Finn states softly. “I bugged his place when I dropped off your stuff the other night. He knew about your dad. He knew all about Jack’s death, and he didn’t tell you. He kept it from you because he doesn’t give a shit about you.”
Finn is back to sounding like he cares about me, and my head is spinning from the back and forth he’s doing. One minute he’s pissed and the next he’s on my side. I don’t know which Finn is the real one. I don’t know what is happening to him.
My eyes close and I rest my cheek on my arm handcuffed to the pole, wanting to just give up. I don’t care about anything anymore. There isn’t one person in my life who hasn’t betrayed me. I am alone and I’m going to die in this basement alone. Billy and Finn have divulged all of their secrets. Secrets they won’t want anyone to know about. No matter what confusion is going on in Finn’s head right now, there’s no way he’s going to want the truth of what he’s done to get out.
“Finn here was getting a little nervous about the whole stalking thing,” Billy tells me after making sure the handcuffs are secure. “After a few of our phone calls, I had to wonder if he had the balls to follow through with our plan. He thought I was taking it too far with you. I had to convince him that I knew what I was doing and it would all work out in his favor in the end. I had to promise him that you wouldn’t really be harmed. A little white lie never hurt anyone.”
Billy grabs onto the neck of my T-shirt and rips it right down the middle until my black lace bra and bare stomach are exposed. He cups my breasts in his hands and squeezes them roughly until I cry out.
“Billy, STOP! What the fuck are you doing?” Finn shouts, grabbing onto his shoulder and trying to pull him away from me.
Billy takes one hand off of me, reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a gun, turning his head and pushing the barrel into Finn’s chest.
“I’m doing what I planned on doing all along. Making Layla mine,” Billy says quietly, cocking the gun and holding it steady right at Finn as he backs away with his hands in the air.
His other hand that still kneads my breast distractedly slides down the front of my body until it reaches the snap of my jeans. He yanks them open roughly, and regardless of the pain, I start to struggle against his hands.
Billy stands up and holds onto the gun with both hands.
“Be a pal and take her pants off for me,” Billy tells Finn as he nods in my direction.
Finn looks at me with terror in his eyes but doesn’t move.
A loud blast of the gun explodes through the room and Finn screams, dropping to the ground and clutching his thigh. Blood pours between his fingers as he tries to hold his hand over the wound in his leg.
“I said, take her pants off,” Billy states calmly as he stares down at Finn and cocks the gun again, loading another bullet into the chamber before pressing the nose of the barrel into the top of Finn’s head.
Finn uses one hand to pull himself over to me and refuses to look me in the eye as he does what Billy says.
“Finn, no. No, no, no, please, don’t do this,” I sob hysterically as he quickly removes my jeans with one hand, and I fight him as best I can, the pain in my leg from being kicked and the jostling as I try to struggle bringing so much agony to my arm that I start to see spots.
“I’m sorry, Lay. I’m so sorry,” Finn whispers as tears fall down his face. He stares at my feet and doesn’t meet my eyes.
Billy lifts his arm above Finn’s head and brings it down fast, the butt of the gun cracking his skull. Finn slumps to the side, unconscious and even though he was shot and going back and forth between hating me and feeling sorry for what he’d done, at least a part of me feels like he might still be on my side. He might still be able to stop all of this from going any further.
“That’s better. His voice was grating on my nerves,” Billy says, sliding the gun into the