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"Shit. Is it broken?"
I put my arm around his shoulders as he picked me up. "No, just a bad sprain. I’ll be fine in a few days."
Liam lifted me and trudged all the way back through the house to my room, before placing me on the bed. "He said I have to go out," Liam said, his eyes haunted.
"Be careful. Um, I guess." What the fuck did you say to someone who was about to go and hunt another human being?
"Yeah," he said with a grunt and then left, leaving me alone with my throbbing ankle.
Liam had been gone less than ten minutes when I became suddenly and inexplicably sleepy. There was an acrid smell to the air. The scent I’d noticed when Drake and I had been gassed while fighting Kaden. I had enough time for true panic to set in. Fear that I would wake up on the table in the torture room. Before my anxiety could build to crescendo, everything went black.
I awoke hours later, based on the clock above the door. I’d missed lunch from the looks of it. My ankle ached far less than it should have. Shaking off the grogginess, I glanced down and saw that someone had removed my shoes and wrapped my ankle in an elastic brace. On my bedside table, I found one eight-hundred milligram ibuprofen and an empty syringe labeled cortisone.
So Sam didn’t want me dead. Not yet at least. He’d gone to the trouble of nursing my ankle. All to ensure I could be out in the field stalking prey in a couple days. There was no actual pity or kindness in this act. It was all about control. Sam said I needed to hunt, and by god he would make sure I did. Fine. Even a couple of days would be better than being first. I could at least see how the others fared and what I could expect.
After the signal for dinner, I made a good show of limping painfully down the hall to the dining room. The others, minus Liam, were already there. Whatever duties they had must have had them closer to the dining room than I’d been. Drake saw the painful way I walked and widened his eyes in surprise.
Before he could say a thing, I waved him off. The last thing I wanted was pity. Moving gingerly, I hobbled over to take my seat. Dinner was BLTs and potato salad, along with, randomly, pumpkin pie. Had we been in here long enough for it to be fall? There was no way. No. It had been near Memorial Day when I’d been taken. My sense of time had been thrown off, but there was no way I’d been here for months. My best guess was it had been, maybe, three or four weeks max. Sam was probably being a smartass. Or was he running out of food? Could that be a thing? Who the hell was running this place anyway? Could Sam be doing everything? There was no way. Who made breakfast, patched up our wounds, tidied our rooms, and watched the videos and controlled the cuffs? One man could never do all that.
After all the time I’d spent there, some questions were cropping up. Questions I needed answered. During my initial time here, Sam had become an almost mythical, godlike figure. My mental inquiries had been forgotten in the haze of terror and blood. Now, after our near escape, they had returned. Something about this place didn’t make sense. It was designed to look like a one man show, but that facade was crumbling. At least in my mind it was.
Before I could dwell on the idea, Liam came through the front door. The sound of the latch clicking shut caused all of us to look toward the entryway. Liam was sweaty and covered in dirt. I picked up one small detail that the others might not have. The blade of his machete was clean and bloodless.
"Well?" Elise asked as Liam stepped over the debris and into the dining room. "Did you get them?"
Liam tossed his weapon aside, sending it clattering to the floor. The look on his face was one of disgust and irritation. I already knew the answer.
"Fuck no. I didn’t get them." Liam grabbed a sandwich and tore a huge bite out, obviously ravenous after a day running around outside.
"Well what was it like?" Bri asked. "Where are we? Could you tell?"
Liam took a few moments to chew and swallow. "Middle of fucking nowhere. Trees as far as I could see. It’s hot and humid though. Really steamy out. If I had to guess, we're still near Savannah." He shrugged. "Near being relative, I suppose."
"Why didn’t you run?" I asked. I couldn’t figure out why the hell he’d come back. Even dying in the wilderness trying to escape had to be better than this place.
Liam was shaking his head again, but before he could speak, Sam decided to shove his nose into things.
Bong. "It appears Mr. Krondal was unsuccessful in his hunt."
The tone of his voice caused us all to go still. We were like mice the moment a cat decided to step into the room.
Liam’s eyes went wide, his second bite of sandwich filling his mouth.
"I must say, this has been a highly disappointing day. There is nothing else to be done. There must be punishment. Bri, please kill Liam."
I could almost hear the sound of muscles going tense. Payton and Drake went rigid, Elise’s mouth slowly opened in a shocked silent scream. Bri shook her head, already refusing.
She dug into her pocket and pulled out the immunity card. What had she done to get that, I wondered.
"I won’t do it. No. Not a goddamned chance. Here." She slammed the card down with a pop on the table.
She and Liam weren’t a couple exactly. They’d fucked at least once that night we all got drunk. They weren’t even really that close, but here, any connection was something. Again I thought of how I’d react if Drake were gone, and for the first time, maybe ever, I pitied the woman. She still bore the black eyes I’d given her, but something more was coming. You didn’t say no to Sam.
"Very well. It seems you’ve learned from Dahlia. Congratulations, Bri. You are exempt." There was a long pause. Terror filled me as I tried not to think about what was coming next. It was like watching a train wreck. You couldn’t look away.
"Payton? You will kill Liam for his failure. Kill him or you will be killed. Proceed at your discretion."
Liam swiveled his head to look at Payton. He swallowed his bite and looked into the other man’s eyes. "Don’t. Please."
