Page 122 of Bones
“Lookin’ for you,” I lied, trying to keep my voice steady.
He huffed a dark laugh. “I don’t think so, baby. You tryin’ to run?”
My mind raced trying to come up with a way out of this situation. If he yelled, he’d wake the whole camp and we’d never escape all two dozen of them.
“See I’m thinkin’ it looks like you’re tryin’ to run. And I’m also thinkin’ Madame would reward me handsomely if I brought you back.”
“Don’t hurt yourself now,” my stupid mouth said before I could think better of it.
His arms tightened around me, making my back twinge in pain. “You always did think you were smarter than me, didn’t you?” he growled. “You know, Bones, we got some unfinished business, you and me.”
Fear settled like ice in my stomach. Trey’s face stayed expressionless, but his eyes dipped to mine for a brief second.
“You know, the boys get awful lonesome on these long trips. Having a pretty girl along would be a real treat.” One of his hands started moving, drifting across my body, and my stomach turned. “Or,I could make sure no oneelsetouches you, Bones.”
My hands trembled, but Wolf started snarling.
Survive. Do what you have to do to survive.
My mind seemed to hollow out, locking away everything except for the determination to get through this one moment. I knew I’d survived for years by thinking this way, but it felt even more horrible than I remembered.
“You swear it?” I asked, trying to put as much steel into my voice as possible. “I let you have me and you won’t let anyone else touch me or Trey.”
“Bones.” Trey’s voice came out soft but full of fury.
“I swear it, baby,” Zip said, “on my mother’s grave.”
“Bones,” Trey said again, but I couldn’t look at him.
“Ok,” I said hollowly.
Zip spun me around in his arms, fully ripping off one snowshoe and forcing me to balance precariously. The victorious grin on his face made me retreat farther into myself.
“Good girl,” he said in a low, cruel voice.
He pushed my jacket and pack off my shoulders, letting them fall to the snowy ground. His freezing hands slid under my shirt, slowly pulling it up. I raised my arms, desperately trying to push my mind somewhere far, far away. He pulled my shirt off and then stopped, eyes narrowing at the brand on my chest.
“What the fuck is?—”
A strangepffftnoise sounded and his entire body jerked. I leapt backward and stumbled over my jacket and pack and single snowshoe, landing on my ass in the snow. I caught a glimpse of the blood spurting from the hole that'd opened up in his forehead before he fell over backward with a dull thud and Trey hauled me up and wrapped his arms around me.
“You ok?” He sounded frantic, so at odds with how expressionless he’d been a second ago. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I had to wait until he was distracted.”
“I’m ok,” I said, dazed as I stared down at Zip’s motionless body. “You shot him.”
“I told him I would if he touched you again,” he said darkly, releasing me to grab my discarded shirt from the ground and shake the snow out of it. He handed it to me and turned his back, giving me some privacy to pull my shirt back on.
“How was it so quiet?” I whispered as I dressed, my brain still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.
“Silencer.” He turned, holding up the gun to show me the strange long barrel. “Madame had a few of these locked away. I helped myself to one before I left.”
I’d never seen something like that before. “He knew you were armed; he just thought you wouldn’t shoot him ’cause of the noise.” I realized.
“I was banking on him being a cocky asshole. Wasn’t too much to hope for.” He snagged my fallen jacket and pack and handed them to me, then bent to retrieve my snowshoe. “Come on, we better move fast before someone comes looking for him.”
“Are we just gonna leave him here?” I asked, shrugging my jacket and pack back on and lifting my foot so he could tie the snowshoe back on.
“Not much else we can do,” he said, getting back to his feet. “C’mon.”
