“We’re not going to die,” I tell her. “Just get your ass to the window so we can get out of here. If there’s some fucker creeping around my house, then I’d prefer to be out of it.”
With that, I flick the lock on my bedroom door and the two of us scramble across my room to the window as quietly as we can.
I pull the curtains back as Tully fiddles with the lock on the window. Together we push it open and the second it’s wide enough for a body to squeeze through, Tully practically barges me out of the way and dives through it, more than happy to save herself first.
Tully gets out of the way and spins around to grab hold of me, making my escape that much quicker. “Hurry up,” she urges as we both tumble down to the ground.
We scramble up to our feet and get two steps away before a hand is slapped over my mouth and my body caged in a strong grip. My hand clamps down on Tully’s but it doesn’t take me long to realize that someone has her too.
My eyes are wide and frantic as I fight against the hold on my body. I try squealing through the hand on my mouth but it’s useless. Our captors begin dragging us away and step into the light from the lamppost outside my house. They’re both in black with ski masks and both clearly men from their sheer size and strength.
We’re fucked.
Tears pour down Tully’s cheeks and it only makes me fight harder. I slam my elbow as hard as I can back into the guy’s stomach and bite down on the hand covering my mouth, hopefully doing some kind of damage.
The hold loosens on me as a sharp curse cuts through the night. “Fuck, that hurt,” says a familiar voice followed by another familiar chuckle.
With the hold on my body loosened, I spin around as fast as I can and slam my hands into the guy’s chest, sending him back a few steps. “I fucking hate you,” I seethe.
Noah laughs as he peels off the black ski mask. “We’re kidnapping you.”
“No shit,” I yell. “We kind of figured that out, but did you seriously think that was a good idea after the shit Rocko pulled the other week?”
Noah’s eyes bulge from his head, clearly not having thought this through before he cringes. I glance across at Tully to realize the arms around her body are no longer taut and restricting, but are wrapped around her like more of a caress; though that doesn’t change the fact that she’s still struggling to get out of her captor’s hold. “Get the fuck off me, Rivers,” she demands.
Rivers’ chuckle comes tearing out of him and he instantly lets her go before pulling off his own mask. “Come on, babe. We’re just playing.”
“I’m not your ‘babe’ and that’s not fucking ‘playing’. That’s scaring the shit out of two unsuspecting girls. Fuck you, both.”
“Come on, Tullz,” Noah says, but she’s not hearing it and storms past them, back towards my house.
“Tully, please,” Rivers says urgently, catching her wrist before she can get too far. “Tonight’s my last night. Let’s not end it like this. I’m sorry, ok. We were just having a little fun and maybe we took it a little too far, but consider it payback from the time you shaved off my hair while I was sleeping and put wax strips on my legs.”
“If you wanted payback for that, you could have put hair dye in my shampoo or something like that, not let us think we were getting abducted,” she says, finally getting around to wiping the tears off her face.
“Please,” Rivers murmurs. “Just…be angry at me tomorrow. Not tonight.”
“I’m more than angry at you, Rivers. I’m fucking livid.”
Rivers searches her eyes and his heart comes out to rest upon his sleeve. “I thought we could all go down to the beach and eat dinner together. Just the four of us. I’ll be gone before you all wake up in the morning, so I wanted to do this one last thing together as a pack.”
“Wait…” Tully says, stepping closer to Rivers and looking up into his eyes, clutching onto his hand. “What do you mean you’ll be gone before we wake up? I thought we had all day tomorrow.”
My back straightens at her question and Noah’s hand slips into mine. I hold onto it tightly, dreading Rivers’ response, despite how much I’m hating on him right now.
“No, I have to leave around three in the morning to make sure I get there on time. I’ll be screwed if I show up to training late.”
“So,” I question, looking to my brother as my eyes begin to fill with tears of my own. “Tonight’s really the last time we’ll see you for a while?”