"That'll kill you," a voice says. "Your body can only handle so much of that before it hits your bloodstream."
I look up, finding Dad standing over me. He offers me a hand, but it's still hard to move, so he yanks me up to my feet, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. "Where is your mother?"
"How did you get here? How did you find me?"
"That's not important." With my arm pinched within his grip, he pulls me back toward the house.
"It's not this way," I tell him. Regardless of distaste for Mom's newfound relationship, and the fact that I’m stuck here against my will, I will still do everything to protect her from him. I will never watch this man hurt her again.
"Which means it is," he says.
"I'll kill you if you try to hurt her again," I grunt.
"Sin, Sin, Sin. Are you too stupid to realize who hurt who here? I bet you aren't threatening death upon your mother if she hurts me again, are you?"
"You deserve to feel pain. You deserve to suffer. You're a shitty excuse of a father and a shittier excuse of a husband." I spit at him and pull myself out of his grip, thankful to have my strength restored.
"I will kill you if you touch her. That's a promise," I say again.
He laughs at me as he continues walking forward. "You're too scared to step on an ant, son. Please."
I want to prove this asshole wrong in every way possible.
15
Chapter Three
REESE
"Are you getting tired?" Sin asks.
"I'm fine," I lie. I'm exhausted. We haven't slept in what feels like days and I don't even know what we're walking toward, other than the sounds that are starting to freak me out. The bits of food we both ate yesterday have been replaced with an emptiness gnawing at my insides. At least as a prisoner, I was being fed once a day. My energy has depleted but I don't want to complain. I know what it'll get me with him. I feel like I'm walking in dizzying circles when I've done nothing but walk in a straight line for the past several hours. The sun is flirting with the horizon line and I hope that means we'll stop soon.
"We're almost there." Wherever there is. At least the sounds of cries and static have stopped over the past hour.
"We've walked all this way so you can teach me how to shoot a gun?"
"No, we've walked all this way so you can see what those noises are. And so we can possibly find something to eat." While the thought of food should be making me drool, I've learned well enough to know food does not just appear and that we will likely have to fight for it. "I haven't been down this far in a while. Years, actually."
I pick up my speed as I try to make out what I'm looking at—could be a mirage at this point. Is that—oh my God. It's water. Water! I've dreamt of submerging myself in a pool of warm water. I've dreamt of it for so long. Feeling the coolness cover my skin and my hair turn to silk against my back, is something I never thought I would experience again. Sin is on my heels and as I approach the edge of the water, my focus locks onto something else. A wall. A wall short enough to climb. Is this the way out? Please, God. Let this be my way out. I begin to take my boots off, but Sin's hand grips around my arm. "No," he says quietly.
"No? Are you kidding me? Get away from me. I'm going in whether you like it or not." Sin grips my arm a little tighter and yanks me away from the water this time. He pulls me down alongside the water to the other side where he points at the water. "What? It's water. I need water, Sin."
His hands cup around my head and he adjusts the angle in which I was looking. "Look through the water." It's murky and swirling around, but I concentrate on looking beyond the surface, and I can't make out what I'm looking at.
Unintentionally, I gasp when I come to the unfortunate conclusion of what I'm seeing. I force my focus down the length of the water, seeing more and more. Breathing heavily, I turn around and look at Sin. His eyes are straining and his forehead has wrinkles I've never seen before. "Those are bodies, Reese."
"I know." I turn back and look again at what must have been a massacre at some point. "Who did this to them?"
Without skipping a beat, he says, "They all did this to themselves. I was dumb enough to almost become one of them once."
"I don't understand."
He squats down in from of the water and pulls me down with him. "Give me your finger."
"What? Why?" He takes my hand in his and bends all of my fingers down except for my pointer finger. "What are you doing, Sin?" He tugs my hand toward the water, forcing the tip of my finger to touch the water. A deep burn runs through my finger hand, causing all of my muscles to twitch. I jerk my hand away from him, falling backward onto my butt. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I slap his arm with force, but he laughs.
"The water is poisoned with a cocktail of deadly flesh eating bacteria," he says.
"And you couldn't just tell me that? You had to infect me with it just to get your point across? Why do you have to be such a goddamn—"
"Say it for me, baby."
I groan loudly and pull myself up from the ground. Turning in circles for a brief moment, I feel like a crazed lunatic right now. I have nowhere to run and I feel like imploding from the amount of anger building up within me. "I can't stand you," I grit. "You dragged us all the way down here so you could burn me?"
"I think we've already been over this. Yes."
"Screw you, Sin!"
"We've been over that, too," he smirks. That smirk I want to slap. He reaches into his back pocket and retrieves a gun. "Here you go."
"You're handing me a gun when you know how pissed off I am?" I return his little snide smirk.
"Yeah, because I know you're not dumb. Being alone here is way worse than having a hot stud tagging along. And by the way, touching the tip of your finger to the water won't do any permanent damage, so quit freaking out."
"You like to tempt your fate, don't you?" I ask. No, I wouldn't shoot him. Being alone here would be worse than falling into the pits of Hell. Although there's no reason he needs to know I feel like that. I take the gun from his hand and point it in the opposite direction, looking through the sights, pinching one eye closed. "What'cha gonna shoot over there, princess?"
Keeping my fingers off the trigger, I turn around, pointing the gun at Sin's head. "Call me princess again, and you'll see."
"Hey now," he says, walking toward me. "Joking or not, we don't point weapons at people's heads unless we intend to kill. And we both know you don't want to kill me." He presses my hand down so the gun rests against the side of my leg. "Hold on one second," he says, walking ahead of me over to a nearby tree and pulls a branch down, snapping it so it dangles lower than the rest of the branches. He points at the one single leaf hanging from the end and looks back at me. "You're going to shoot this."
He walks away from the leaf and moves around behind me as I lift the gun back up and aim it toward the leaf. "I got it."
"Make sure you use your sights. Look for the leaf within the sights." Holding onto the gun tightly, I straighten my arms and hold my focus between the sights. "Hold on," he says softly. His hands slide down the length of my arms and he repositions the way I'm holding the gun. "Keep this arm bent and move your hand…here." His touch is making it hard to focus. Maybe he knows this because he removes his hands but doesn't move away. I try again to focus and I finally position myself so the leaf is in my sights. "Go ahead."
I release the trigger and jerk backward into Sin's chest, feeling a rush of energy press through my veins. My heart is pounding and my breaths are short—I feel amazing.
Sin walks ahead of me toward the leaf and I lower the gun back to my side. He snatches the leaf off of the branch and brings it over to me. "How did I do?"
"Not bad," he grins. "Actually, that was pretty epic." He shows me the leaf and the bullet hole in the exact center of the leaf. "You might just be a natural."
I hate the way he's smiling at me—the crooked grin that only shows part of his teeth. I hate the way he's looking at me—the way
his lids are half closed from looking down at me. I hate that he just took the gun out of my hand and placed it down on the ground. I hate that his hands are around me. And I hate—I hate that I don't hate the way he's touching me and the way his lips taste—the way his tongue tastes. The way my body aches for more. I hate what he's doing to me because I love it way too much.
His hands are cupped around my face and they're far gentler than they've been any time he has touched me in the past couple of days. His kisses soften and he pulls away just enough to look into my eyes, and I swear to God my knees literally just went weak. I try not to blink because I'm trying to read his every thought, but it isn't the thoughts I'm reading, it's the pain I can see instead. Pain that mirrors my own.
The pain disappears as his lips close back over mine. I forget about anything I'm feeling—the hunger, the aches, the thirst—it's all replaced by everything he's giving me. He lifts me up, allowing my legs to tangle around his waist. "Do you still want to screw me?" he growls.
"I never said I wanted to screw you," I mutter.
"It was assumed when you said, 'Screw you.' So, what's it going to be?" His mouth is peppering kisses from behind my ear down my neck, making it hard for me to conjure up a sarcastic response.
Giving up the battle, I let out a weak, "Yes."
He walks us over to the tree and falls against the trunk heavily; his hands skating up the bare skin on my back. My body shudders at the contact of his skin against mine, and I squeeze my arms around his neck tightly, needing whatever comes next. Slowly, he squats down against the tree until we're both seated on the ground. My shirt is torn off quickly and his hands are everywhere I want them to be. His lips follow the path of his hands and I'm losing my will to remain upright.
My breaths are out of rhythm and his are harsh against the sensitive skin over my stomach. With his hand around my back, he lowers me backwards until I'm lying flat. He's hovering over me as I press his shirt up, pulling it over his head as he loosens his belt, allowing his pants to fall to his ankles. "Sin," I breathe.
He stops mid-kiss and looks down into my eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Protection? We have none."
"I do," he whispers into my ear. "Regardless of being held hostage here like you, I'm still a man and I still had hopes. It was one of the things I needed from my bedroom yesterday."
For some reason this makes me feel even crazier inside, just thinking about the turmoil he was going through yesterday, and yet, he was still thinking about this—us. My questioning for his hate toward me is slowly diminishing. Anger is ugly and hard to see through, but it will always be present here in this situation we're confined to. I feel it too, but I can see through it. I can see him. Who he really is. I wiggle out of my pants and panties, feeling the strange sensation of the cool dirt soothe my backside. With the sunlight bright and acting as a spotlight, I take note of the faint freckles over his nose and the dull scar in the center of his chin.
He tears open the wrapper of the condom and unrolls it over his—wow. I missed a lot being locked up, and this is more than what I imagined. He lowers his body carefully over mine, keeping his knees planted into the ground as his hand travels down the center of my stomach and lower. Much lower. My eyes jerk open as I feel his finger slip inside of me. Unlike the person Sin has proven to be, the gentleness of his touch is appreciated and incredible. His finger moves in and out of me slowly, causing a melting sensation to ooze through every one of my limbs. The pressure building within is causing noises to escape from my throat, sounds I've never felt the need to make before. "I think you're ready now," he says into my ear.
His lips press against my cheek, then the corner of my lips and as his lips make contact with mine, he presses himself inside of me. It's painful at first, but not painful enough that I'd dare to ask him to stop. The soft touch of his hand feathering over my breast creates a growing desire that can't be tamed without more than what he's already giving me. I grip my hands tightly around his hips, feeling my body arch away from the ground, using him to move faster and a little harder. I don't know how much experience he has, or hasn't had, but my God, this man knows exactly what he's doing. The pain is long gone and has been replaced by a numbingly beautiful ache. I feel as though my body is moving toward the edge of a cliff and I'm not sure where my last step will be before I fall.
My begging cries grow louder as the feeling of free falling falls upon me. Everything tightens and my heart stills as I take that anticipated fall. Tremors quake through me as everything relaxes heavily into the earth. Sin moves heavily against me a few more times, groaning against my ear until he falls on top of me, breathing heavily against my neck. "My God. You have made the last five years of my life worth surviving," he utters. "I was so lost, Reese. So damn lost. And I'll be damned, but I'm so grateful you're the one who found me."
Maybe he isn't as big of an asshole as I thought.
"I'm still glad I said 'Screw you,'" I smile against his cheek.
16
Chapter Four
Sin
Reese is like my own personal detox. For every moment of anger and hostility this girl has redirected toward me, I have grown a new appreciation for the badass side I see growing within her. I can't take my eyes off of her as she slowly slips her clothes back on, all while trying to hide the struggle of a smile painted across her pretty little lips. "I should practice shooting some more," she says tying up the laces on her boots.
I haven't made much of an effort to get dressed as I'm sitting here against the tree in nothing but my boxer shorts, so I reach up and grab a branch, tugging it away from the tree. "Here, shoot that leaf," I point to the one dangling inches over my head.
"Are you out of your mind?" she asks, tying her hair back up.
"Yup. Now shoot."
"I could shoot your hand off, or—or I could end up putting a bullet right through your head."
"Well, I wouldn't do that. That would kind of suck." I continue holding the branch still. "Come on. Show me what I know you can do."
"Sin, no. I'm not doing it."
"What happened to the girl with confidence?" I stare at her for a minute, watching a darkness seep in through her eyes. There it is. She walks over to the pistol and lifts it back up, inspecting it for a moment, stalling. She backs up until she's at least ten feet away from me and lifts her arms up, holding the pistol just as I showed her. "Back up some more."
I can see she's debating whether or not to argue, but I also think she doesn't want me to remind her of the confidence issue. She backs up another five feet. I'll quit bugging her now since I guess I would like to keep all of my fingers. She lifts the pistol back up and squints her right eye shut. My eyes are locked on her chest and the heaviness of each one of her breaths. "Sin," she breathes out.
"You won't hurt me," I tell her. She squeezes her finger over the trigger and releases. I squint, nervous at first to look up at the leaf and hopefully all of my fingers. With one eye open, I glance up, seeing another hole directly through the center of the leaf. This girl is damn good. "Shit, girl. You got some sick gift there. You sure you never shot a weapon before?"
She drops the pistol down by her side and walks over to me slowly. The wind is blowing the loose strands of her blond hair across her forehead and I unintentionally lose myself in the moment, seeing something change within her. I don't know what it is, but she's driving me nuts. She kneels in front of me and leans in toward me. "How do you know I wasn’t taken here for my bad behavior? How do you know I wasn't being committed to Applebrook the day you saw me in the hall? How do you know I didn't murder someone with a weapon," she looks down at the pistol, "just like this one." She leans in closer, her lips close enough to touch. "Have you considered the thought that maybe you've had me all wrong?"
Holy fu— her lips crush into mine as her legs wrap around my waist. An ache in my groin has me losing my mind and trying to figure out how to get her clothes off as fast as I can. But that thought is interrupted when sh
e stands up, leaving me with the wind of her presence as she walks off back toward the water. This chick will most definitely be the death of me.
She takes her bag from the ground and slings it over her shoulders before squatting down in front of the water. I watch her observing the dead bodies at the bottom of the pool. The train of thought running through her right now is intriguing and I want to know exactly what she's thinking because regardless of her being locked up for three years, she still seems like she's got this hidden secret of intelligence I'm dying to uncover. "We need to keep walking," I tell her.
"We need water. Is there any water that isn't deadly?"
"There is, but it ain't near here." I finally stand up against the tree, feeling a slight unease in the back of my head. I reach around to the wound, checking on the damage left behind from the food fight. I pull my hand back around to check for blood, displeased to see that there is, in fact, blood coating my fingers. "Hey," I say, softer than I intended. This wound is starting to make me a bit nervous. I can't afford an infection right now. I don't have much for medical supplies and what I have has to last us until we die or get the hell out of here—whichever comes first.
Reese runs over to me with worry laced through her blue eyes. "What's the matter?" She looks down at my hand and back up at my face. "Did I do that?" She thinks she shot my hand.
I nod and laugh quietly. "No, babe." I wipe my hand off on my pants and turn around. "It's my head."
"Where's the first-aid stuff?" she asks, urgency filling her voice.
"In my bag." Reese runs over to my bag, rummaging through it. She pauses for a minute while she's in there and I know the first aid shit was right on top, so she shouldn't be having much trouble finding it.
She still hasn't moved. I hear her unfolding paper. What the hell? Why now? I move up behind her, tearing the paper out of her hand. "I just need you to help me with my head." I shove the paper into my back pocket. Damn, I can't keep much from this girl.
Locked In: No Way Out Series - Book One Page 9