Page 27 of Hunting Ground

I don’t reply. Not at first. And by the time my mouth opens to give him some kind of awkward reply about reading the room, Adrien is barking out a sharp, amused laugh.

“Uh, yeah dude,” he tells him, striding forward to clap a hand on Ronan’s shoulder. “He was trying to have his moment with the pretty princess here.”

“If you call me that one more time–”

“His moment?” Ronan looks confused, then glances at me as realization dawns on his face. “Oh. Whoops.” A sly, apologetic grin creeps over his face. “That’s uh, my bad then.”

Adrien snickers again and replaces his mask, his hood going up a second later. “I’d give you one,” he tells me, gesturing to the mask. “But I think we need you to be the victim a little longer. If you catch my drift.”

“No.” Ansel comes back, holding his own mask out to me. “No, we came here to save her. And we talked about disguising her as a hunter if we need to. The mask would work from a distance, at least. Especially in what she’s wearing.” He throws a quick, baleful glare at Ronan, who either really doesn’t notice, or does an exceptionally good job at pretending not to.

“I don’t hate this,” I interrupt, sliding the sheathed blade in my leggings to rest against my lower back. It might be a bit uncomfortable, I realize belatedly, as the sheath shifts and the blade hits my ass when I walk, but I suppose I shall have to live with a blade poking my butt tonight in order to get out of here alive.

Oh the horror.

“It means I don’t have to keep sneaking around, right? If we can just draw them to me?” From the corner of my eye, I can see Ansel gearing up to argue, so I turn and walk towards him without another word. His face falls in surprise, but I drag him down to me, grinning, to kiss his cheek. “I’ll be fine, Ans. I’m not a kid.”

The look of shock is worth almost every shitty moment of my night. But when I move to let go of him, he suddenly grabs me and whirls me around, a small growl on his lips. I gasp softly, hands in his jacket, only for him to shove me against the side of the Ferris wheel booth. He crowds me against it, until I can feel the warmth of him radiating through his clothes, and until his nose brushes mine.

“Don’t you dare,” he growls. “Don’t you fucking dare tease me right now, Sable Carver.” Butterflies suddenly take flight in my stomach, leaving me feeling weightless and not very attached to the pier below. “Because I am already working so hard to be a good friend.”

“Why would you not be a good friend?” I whisper, confused as hell by the words. “Are you mad at me, or–”

Ansel grips the front of my hoodie and pulls me onto the balls of my feet, kissing me hard. His teeth immediately sink into my bottom lip, causing me to give a soft yelp and jerk upward, my hands anchoring me against him as I wobble on the toes of my sneakers.

Fuck.

I don’t know what else to think–or how to think at all–as Ansel kisses me. It isn’t sweet or playful. The hunger I feel sears my tongue, and even when Adrien pointedly clears his throat, Ansel only snarls against my lips and wraps an arm around my back to press me tighter against him.

“Don’t you dare,” he purrs against my lips, finally letting me down. “Because if you want to play with me right now then I’m gonna do a lot worse than this. With you watching,” he adds, glaring at Adrien. “Because you’re being a jackass.”

I can feel Adrien’s smile without even looking over my shoulder at him. “Me? A jackass?” he sneers sweetly. “I was just wondering if the show was free, and if I recorded it, what name to give it when I post it online.”

“Anything but Sperms of Endearment,” I grumble…then stop, realizing all of them are looking at me in varying levels of horror, even behind the mask.

Ah. Yes. The pleasure of being so naive to the worst titles the porn industry has to offer. I’m jealous of them, truly. I, too, used to think there was no evil in the world.

“What did you just say?” Ronan asks, horrified.

I just give them all an unhappy grin. “Oh, you learn about bad porn real quick when you’re the night manager of the Rest Easy Inn,” I assure all of them as I shiver in the chilly night. Fear is starting to creep in, no matter how much I want to deny it. It’s easy to agree to something when I haven’t had to back up my words yet.

Something could go wrong.

Or worse, this could go terribly right. I could get found by the two men from the hotel only to end up dead anyway. There’s always the chance that they could kill me before I can save myself, or before the guys can step in. They aren’t unarmed.

Ansel suddenly crushes me against his chest until my ribs crack, but I find I don’t mind. Not with his head on my shoulder and his jaw pressed to mine. “I’ve got you,” he whispers in my ear. “Not gonna let anyone kill you, Sable. If you don’t want to go through with this–”

“I need to go through with this,” I force myself to whisper. “I have to.” Not just because I’d boldly said I would, though I don’t want to make a liar of myself. But also because I don’t know if I could ever live it down if I just run without at least trying to help the others.

Even if I can’t save any of them, I want to try.

“I can do this. I have a knife. I have you guys. Mostly you, Ro,” I say jokingly, only for Ronan to grin. “Please don’t let them snap my neck or stab me or, I don’t know, throw me off the pier?” My brows climb towards my bangs.

“They can fight over who jumps in to save you.” Adrien’s voice is cheerful, and not at all apologetic. “It’s way too cold to swim.”

My eyes roll in his direction, but I step back so I’m standing on my own. Steadying myself.

Protecting myself.