Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,48

the day that I finally started staying away from Kerrie.

“Are you going to go?” Delanie asked as I tossed the trash over the side of the dumpster.

“Hell no, I’m not going to go,” I said. “Whatever he has to say isn’t going to change a thing. I’m in love with Booth. Our father will not change that with his words.”

A low, menacing growl had me freezing in place as I turned and saw a black dog with a leash attached to his collar baring his teeth at me.

I swallowed hard, feeling the lump in my throat as I said, “Good doggy.”

The donut that I had in my hand felt like a lead weight.

I slowly tossed the donut to the dog, and he bent down, sniffed it, and picked it up with a gentleness that I hadn’t expected.

He chewed it with even more gentleness.

I’d never in my life seen a dog eat so delicately.

I wish I had more.

After finishing the last bite, he turned on his heel and walked away, dragging his leash through a puddle of nasty water that was next to the dumpster.

“Are you okay?”

I hadn’t even realized that I was still on the phone.

My heart was pounding a mile a minute and I couldn’t breathe.

“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. “I just literally fed my donut to a really scary Belgian Malinois. He growled at me and scared…”

Another low growl had me freezing in place for a few long seconds.

I turned to find myself facing not a dog, but Kerrie.

This time, I couldn’t stop myself from dropping the phone from my ear.

“What do you want, Kerrie?” I asked stiffly.

I was really, really fucking tired of the man showing up here.

It was getting old, and the more that he did it, the more that I was getting the feeling that this was going to have to be stopped the hard way—by a restraining order.

“What do I want?” Kerrie asked. “That’s rich.”

I frowned. “What’s rich?”

“You know that I want you,” he said.

I felt my belly sour on the donut that I’d eaten before I’d come out here.

I was almost thankful that my second one had gone to the dog.

“Well, the feeling isn’t mutual so…” I couldn’t finish my sentence, because the next thing that I knew, Kerrie had me pinned against the brick wall using his massive bulk to hold me there.

I gasped, tried to pull away, but quickly realized that I wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“Kerrie, no!” I twisted my wrists, but he easily, and quite laughably really, overpowered me.

Seconds after I tried to pull away, he had my wrists slammed up against the building. I felt the hard scrape of the bricks against my sensitive skin, and knew that I’d be sporting not only bruises, but cuts and scrapes.

If I made it out of this alive, that was.

The thought had me glancing at the phone that was lighting up the alleyway.

The call had dropped.

But my screensaver, which was a selfie of Booth, Asa, and me, lit up the screen.

At seeing that photo, I struggled even harder to get away.

He once again proved his superior strength.

“You know,” Kerrie said as he pressed me up against the wall, grinding his hard cock against me. “You were much easier to do when I gave you roofies.”

My skin went numb.

That explained a lot.

Unfortunately.

That night, I’d gone out with him because I’d been sad. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about my sister and Booth being together, and I’d just… needed to escape.

So I’d gone out with Kerrie and started drinking.

I’d done some pretty heavy drinking to the point where I was slurring my words, but by the end of the night when Kerrie and I had left that party, I’d stopped drinking and started to sober up. I remember Kerrie giving me a bottled water when we got in the car, and from there, I hadn’t remembered anything until the next morning when I woke up naked beside him.

I’d blamed it on poor decisions and alcohol content.

Except… everything I’d always thought was a lie.

Hell, I should’ve realized from the moment that I suspected that Booth and Delanie were drugged.

Boy, was I dumb.

“Let me go,” I snarled, ramping up my kicking and hitting.

I would scream, but it was freakin’ three o’clock in the morning.

Nobody would hear me.

And my sister would probably think that I’d lost signal like I always did at the shop.

With any luck, she would try to call me back.

And when she couldn’t get a hold of me, she’d look at my cameras