Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(78)

He sounded truly distressed.

“It’s not the whole organization threatening you. Just Victor Severance.”

Drew laughed miserably. “Believe me, he’s enough.”

“What’s he threatening to do?”

He looked from side to side to make sure no one was listening. Then he leaned in toward me, crowding my personal space. “Take my parents away just like they took your father. You have to help us, Candy. You owe us.”

The raw emotion I saw on his face hit me in a way I hadn’t expected. He was being genuine. I believed that, but I still couldn’t give him what he wanted.

“I don’t know about the safe,” I lied, “but I’m working on something that will get Victor to leave us all alone.”

He scoffed. “All Victor cares about is whatever’s inside that safe.”

I wanted to back away from him, but there was a wall behind me. “Drew—”

“He won’t believe that you don’t know where it is. He knows it’s somewhere, and we can’t all claim not to know what the f*ck happened to it.”

He popped something into his mouth before his hands landed on the wall on either side of my head, caging me in. His eyes bored into mine, and there was something dangerous in them that set off alarm bells in my head.

When I tried to duck beneath his arm, he gripped my shoulders and pushed me back against the wall.

“Drew, stop.” My heart pounded, acknowledging I had a problem long before my head caught up.

“Tell me the truth,” he said as his fingers dug into my skin.

I lied again, telling him I didn’t know where the safe was.

My hands came up to his chest to push him away as I frantically looked around, hoping to catch someone’s attention. “Calm down, okay?”

When my eyes wandered again, he grabbed my face and made me look at him. At that point, I was past worrying about causing a scene as his hands dug into my cheeks. I screamed out, but he muffled the sound, covering my mouth with his and pushing his tongue inside.

I saw red as my knee came up and slammed into his groin. Drew grunted before his hands fell away, allowing me to shove him off me, and I gasped in shock at what he’d just done.

It was then that I tasted something metallic on my tongue. I rubbed it with my fingers, trying to get it off. Drew looked up with an expression that was too calm, and my stomach dropped. He’d pushed something into my mouth, and he looked smug as he watched me realize it.

As I rushed away from him, I coughed against the chemical taste dripping down my throat. I reached into my pocket for my phone, and as my fingers brushed it, a wave of dizziness swept over me. Swearing under my breath, I leaned against the wall as I broke out in a sweat. I reached for my phone and pulled it from my pocket, my eyes blurry as I searched for Jonah in my contact list.

Drew plucked the phone from my hand. Dizzy, I lost my balance and nearly fell as I tried to get my phone back, and he wrapped an arm around my waist.

“Did you have a little too much to drink, Candy?” he asked in a loud voice that I knew was for the benefit of whoever was standing around us.

I tried to deny it, just like I tried to get my legs to move in a different direction when Drew led me through the party, continuing to joke to everyone about how much I’d had to drink, even though I’d had nothing.

Drew was walking us toward the door, and I knew I couldn’t let him get me outside. Although the drug was messing with my muscles and my coordination, my brain was working fine, well enough to be frightened of whatever it was he had planned.

In the living room, we passed close to Ethan and Lea, who had come up for air and were now dancing. I managed to reach out and grab Lea’s arm.

She inspected me and giggled. “Parker spiked the punch. I should have warned you. Drink lots of water when you get home, and take some aspirin too.”

It felt like I was looking at her through a fog. I couldn’t communicate a thing, and she was too busy smiling widely and subtly gesturing to Ethan as if to say, Look what I caught.

When she finally noticed Drew was holding me up and eyed him curiously, Ethan spotted him too.

“You’re leaving with him?” Ethan asked me, raising a disapproving eyebrow.

Meanwhile, Drew squeezed me tighter, and Ethan gave us one last look before he shook his head and pulled Lea back to him.

“Text me tomorrow!” Lea called over her shoulder.

If Drew managed to get me out the door, I wondered if I’d be doing anything tomorrow.

***





Drew leaned me against his car as he tried to open the passenger door. I could feel myself falling and with a little effort, I was able to make myself fall on him.

We went down together in a heap with Drew cursing and rolling off me. “You’re such a pain in the ass,” he spat as he shifted onto his side away from me.

That left me lying on the cold asphalt without my coat or gloves, which he hadn’t thought to bring. My teeth were chattering loudly by the time he lifted me into the passenger seat and buckled me in. I thought the seatbelt was a nice touch. Safety first, right?

My head rested against the cool window as he drove, and I could feel sensation already returning to my legs. I shifted to get them closer to the heater vent.

Drew glanced at me thoughtfully. “I don’t think I got enough of it into your mouth.”