Trapped (Caged #2)(6)

“Please don’t,” Tria cried out as she stepped in front of me, and wrapped her arms around my waist again. She turned her head up, and her gaze captured mine. “Please don’t do anything, Liam. Please!”

Those eyes would be the death of me—I would have sworn to it.

“Why not?”

“I’ll tell you more later,” she promised. “Just don’t do this here, and don’t do this now.”

Keith had taken a step back, and his body was tight and ready. He knew what I wanted, and he was perfectly willing to take me on. The little shit had no idea what he was walking into—I was going to pulverize him. Except…

Except she was in the way.

A long, slow breath did very little to calm me. Tria’s hands running over the sleeves of my jacket worked a little better but not that much. Conner was at Keith’s side and was beginning to pull him away, mumbling something I couldn’t hear.

I looked at Tria’s pleading eyes.

“One of these days,” I said softly to her, “I am going to kick his ass.”

“Not today,” she begged.

Conner was having trouble getting Keith to go, so I turned back to him.

“You’re done,” I said. “Don’t you f*cking come near her again, you hear me?”

Tria’s fingers tightened around mine, and I turned to take her away from him.

“How long before he shows you what he’s really like?” Keith called out at us. “Did you see how much he wanted to hit me? Did you see how close he came to hitting an elderly man with one leg? You really think he’ll stop at hitting guys in a cage? He’s violent, Demmy! It’s only a matter of time before he starts hitting you! Is that what you want?”

I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face him.

“Shut your f*cking mouth,” I said in a slow, quiet voice. My gut tightened up at the very idea of what he was suggesting I might do. I couldn’t even voice any words from the disgust I felt at the thought.

Tria continued to plead with me as she tugged at my arm until we were moving away from the clearing altogether and toward the trees. Devin and a couple of the other guys who rode up with us gathered around Keith and led him over to the parked vehicles. I felt instant relief when the lights from the truck lit up the clearing just long enough to get them turned around and headed out. As soon as they left, I turned to Tria and gently placed my hands back on the sides of her face.

“I’d never do that, Tria,” I swore to her. “What he just said there—I’d never f*cking do that. Never!”

“I know that,” she said simply, and her easy smile brought back the woman I knew.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her against me as most of the others from the community finished clearing away the area where the would-be gang bang didn’t take place. After a few minutes, we both calmed a little and Tria decided she needed to assist, so I stayed close to her as she helped collect the feathers and ribbons from the trees around the clearing.

“You there!” The old woman who had told me where to stand earlier snapped at me. “Pick up the rocks and bring them over here!”

She pointed to a large wheelbarrow, indicating where the stones should be set. Not wanting to argue with the hag, I kept Tria in my sights as I walked around the clearing and picked up a bunch of rocks, which most definitely had sperm shapes painted on them.

I made sure I didn’t touch the pictures.

Once they were all in the wheelbarrow, Steven walked over and moved them to one of the trucks, and Heather helped load them up. Tria stood from where she was packing feathers in a box and came over to me, brushing her hands on her skirt as she went.

“Steven is going to give us a ride back,” Tria informed me. “He’s helping Helen and Heather clean up.”

Tria had snapped out of her little personality switch fairly quickly, but I still didn’t like it one bit. He had done something to her. I didn’t know what, but I was pretty sure when I found out, Tria was not going to be able to stop me from killing him.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll be along in a bit,” Tria said as she looked off over her shoulder and into the darkened forest beyond the clearing. “I want to hang out for a minute.”

“What? In the middle of the woods?” I looked around at the dark tree trunks and darker shadows beyond them. “No f*cking way.”

“Liam, it’ll be fine.”

“No,” I insisted. “You are not hanging out in the woods in the dark by yourself.”

“It’s not the city,” she said. “Keith already left, and there’s no one out here I don’t know. I’ll be fine.”

“No way,” I said again. “Not by yourself.”

I looked around the clearing and then peered into the deeper woods where Tria seemed to be heading.

“I’ll stay with you. Protect you from bears and shit.”

Tria laughed.

“The only bears on this island are the school’s basketball team.”

“Don’t f*ck around,” I said as I narrowed my eyes. I walked up beside her and grabbed her hand. “There could be anything out there.”

“Let’s go.” She shook her head at me.