Page 30 of Paper Doll

I drop my gaze to my lap, still rubbing at my sore wrists. “What do you want?”

Raf’s the one to respond. “The question is, what doyouwant?” he asks, the low, gravelly hum of his voice sending a shiver down my spine. “Do you want this little movie of ours getting out?”

“No,” I whisper, my eyes burning with salty tears. Another slips free, tracking a hot path down my cheek.

“Then you’re going to have to play by our rules, Ava,” Wes says, standing at my feet with his arms folded across his chest.

Desperation claws at my insides, my pulse racing faster as anger and indignation and a colossal sense of injustice take hold.

This isn’t right. This isn’t fair.

I haven’t done anything wrong, and I sure as hell don’t deserve to be hauled out of bed in the middle of the night and threatened with public humiliation.

“What does that even mean?” I ask, my gaze sweeping around to each of their faces as if I’ll somehow find the answers there.

How can I play by their rules if I don’t even know what I did to break them in the first place?

“It means you’reours, Ava,” Raf snaps impatiently. His lip curls in disgust as he narrows his gaze on me. “Our little slut to do whatever we want with.”

“I wouldn’t touch any of you with a ten-foot pole,” I scoff bitterly.

“We’ll see about that, Ava baby,” Ford drawls, dragging the backs of his knuckles up my bare thigh. The sensation sends another shiver skittering up my spine, goosebumps prickling onmy flesh. He waves his phone back and forth tauntingly with his opposite hand, the paused image of me coming undone still frozen on the screen. “Unless you want this getting out, you belong to us now.”

I stare back at him in horror, then look to Raf, to Wes, trying to read between the lines and gauge how serious this situation is. From the somber looks on each of their faces, this isn’t a joke to them, and when I realize that there’s nobody who’s going to save me from these monsters, the terror really starts to set in.

“W-what do you want me to do?” I stammer, my gaze bouncing between each of the boys holding my fate in their big, undeserving hands.

“Well, you could start by sucking my cock.”

I whip my head around to gape at Raf as he rises to stand over me, strands of my hair slapping me in the face before falling limply over my shoulders. “W-what?”

He lifts his chin, his hands dropping to his belt. “On your knees, slut.”

My entire body starts trembling, and I don’t even know why I move to comply.

Fear? Self-preservation?

Shakily, I shift to my knees, putting myself at eye level with Raf’s hands unfastening his belt. They freeze their movement and I jolt my head up to look at his face, our gazes colliding.

“I knew you were a desperate little whore,” Raf mocks, shaking his head. “Just like your mother.”

He re-fastens his belt, stepping back with a callous smile on his lips as my cheeks burn in shame.

Was this all just a cruel joke?

“Get up,” Wes orders gruffly, and I scramble to my feet, brushing the sand off my cotton sleep shorts. Goosebumps pebble up on my arms as a breeze whips past, making ripples in the water of the lake.

Raf gives me a long, assessing once-over, rubbing his thumb back and forth across his upper lip. “You can go.”

“What?”

I’m so confused that I accidentally ask that out loud, wincing as soon as the question leaves my lips.

“If we need something, we’ll let you know,” Wes says coldly, leveling me with an icy glare. Though there’s a glimmer of something in his eyes that makes me wonder if it’s me he hates right now or himself.

“Run, little rabbit,” Ford taunts, and the fog of fear finally clears from my brain enough that I actually have the wherewithal to do what I should have right when Raf told me I was dismissed.

Just like last night, I turn around and run.