#Poser

by Cambria Hebert

  Except tonight you aren’t drugged.

  Tonight you will fight.

  I bit down on the fleshy part of his hand and recoiled when I tasted the metal flavor of blood. Zach yelled but didn’t let go. Instead, the hand holding me around the waist grabbed my side and twisted.

  My knees buckled and I cried out. It was a muffled sound, but my God did it hurt. Fresh tears fell down my cheeks and the spot stung even after he let go.

  “Do it again and I’ll just kill you right here,” he growled right in my ear.

  Why was he trying to kill me? Why did he suddenly want me dead? I couldn’t understand. Hadn’t he hurt me enough already? What did I ever do to him?

  I didn’t want to die, and that meant I had to stop fighting at least for a minute to buy myself some time. I needed to think. I needed a plan.

  Somewhere very close by, my cell rang. It was the ringtone I used for Braeden. I knew it as well as I knew my own name. As Zach towed me backward quickly, he grunted and completely ignored my phone.

  It must be in his pocket. If only I could reach it.

  The ringing cut off.

  I felt my body slump.

  Zach giggled. “Ivy’s not here right now, but leave a message after the tone. Beeep!”

  We were in front of the door to the boutique now. I realized he was dragging me back inside. “My car’s out back in the alley,” he explained.

  Great. I’ve been running in the direction of the car he planned to kidnap me with anyway. Good move, Ivy.

  My phone started ringing again. Braeden. My heart leapt. He knew something was wrong. He knew and he was coming. I just needed to buy some time.

  I had a very bad feeling I was running out of time.

  The phone cut off again, and a sob tore from my throat. Zach laughed.

  I began to struggle again, and in the midst of my attempts, I reached up and yanked the necklace B had given me right off my neck. It hurt to remove it. I didn’t want to, but there was no other choice.

  I let it fall from my fingers, leaving it there in the middle of the boutique. He would come here. He would see it and know I hadn’t left of my own free will.

  Because Zach was practically dragging me through the place, he wasn’t able to hold my phone for light. The second we got in front of the counter, he stumbled and fell. I rolled quickly, catching the outline of my purse, which I’d dropped when he first showed up.

  Anyone who ever said a girl’s bag wasn’t one of her greatest weapons was clearly not a girl.

  I skittered away, but once again, he was faster.

  He caught me by the ankle and yanked. I fell onto the floor and rolled, kicking out with my free foot.

  It caught him right in the balls.

  His face froze for one second and pain screwed up his features.

  And then he screamed, pulled back his fist, and hit me right in the face.

  I must have passed out, because when I opened my eyes, I was sitting in the passenger seat of what had to be his car. There was a BMW emblem on the steering wheel and the interior was black leather. It smelled stale in here, like it had been sitting in a garage for a long time.

  Yeah, like the entire time he was locked away.

  The side of my face hurt. It was on fire, and I fingered it gently, pulling in a breath when I touched the swollen flesh.

  “I like you better when you’re drugged.” He sounded out of breath.

  “I liked you better when you were locked up.” I just sounded pissed. I wasn’t even scared anymore. I was just angry and confused. I wasn’t going to let him rape me again. He’d have to kill me first.

  “Just like Romeo,” he muttered. “Always thinking you’re better than everyone else.”

  “What?”

  “You know,” he said, like he was thoroughly annoyed. “What is it with blonds? They think they can have whatever they want. Take whoever they want. They think the rules don’t apply to them.” His words were coming fast. He made no sense, and when I glanced down at the dashboard, I noted he was driving eighty miles an hour.

  I reached for my seatbelt and clicked it into place. He didn’t even notice. He was too busy going on and on about blonds and why he hated them so much.

  Zach was completely off his rocker. Like there was something truly wrong in his brain. He was insane, and that made him even more dangerous. I didn’t think I could reason with him, but I could at least try.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I just told you!” he yelled and slapped the steering wheel.

  “Because I’m blond?”

  “Because you’re going to open your big fat mouth and tell everyone what I did to you. Then I’ll be locked up for good. Do you know what they do to handsome guys like me in jail?”

  I’m sorry. This was a very scary, serious situation. But I couldn’t get over the fact Zach thought he was good-looking…

  Ew.

  “I won’t tell anyone.” I lied.

  “That’s what I told her.”

  “Told who?” I echoed.

  “Missy.” He looked at me with a smug smile. I wanted to scream for him to keep his eyes on the road. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I knew we were going there fast. “She came to visit me, you know. She brought me a basket full of stuff.”

  Missy went to visit him in the mental ward? Was she the one who put him up to this? Just when I thought she couldn’t get any skankier, she goes and does something like this…

  “Why would she do that?” I asked myself.

  “Because she realizes how perfect we are for each other. She understands me. She knows what it’s like to be a victim of a blond. Tossed aside for someone new.”

  I didn’t speak crazy, so I decided saying as little as possible would probably be my best option here.

  “I can’t let you tell people what I did. It will ruin me. It will ruin her. I won’t have you getting in my way.”

  “I’m not the only one who knows what you did,” I said.

  “Your boyfriend’s next.”

  My blood ran cold. The little bit of calm I was gaining flew out the window. “No!”

  “I thought about killing him first. But I want him to suffer when I tell him all about what I did to you. It will make his death that much more awful.”

  “Why?” I sobbed. “Why would you hurt him that way?”

  “Because of what he did to Missy!” he yelled. “He betrayed her, just like my mother betrayed me!”

  “What?” I asked, confused. Did he just say his mother? I thought we were talking about Braeden.

  All of a sudden, a set of headlights blinded us from the rearview mirrors. They approached fast, so fast I barely had time to register they were there until I was squinting from the glare.

  “No!” Zach screamed. “How did he find us?”

  Blinking against the sudden light, I turned in my seat to stare out the back window. I could hear the smooth purr of an engine and then I saw a flash of neon green.

  That was Romeo’s car!

  Zach pressed on the gas, and the car shot forward. My eyes stayed glued to the Hellcat, and I almost shouted amen at the top of my lungs when the car increased its speed easily to catch up.

  “Damn him!” he yelled. “I thought he was out of town.”

  I glanced at him and shrugged. I wanted him to think it was Romeo. The guy was clearly Zach’s trigger. Maybe if he thought Romeo was hunting us down, he would make a mistake.

  Romeo was out of town. He’d gotten on an airplane this afternoon. That might be Romeo’s car, but Romeo wasn’t the one behind the wheel.

  I knew exactly who that was.

  He was coming for me.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Braeden

  “Yeah!” I hollered and hit the steering wheel the second the BMW’s taillights came into view.

  If I had been wrong about where he was going with her, it would likely have cost Ivy her life. But I wasn’t wrong.

  The stars were on o
ur side tonight.

  He was taking her out to the place I’d brought Ivy at the beginning of the semester. The place we’d spent the night in the bed of the truck.

  It was one of the closest yet most isolated spots in town. Zach hadn’t gone to high school with Romeo and me. He went to some uppity private school. Even so, all the kids knew about this place. Everyone hung there, so I knew he’d know about it too.

  I knew he saw me when his BMW shot up the road. Fuck, he was already flying. It scared the shit out of me. I wondered if Ivy was okay. If she was even conscious. My hands gripped the wheel and I pressed on the gas.

  The Hellcat shot forward with barely a sound. This car was a fucking machine. Romeo had opened it up a couple times on an open road, but nothing like this. I was going over a hundred miles an hour, in the dark, nearing a one-lane road.

  This was dangerous as fuck.

  But I didn’t care.

  All I cared about was getting to Ivy before Zach could hurt her worse.

  I just had to wait him out, not lose his trail, and when he pulled over—which he had to do at some point—I’d get her back.

  And then I’d kill him.

  Killing wasn’t something I thought I’d ever do.

  But he wasn’t walking away from this.

  Oh, hells no.

  Impatient and wanting just a glimpse of Ivy, I increased the speed even more and pulled up alongside his little sports car. I had to try and see her now, because in just a couple miles, this road would turn into a one-lane road and I’d be forced to hang back.

  Zach looked at me from the driver’s side window. I knew he couldn’t see in because the windows in this thing were tinted.

  I leaned forward, trying to see around his angry face. I caught the outline of someone sitting in the passenger seat, but I couldn’t see if she was okay.

  I rolled the passenger-side window down, hoping to get a better look.

  Zach’s face registered surprise when he saw it was me behind the wheel. He probably just assumed it was Romeo.

  I saw his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was yelling.

  Suddenly, Ivy jerked forward and looked around him.

  Our eyes locked together.

  She was okay.

  Well, maybe not okay, but she was alive.

  She mouthed the words I love you, and I held up two fingers.

  Times two.

  Zach realized we were communicating, and he looked between us. Then he lifted his hand and smacked her. Her face turned away with the impact, and I let out a yell.

  “You son of a bitch!” I roared.

  He laughed.

  I had the sudden urge to run him off the road, just ram the Cat into his car and take him out.

  But I couldn’t because Ivy was in that car.

  I glanced back ahead and noted the road beginning to merge into one lane.

  Zach saw too.

  I tried to get another look at Ivy before I had to slow down. I leaned forward and Zach leaned down. What the fuck was he doing?

  Ivy was leaning against the passenger seat, staring in my direction. I could see the sheen of tears on her cheeks.

  Zach sat back up, cutting off my view.

  His face filled my line of sight and he smirked, an ugly, smug look.

  Then he held up a shiny object. The dash lights glinted off the metal.

  It was a gun.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Ivy

  The second he pulled out the gun, I knew it was now or never.

  This was it.

  The only moment I would have to save my own life.

  Braeden was here. He was trying to get to me, but B couldn’t save me.

  Only I could do that.

  Zach laughed when the Hellcat dropped behind him and the lane narrowed. Trees lined the roads, and up ahead stretched spacious fields with apple trees dotting the distance.

  “Sorry, bitch,” he said and leveled the gun at me. “The arrival of your boyfriend means our time is cut short. It’s good news for you. One bullet to the head and it will all be over. Not near as fun as what I had planned, but sometimes we must improvise.”

  Sick bastard.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “The second your dead body goes flying, lover boy will stop to save you. Then I’ll stop, and as he’s crying over your lifeless, bleeding body, I’ll shoot him too. I’ll be in Mexico before anyone even suspects it was me.”

  “It’s a good plan,” I told him, even though it sucked. “There’s just one problem you didn’t think of.”

  He frowned. “I thought of everything.”

  I shook my head. “You forgot about me.”

  On impulse, I grabbed the barrel of the gun and shoved it up in the air. He pulled the trigger, and the loud shot and the sound it made as it ripped through the roof made me scream.

  We fought over the gun, the car swerving wildly on the road. But I didn’t stop. I kept fighting. I knew I was going to die, but at least this way I could take Zach with me.

  At least this way, Braeden would still be alive.

  “No!” Zach roared and wrenched his hand free of mine. He brought the gun back down and pointed it at me once more.

  I reached out and grabbed the steering wheel, giving it a yank and veering the car right off the road.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  5 minutes later…

  Braeden

  The time I felt the most helpless in my entire life was when I was sitting next to my mother’s hospital bed, watching her fight to live through the injuries she sustained from my father’s vicious temper.

  Until now.

  Nothing, and I mean nothing in this world, could compare to the sight of watching the car with my entire life in it swerving erratically all over the road, hearing a gunshot, and then watching the car turn sharply off to the side, hit a large stump, and flip over.

  Three. Times.

  My life flashed before me like I was the one dying, and every single image I saw was of her.

  Ivy on top of me.

  Ivy with desire in her eyes.

  Ivy laughing.

  Ivy dressing the damn dog in a pink tutu.

  She was it. She was all I saw.

  It seemed like it took forever for the car to stop rolling and finally lie still. Even after it landed, it still rocked back and forth a little, like the momentum it had gained from the speed at which Zach was driving would have catapulted farther.

  That is if the tree it hit hadn’t gotten in its way.

  I hit the brakes and was out of the car in seconds flat. Running through the brush, across the field, and finally into some trees, I screamed her name.

  Please, God, don’t let her be dead.

  Please. God.

  If she is dead, just take me too.

  When I got to the car, I skidded to a halt. The driver’s side was facing me. I could see Zach inside, held in by the seatbelt. His face was covered in blood, and I couldn’t tell if he was alive.

  I didn’t care.

  I scrambled around the car to the passenger side. All the windows were blown out, glass and debris everywhere.

  “Ivy,” I cried. “Ivy, answer me!”

  I dropped down on my stomach and dragged myself right up to the window, ignoring the stinging cuts of glass as I went.

  She didn’t answer. She didn’t call out my name.

  A sob ripped from my throat. “No!” I yelled and stuck my arm inside the window. I couldn’t see her, but I knew she had to be inside.

  “No!” I roared again, lifting my face and shouting up at the sky.

  Millions of stars blinked back at me, lighting up the night sky.

  Tears blurred my vision as I felt around and slid in closer.

  Something found my hand and latched on.

  “Ivy!” My voice broke. Her hand was so small, but when I said her name, she squeezed my fingers.

  “I’m coming, baby. Hang on! Don’t you die on me!�
��

  The smell of gas reached my nose. It was pungent and unwelcome. The gas tank was punctured, and it was likely spewing gas out all over the field around this car.

  I shoved my head inside and saw her.

  The seatbelt kept her inside, but she was badly beat up and her face was covered in blood. Just seeing her like that scared the shit out of me. Her body was limp and twisted. I knew the second I unlatched the seatbelt, she’d crumple onto the roof.

  I wouldn’t fit through the window and inside the mangled car. I couldn’t go in there and use my body as a shield for hers.

  “Ivy can you hear me?” I asked.

  She made a sound, and I laughed, but it was desperate. “Best sound I’ve ever heard,” I told her. “Listen to me, baby. We gotta get you out of there. I’m gonna unlatch the seatbelt and you’re going to fall a little. It’s probably going to hurt, and I’m real sorry about that.”

  She made another sound. I wanted to believe it was her way of telling me to do it.

  The scent of gas was getting stronger, and I was very afraid I was working on a limited clock. It took me a minute to reach the seatbelt latch, but the second I did, I pressed it. The entire car groaned when she fell. The sound of her body hitting made me sick.

  I pressed forward, shimmying my entire torso inside the window and wrapping my arms around her hips. I couldn’t reach any farther, and it forced me to half drag her out.

  It was a painstaking process because she felt like dead weight and I had to go backward through a broken window with debris littering the grass. When I got far enough out, I let her lie there and jumped to my feet. I reached down and lifted her the rest of the way and hefted her into my arms.

  “Ivy!” I said, trying not to sound like I was completely panicking. “You’re out now. I got you. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  She didn’t make a sound and her eyelids didn’t flutter.

  I was very afraid the process of getting her out of the car had been too much.

  I backed up from the wreck and, on my way, stepped in the growing puddle of gasoline. It was spraying everywhere, all over the ground and the car.

  I ran away from the mess, cradling her as close as I could. She was so still. So bloody.