TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

17

 

Chapter 17

Rayna

“Jace? Liana?” I mumbled.

I forced my eyes open, wondering why Tom’s house was suddenly so cold. What happened to all the party people, and why was the music off? My head felt sluggish, my eyes were blurry, and every inch of me ached as I turned my head and took a proper look around. Shit, this wasn’t Tom’s house, or even my house. I had no idea where I was, and no idea how I got here. None at all.

I forced my head upright, wanting to get a better look at my surroundings. I didn’t feel like I was lying down, so it was pretty safe to assume that I wasn’t in my bed, but I had no idea where that left me. So what was the last thing I could clearly remember?

The party at Tom’s house.

Talking to Liana.

My phone call with Mom.

Going to find Jace to tell him how I felt…

That was about it.

As I glanced around, I quickly realized I was in some sort of factory. It didn’t look like it had been used in quite some time; there were dust-coated workbenches, some rusty broken-down machinery to the left of me, and a ratty old sign nearly falling off a big corrugated sliding door ahead of me. Jeez….how the hell did I get here? Was this some sort of Halloween prank everyone had decided to play on me? If so, it wasn’t funny.

Small sparks of memory began to flash in my mind, but there was nothing solid I could run with. A taste of cinnamon. A Halloween monster mask. Stepping outside and breathing in the cool air before…before what?

As proper feeling started to return to my body, I noticed that my wrists were stinging, and as I tried to move them to find out what was wrong, it became abundantly clear that they were stuck. I twisted my body around and looked down to see that I was tied to a pole in the middle of the room I was in.

Who the hell would do this?

“Hey!” I called out, my voice weak as I tried to cling onto the desperate fantasy that this was all some sort of sick prank, and the perpetrators were right here filming me and laughing. “This isn’t funny!”

I started trying to move, kicking my legs out and pulling my back away from the pole in the hopes that the rope on my arms would break or come loose, but it achieved nothing. I was stuck. Then a shadow appeared in my peripheral vision, telling me that I definitely wasn’t alone, and my heart pounded painfully in my chest as I tried to turn my head further around to see who it was.

“I think it’s pretty funny,” a soft masculine voice said from somewhere in the darkness.

“What?” I managed to choke out as I gulped down my fear.

“You said it’s not funny. But I think it is.”

The speaker stepped out of the darkness and into the moonlight where I could finally get a good look at his face.

It was Roy, Jace’s friend.

I suddenly remembered our conversation at the party, the strong drink, and the promise of help when I started to feel sleepy, but after that, it was all blank. Roy must’ve slipped something in my drink to make me pass out. I thought back and realized I’d turned my back on him for a few seconds when he’d pointed across the room and said he could see Jace, and I mentally kicked myself for being such an idiot. I should’ve never kept my eyes off my drink; not even for a second. Then again, it hadn’t occurred to me that one of Jace’s old school friends might be some sort of date-rapist.