Page 39 of Dollhouse

Noah’s desperate yell cuts through the chaos. “Don’t you fucking lose her, Bo!”

The command is cut off by a large blast as the windows on the far side of the living room explode, glass shooting inward as we crouch, covering our heads.

I don’t even realize I’m screaming until Bo pulls me into his chest, shielding me from the razor sharp debris reflecting the scene back at us in a million terrible fragments.

“Jesse, they’re everywhere.” I hear it in his voice. The knowledge that we aren’t getting out of this. The men step toward us, crunching the glass beneath their boots, leering and terrifying.

‘Run,please, Bo. We’re on our way,” Jesse shouts, and I can hear the desperation in every word as it fills the room. “You hear that, you pieces of shit? I’m coming for every single on of you, and I’ll string you from thefucking trees!”

Bo scoots us back until we hit a wall as three more men enter the room, guns pointed at us. My legs shake as I start to picture what comes next.

Death? Hopefully quick.

But if not… terrible things are going to happen. To me. To Bo. I sob into his hand as I try to block out the nightmare. This time it’s real, though. There’s no escaping this one.

“Emma, can you hear me?” Noah yells, and the man closest to the phone walks over and picks it up from the table, turning it toward him.

Tugging up on his mask, Landon smiles back at Noah.

“Sorry boys, but these little presents need to be delivered to someone much worse than you.” He drops the phone to the ground and turns to stalk toward us, my eyes wide.

Bo’s growling in my ear, clutching me to his chest possessively as Landon approaches us, but the butt of a gun kicks out from somewhere to the side and a sickening crack silences him.

I scream again, absolutely helpless to stem the hysteria that enters my voice as I try to hold him up, trying to assess his injury through the blood now covering the side of his face.

My Bo. Jesse’s voice threatens vaguely in the background, but it's quieter. Turned out. The only thing I can process is all of the vibrant red coating Bo’s skin, and slickening my hands as I’m torn away from him.

Hands are on me, lifting me into a bridal hold as I fight with all my strength, but the man just laughs as I struggle, finally throwing me over his shoulder instead. The wind is knocked from my lungs as my chest collides with his back. A moment later, pain explodes over my underwear as he spanks me, the contact from his hand burning. I can’t lock the scream inside.

I can't evenbreathe, sobbing as the fear strangles me and I’m carried out the door, away from my safety. The way I’m lopped over his shoulder has my hair hanging in my eyes, effectively blinding me to what’s going on. The man carrying me stops for a moment and I hear a car door open before I'm slammed backward into the back of a van, my head banging hard against the metal floor.

“Come here.” His voice crawls across my skin like an insect as he yanks me closer. A zip tie appears from his back pocket, and he circles the band around my feet until I can't pull them apart. My legs are shoved back inside the van just as Bo’s unconscious body is dumped next to mine.

His face is bloodied, eyes closed. The horror expands, seeping further inside me as the door is slammed shut once more and we’re flung into complete and total darkness.

TWENTY-ONE

They got her.

They’vegot her.

He.

Has.

Her.

Adrenaline leaves room for nothing else. Every part of me is locked in, tight and teeming with the need to drown the life from their eyes. The moment the phone screen went dark after Landon’s face filled it, I lost any control I thought I had.

My gun slammed against the dashboard, a savage scream tearing from my throat.

It only stops when my voice cracks and my throat is raw. Nausea fuckingrollsthrough me, and my head falls, gun thumping against my hair. All I hear on repeat is the sound of her screams.

Jesse whips the car onto the narrow drive toward the house, calling my name to shake me back to attention. Our eyes strain the trees as the house comes into sight, the headlights of the other cars trailing us as our engines roar through the night.

I can’t even look at my cousin, guilt flaying at my goddamn organs, my skin, my fuckingheart. We’d been fooled by someone so close to us. Now, the two people we loved are gone. Fucking gone. Dragged from the house. Bo tried his best, but there were just too many to fight.

And my Angel, terrified, a stranger’s hands on her like I'dswornwould never happen again. I bash the gun against the window at the image of a man touching her sets me on fire. My beautiful girl.