Page 106

Then she jumps.

Straight into the black.

No hesitation. No fear.

Just escape.

I jog forward, eyes locked on the ripples her body makes, and by the time I reach the edge of the dock, Caleb’s behind me. He’s still shirtless from the chase, skin streaked with dirt and a shallow scratch down one side of his neck. He follows my gaze, spots the water, and lets out a low, throaty laugh.

“She jumped?” he says like it’s the best thing he’s seen all night.

I nod once, already peeling my hoodie off, wet with sweat and adrenaline. “She’s not getting far.”

He doesn’t waste another second.

Caleb’s dive slices through the stillness of the lake, and I follow him in. Cold shock clamps down around my ribs as the water swallows me whole, but it’s gone as fast as it hits. All I see now is movement just below the surface — her.

I push forward, cutting through the current with practiced strokes, closing the distance. Her arms are flailing now, not in panic, but with purpose. She’s aiming for the other side. Good. Let her fight. Let her burn herself out.

Caleb’s the one who reaches her first. His arm snakes around her waist, dragging her back against his chest, and she thrashes hard, fists pounding, legs kicking. He just tightens his grip, grinning against the side of her neck as he pulls her toward the shore.

“Gotcha,” he says, voice low and smug.

She spits lake water at him.

I haul myself out beside them, shoes squelching, soaked jeans weighing me down, but I don’t care. My chest rises and falls fast, adrenaline racing like a drug I can’t come down from. She looks wrecked. Wet clothes plastered to her skin, lips blue from the cold, strands of hair clinging to her face.

And still, she glares at us like she’d bite our throats out if she could.

Caleb tosses her over his shoulder like a sack of grain and starts the walk back to the cabin. She curses the whole way. Threatens to call someone. Anyone. But’s it’s no use.

She’s limp in Caleb’s arms when he dumps her onto the sofa, and I can’t look away. Not because of her. Not because of how she’s sprawled out there, soaked and vulnerable. No, it’s because of him. Caleb.

I should be pissed. I should’ve kicked his ass for dragging her around, for humiliating her, for making this whole damn thing feel like some twisted game. But what really eats at me is the way he’s so goddamn smug about it. Like he has control. Like he’s the one calling the shots.

But then he does something that… I don’t know, rattles me. Something I didn’t expect.

Caleb looks at me, all that cocky arrogance rolling off him in waves, and then he says it, like it’s no big deal.

“I won, so I say what happens next.”

Silence. None of us says a word, waiting for what he’s going to say next.

All I can think about is how he wants her ass. Fuck, no, I’m not letting that happen.

“Eli,” he says. “I wanna watch you fuck her.”

I freeze. I’m not even sure I heard him right. The words hang in the air like smoke, thick and choking. I don’t say anything at first. My mind is whirring, recalculating, and then the reality of his words slams into me.

He’s giving me first dibs? Like it’s some twisted apology? Or some sick fantasy? I’m not sure which. His voice echoes in my head.I wanna watch you fuck her.

A sick laugh bubbles up in my chest, but I swallow it down.

I should be pissed. I should be. I should be fighting for control, pushing back against whatever power he thinks he has over me. But I’m not. Instead, I step forward, eyes narrowing as I look down at her.

Her chest rises and falls slowly, still wet from the lake. Her hair’s a tangled mess, her face flushed with the cold. She looks relieved by his words. And that stirs something in me. I imagine taking her virginity while Caleb watches. I glance at him, wondering if he’s not as heartless as I thought.

Caleb’s got that smirk on his face again, like he knows exactly what’s running through my mind. Like he’s controlling the whole fucking situation. And it pisses me off. But there’s a part of me that can’t deny the tension, the charge in the air between us. I could take her. Hell, I could’ve taken her any time, but the idea of claiming her like this, with Caleb’s permission, it makes the back of my teeth ache.