruises and stitches. “Remember me?”
“No…” Caleb whispered as he took another step back. It was him. The man from the alley.
The toothless man clapped his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “Good work, kid. Go see Raquel, she’s got a first aid kit in the van,” he said.
Andrew glowered at the gray-haired man, then glanced at Caleb. “Just do what he says,” he told him, using his sleeve to wipe the blood off his chin as he left the two of them alone at opposite ends of the hall.
“You’ll have to forgive Andrew, he has a terrible white knight complex,” the man said.
Caleb took another tentative step back, glancing toward the bathroom. He could make it in there to grab his phone, but there was no window he could escape from. He’d have to go into his mom’s old room and break the window in there to get away. Once he was outside, they probably wouldn’t try anything with people on the street.
“What do you want from me?” Caleb asked, adjusting his grip on the knife. His fingers and palm still hurt.
“You’re going to take a little ride with us and we’re going to have a nice long chat about your master,” he said as he took another step forward.
Caleb shook his head.Master?“I’m not going anywhere with you,” he said, straightening his back. He could at least pretend he wasn’t afraid.
“That’s not going to work for us,” the man said. He pointed his weapon at Caleb. “You don’t really have a choice in the matter, to be honest. And if you try to run, we’ll find you again. So it really is in your best interests to come with us and play nice.”
“No,” Caleb repeated.
The man sighed. “Then we’ll do this the hard way.”
Caleb didn’t wait to see what he meant before he opened the door to the bedroom and slammed it shut behind him. He twisted the lock and pressed his back against it, his heart racing as he tried to the think of something he could use to block the door long enough for him to get through the window. The hospital bed was probably heavy enough to stall them if he locked the wheels.
It was too bad Nick sat on top of the bed, cross-legged and staring down at a photo album in his lap.
“Nick?” he gasped.
Nick didn’t move from the bed. He didn’t even look up. “Things were easier back then,” he said solemnly, his voice raspier than Caleb remembered. He glanced at the head of the bed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when she passed. Did she suffer?”
The look in his eyes was blank, like the bit of light in the room was sucked into the depths of his pupils. Something twisted in Caleb’s gut as Nick stared him. He had just apologized for not being around for their mom, but it didn’t sound sincere at all. He didn’t look sincere. Caleb gritted his teeth.
“She died in her sleep.”
“That’s a good way to go,” Nick mumbled. “Did you have her buried?”
Anger burned through him. “You were gone for four fucking years, now you care about the details?” he snapped. “What the fuck are you doing here? What are you doing with those people?”
