I’m running late getting to the game. Kasey was going to meet me at my place and we’d drive over together but something came up with her aunt, so she sent a text letting me know she’d have to meet me at the school.
I call an Uber and get the oldest grandma in the history of Uber drivers who happens to drive five miles an hour below the speed limit the entire way, but I get there just as the first quarter ends and make my way over to the bleachers where Kasey said she’d be.
“Hey. Sorry I’m late.” I claim the empty seat beside her.
“Damn, Allie. Looking good,” she says, taking in my painted stomach. I blush. It hadn’t been planned, but I knew that some of the girls painted their boyfriend’s or favorite player’s number on their midriff, so I painted Roman’s—a number four—and a small red devil on my abdomen.
“Thanks. Think he’ll like it?”
Her brows wiggle. “I think he’ll love it.” She smirks, then winks. “Also, don’t hate me, but I might have to leave early.”
Oh. I look around, instantly realizing I don’t have anyone else to hang out with here if she leaves, but I promised the guys I’d be here so I can’t very well bail.
“My aunt is running short-staffed at the diner,” she tells me. “I don’t usually work there but she’s in a bind. That’s why I was late. I filled in after school for one of the girls who was a no-show. I can stay for most of the game, but I’ll need to leave before the end of the fourth so I can get there before the football crowd shows up.”
“Oh. That’s totally fine.” It’s great, actually. I won’t be alone the whole game. Just for part of the fourth. No big deal.
I look out on the field and instantly find Roman—number four. My heart quickens and I watch him run up the field, scoring for the Sun Valley Devils. The entire stadium cheers, including me. I jump up and down like a moron screaming his name in the hopes he’ll see me.
“Oh, and here. I brought us these to make the game more interesting.” Kasey opens her purse to show me the stash of mini booze bottles tucked away inside.
“You snuck alcohol into a school game?”
She grins. “How else was I supposed to get through this game?” Pulling two out, she hands one to me. A mini Malibu rum. I roll my eyes but accept it. “To Dominique throwing an interception.”
“I can’t toast to that.”
She shrugs. “I can. You can toast to Roman scoring the winning touchdown.”
I laugh but concede. “Okay. I’ll toast to that.” Cracking the cap, I take a drink, downing half of the rum in one swallow before tucking the bottle into my pocket. “That’s kind of awful,” I tell her.
“I know, but it was all I could find on short notice. Aaron keeps a stash of these in the bottom drawer of his dresser.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I look down and recognize Julio’s number flashing across the screen and smile.
“Hello?”
“Hey—” His words are hard to hear through the thundering noise of the crowd.
“Give me a second to get somewhere quiet,” I shout into the phone. “I’ll be back. I need to take this,” I tell Kasey. She waves me off, her attention focused on her own phone as her fingers fly over the keyboard. Standing, I make my way through the stands, slipping through the bleachers and heading for the parking lot gate.
The half-time show is starting up and everyone is on their feet dancing to whatever song the cheer squad has going on.
“Excuse me. Sorry.” I brush past a group of parents and finally make it outside the gate. It’s still loud out here but the noise level is no longer deafening.
“Sorry about that. How are you?” I ask as I stride further across the darkened lot toward the corner of the school. The lights barely illuminate the space but it’s still hard to hear Julio over the crowd so I resign myself to a phone call in the dark.
“I’m good. Now, tell me about this guy you mentioned you’re seeing.”
I laugh, hearing the protective tone in his voice. “Chill with the big brother vibes. Nothing serious is going on.”
He snorts. “Allie, you don’t date. Ryker was the exception and we saw how that went.”
I groan. “Please don’t remind me.” If I could forget ever being with Ryker, that’d be the day.
“I’m serious, though. Is he good to you?”
A smile spreads over my face as I think about Roman. He’s still an asshole to everyone else in this school but in the small pockets of time we happen to get alone, he’s different. Still cocky and possessive but also kind, thoughtful, and surprisingly funny. Just thinking about this past week we’ve had together is enough to make butterflies dance in my stomach.
“Yeah, Julio. He is. I don’t know what it is about him but…” I trail off and narrow my eyes in the dark as I spot two men ten yards away from me. They’re not doing anything, just standing there watching me, but still … goosebumps spread across my skin.
“You still there?” Julio asks.
“Ye…Yeah. I’m here. Sorry, umm, what was I saying?” I turn away from the men and head back across the parking lot, finally realizing I’d pulled myself away from the safety of the crowd. Everything looks different now. Darker, more sinister. My heart races in my chest and I can barely make out Julio’s words as panic bubbles inside me.
I scan the lot and see Silvia across the parking lot, but there’s no way I’m going to her for safety. I’m not that stupid. I don’t see anyone else close by, though. I chance a look behind my shoulder and just as I turn, my phone is snatched from my fingertips. The call is ended and my phone is tossed carelessly to the ground. “Hey!”
The man who took it grabs me by the throat and slams me against the brick wall of the school. My head slams against the hard surface and my vision blurs, a strangled cry pouring from my lips.
“This her?” Another voice asks.
A grunt. “Yeah. It’s her.”
The man holding my throat whirls me around, one arm bands beneath my chest, pinning my arms to my sides while the other one grips my throat. He shoves me forward. “Come on, we’ll take her over here.”
I try to scream but all I can muster is a wheezing sound. I spot Silvia across the lot again. Her face is trained away from me and I’m silently begging her to look my way. To see what’s happening right now. But she never turns, her gaze caught on something or someone else.
I try to cry out again, shouting her name but nothing comes out. My head is pounding and I squirm against his hold but he has me in a vice-like grip. My vision clears and I can see that he’s leading me further from the parking lot into a more remote area where the lights don’t reach. My stomach drops.
I fight harder, kicking out with my legs, and when that doesn’t work I drop my weight, but he still doesn’t release me.
“Girl’s got some fight in her,” the second man says. I twist to see him but all I can make out is a dark shadow.
The man holding me grunts and his grip on my throat tightens to the point that I know it’ll leave a bruise. Spots form in my field of vision and I claw at his fingers, desperate for air. “Just means this’ll be more fun.” His hot breath heats the side of my neck and I recoil. What does he mean, more fun? What are they planning to do to me?
Tears track down my cheeks, but I’m not resigned to my fate. Not yet. I try kicking again and this time I manage to hit his knee.
The man holding me curses and the hand around my throat loosens enough that I can finally suck in a deep breath.
I make it count and scream with everything in me. “Help! Somebody help me!”
The fist comes out of nowhere. A crack along my cheek that leaves me reeling.
“Dumb bitch.” He releases me and I crash to the ground, my hands meeting cool grass. I choke on a sob and reach up with a shaking hand to cradle my cheek.
The men don’t give me any time to recover. I’m shoved face first down in the cool, wet grass, my injured cheek pressed hard against the ground. I cry out again but it’s cut off when his hand comes up to cover my mouth. “You’re going to be nice and quiet if you want to leave here alive,” he spits at me. The threat in his voice settles deep in my bones, freezing me in place.
“Please—”
“That’s it. Beg for it.”
I try to shake my head but I can’t move. His weight has me pinned in place. “Please.” I hiccup. “Don’t do this.”
He releases my throat and leans back. His legs straddle my own and his other hand shoves beneath me to release the button of my jeans. This can’t be happening. I struggle against his hold, squirming and kicking, but he’s just so much bigger than me. My struggles make little difference. Deciding I have no other choice, I scream again. “Help. Som—”
Crack!
He grabs the back of my head and slams my face into the ground. Hard. Pain lances through me and sheer terror rips my insides apart.
“I won’t tell you again. Shut the fuck up,” he growls just before tugging my jeans and underwear down, exposing my bare rear to the cold night air.
Panic tightens my throat, but I manage to say, “Why are you doing this?” in a choked-out sob. My head is throbbing and black is quickly filling my field of vision, but I fight to stay awake and aware. I can’t black out. I refuse to pass out and be at their mercy.
The other man is chuckling beside us. “This is a message for dear old dad.” Ice freezes in my veins. “We want to make sure he knows that when he fucks with what’s ours, we’ll fuck with what’s his.”
What? I struggle to comprehend what he’s telling me, but as soon as I feel the other man press himself against my naked rear, my mind blanks.
No. No. No.
One hand pins me down, the other is beside my face as he braces himself against me. I hear the sound of a foil wrapper being torn open followed by more chuckles.
Tears prick the corners of my eyes and I struggle to breathe over the mounting pain in my chest. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. I repeat the words over and over again in my head but it doesn’t make them true.
A sharp intrusion makes my stomach lurch. I gasp and without realizing what I’m even saying, I beg him to stop. To let me go. I promise him anything and everything I can think of if he will just let me go. He doesn’t. Fighting doesn’t do anything but make him rougher. He grips me tighter, his hand bruising as he grabs my hips and forces his way inside of me. The other man presses his boot to the side of my face, holding me down.
My breaths are heavy. He moves behind me, grunting like an animal and vomit threatens to rise in my throat.
Everything hurts. My vision continues to swim as I force the bile down. I lock my gaze on his hand and force my mind to think of something, anything else.
The full moon manages to illuminate his tanned skin. The calluses on the side of his thumb. He has short fingernails with a thin line of dirt beneath each of them. I focus on the scars that cover the top of his hand. On the age lines. I force myself to count every hair follicle.
Time passes. I keep counting. I keep tracing the lines on his hand, blocking out the sounds he’s making. And then he stops. I sob in relief as his weight leaves me until he says, “Don’t fucking move.”
I don’t. I keep myself planted on the ground, my breathing shallow and my cheek still mashed against the lawn of the school. I need to move. To run and escape but my limbs are locked and frozen in place. I’m drowning in the realization that I was just—
Then the second man steps closer.
No. The word echoes in my mind before a raw animalistic sound pours out of me. He straddles my hips like the man before him did and I’m already shaking my head as another sob lodges itself in my throat, but just as he reaches for me, a voice speaks out in the distance.
A man.
His voice comes closer. I can’t tell what he’s saying but his words get louder as he nears. “Help,” I try to call out, but my words are little more than a whisper. My throat aching and scraped raw from crying.
“Shut up.” The man behind me says with a growl. “Do you think he’s spotted us?” He directs his questions to the other guy. I shift my head, still unable to see either of their faces. Both men are dark shadows in the night. A heavy presence I’m desperate to escape. I can’t go through this again. I don’t care if they kill me. I can’t—
“Help!” This time my words are louder.
The two men curse and the one behind me shoves up from me, using my back to press himself forward. I groan from the weight of him, my spine protesting his movements. “We need to get gone,” he says.
“Hey! Stop!” The newcomer shouts and the two men curse. Footsteps pound across the pavement toward me. I can’t tell how far away he is but a trickle of hope spills into me. I move to push myself up when one of the men grabs my hair and jerks my head up, my scalp stinging and fresh tears forming in the corners of my eyes.
I cry out.
“Be sure to relay our message. If Ulrich fucks with one of our deals again, we’ll be more than happy to make another visit,” the man says before dropping me harshly back to the ground.
They run in the opposite direction just as a new man runs up alongside me. “Dammit.” He curses and reaches for me but I recoil from his touch. “I’m not going to hurt you. I work for the Sun Valley P.D. Everything is going to be okay.” He tears off his jacket and throws it over my exposed skin before flipping open his cell phone. “I need an ambulance at Sun Valley High. Sexual assault. Yes.”
I wrap his coat around myself as I struggle to lift my pants back into place. My fingers are numb and my hands shake, making it nearly impossible. When I finally pull them up I gingerly roll to my back. Dark night sky greets me.
I swallow hard and the man comes into my field of vision. His phone is still held up to his ear. He’s saying something but I can’t hear him. Darkness crowds my vision and this time, I welcome it.
