Page 12 of Caged
She shakes her head. “I can’t…”
“Kasey,” a male voice booms from down the hall. “Let’s go.”
I whip my head his direction, because I know that fucking voice, and glower.
“Fuck off, Kieren,” I call, positioning my body in front of Kasey. “Can’t you see we’re having a conversation?”
He stalks toward me, flanked by his despicable lackey, Barrett. I despise that man, maybe more than I despise Jace. Kieren stops five feet away and crosses his arms. He looks me up and down with a cocky sneer, and although I remember Monroe telling us he looked different in our group chat, seeing his transformation up close and personal is jarring.
On the surface, the changes to his appearance are subtle – the new tattoos and piercings merely enhance what was already his aesthetic. He’s also bigger, taller somehow, in a way that suits him. By the end of our sophomore year, he’d lost a considerable amount of weight, which, in hindsight, is not surprising from a person who allegedly snorted cocaine for breakfast. His frame now looks healthy, and he’s clearly put on muscle.
No, it’s not the physical changes that give me pause.
It’s his eyes.
They’re empty in a way that makes him look inhuman.
Chills prickle my skin as I take in his hardened, expressionless face. If we weren’t surrounded by people right now, I’d be tempted to reach out and touch him simply to confirm he has a heartbeat.
“Gabi,” Kieren says in a disgusted tone that turns my blood to ice. “Who the fuck let you in?”
“Excuse me?” I snap back.
“Jace,” Kieren barks, and a towering, menacing figure emerges from down the hall. I cross my arms, pissed off, as Jace fucking Carver makes his way to Kieren’s side. The repulsed look he gives me, dripping with venomous hatred, would make most people cry.
But I’m not most people.
“Jace, get these geriatric cunts out of here, and tell whichever fuckhead let them in that he’s cleaning the basement with his toothbrush for the next month.”
“Do not fucking touch me,” I growl when Jace takes a step in my direction.
“Gabi, it’s okay. Let’s leave. This party sucks, anyway,” Vivienne adds.
“Yeah, I know this party sucks ass, but I’ll be damned if I let some oversized minion throw me out.”
“What the fuck did you say, cunt?” Jace snarls, edging me backward, and it takes me a second to collect myself because this man, who talked about marriage and babies within two weeks of dating, who begged me not to break up with him, who sobbed at my feet, just called me a fucking cunt.
Somewhere in the background, I hear Ele tell Jace to knock it off, and then my back slams against the wall, and I see red. My hand has never moved so fast.
I feel the searing sting across my palm before I realize I’ve slapped him. His head whips to the side, and I feel a fleeting moment of satisfaction until I watch him slowly turn back to face me.
“That was a mistake,” he growls, then picks me up and slings me over his shoulder as if I weigh less than a backpack.
“Put me down,” I scream as I claw at his backside in a vain attempt to give him a wedgie. It’s childish, I know, but it’s my only form of retaliation.
“Where are you taking me?” I demand. I try not to focus on the fact that this is the first time Jace has touched my body since our breakup. He winds through the halls at an alarmingly fast clip, and I start to feel dizzy. Ele and Viv are on his heels, screaming at him with equal vigor.
The sharp clang of a metal door hinge cuts through the commotion.
“Outside,” Jace bellows. I don’t know where we are, and all I can see is the ground behind Jace’s feet as he holds open the door. We’ve all stopped screaming. What’s the point? I remainhanging upside down over Jace’s shoulder, and it’s not like any of us can physically go toe to toe with him.
“Can you put me down now?” I plead, but in the blink of an eye, I’m back inside, and Jace has pulled the door shut.
He flings me off his shoulder like I’m a rag doll and shoves me into the wall. My head bounces against the hard surface, and I let out a cry.
I hear Ele and Viv pounding on the outside of the door, threatening to call the police.
He presses his body against mine, pinning me in place. “Stop,” I grind out as he squeezes my cheeks together and forces my face into an upward tilt. He’s so much bigger than me. There was a time when I found our size difference to be thrilling, but now I’m doing everything I can to stop myself from shaking with fear.
