Mask - A Stepbrother Romance (35 page)

Robin began to laugh, and soon we were all in fits of hysterics.

“She’s fucking insane,” Sasha managed to get out through peals of laughter. “I can’t believe how dumb she is. And that ‘watch your back’ crap…are we meant to be scared?”

“No shit,” I said with a grin. “Come on, let’s grab some dinner. I’m buying.”

***

Our night—which had started out as such a horrible, nerve-wracking event—had quickly become fun as hell. Now that Becca was gone and we’d grabbed some food, we were eating, laughing and enjoying ourselves, and I was warming to Robin in a way that I hadn’t allowed myself to before. Any suspicions I’d been harboring about her before now had completely vanished.

We both cared deeply about the same girl, and we would always have that in common. We could actually build a friendship around that, which was weird for me. I’d never really been friends with a girl before, at least not in a purely platonic way.

I guess I was really changing.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” Sasha said before getting up and stepping away from the table. I was glad to see how much happier she was now that the blackmailing debacle was behind us, and I smiled as I watched her walk away.

Robin took this moment as an opportunity to jump on me with a very awkward question. “So, Logan…?”

“Yes?” I replied. I knew that tone of voice, and it usually wasn’t followed by something I wanted to hear.

She leaned her head on her hands and looked at me with an eagle-eyed gaze. “Do you love Sasha?”

“Uhh…” I could feel my cheeks heating up as I contemplated her question, and I came to a stark realization.

Jesus, of course I loved her. In fact, part of me had been in love with her from the minute I met her.

“Oh my god,” Robin gasped. “You do.”

“Erm…”

I knew I did, but I hadn’t even told Sasha yet. I didn’t want the first time I admitted it to be to her friend.

“Oh, is that my phone vibrating?” Robin asked, glancing down.

As she rifled through her bag, I thought about what she’d said some more. I considered the possibility of a future with Sasha and the implications of my feelings for her—the fight that we would have to have with our parents if and when I told them I loved her, the shit that people might say about us if they found out, and the struggles we would likely cause for my father’s political reputation.

I didn’t want any of that, but fuck…I needed Sasha, and I wasn’t going to leave her for anyone or anything.

“Hmm, it’s not in my bag. That’s weird.” Robin was patting her pockets now, desperately looking for her phone.

“Is it in the car?” I asked. We’d driven from the bar to the restaurant we were at now, so it was very possible that she’d left it there.

“Yeah, maybe—” she started to reply, but then Sasha rejoined us at the table and everything else completely slipped from my mind. All I could think about was her. I had to let her know sooner rather than later. I had to tell her I loved her.

All I needed was the perfect moment.

Chapter 17

Sasha

The days following the ‘Becca takedown’ were nothing short of amazing. I no longer felt the same fear and trepidation every time my phone bleeped with a message, because I knew it wasn’t going to be her—I had no doubt that deep down she was nothing more than a stupid coward—and on top of that, I could feel myself growing ever closer to Logan.

Two days had gone by now, and the whole debacle was already starting to feel like a bad dream. I kept the blackmail messages from Becca on my phone as evidence, just in case it ever came down to that, but I no longer looked at them.

As I was walking home from class—slightly later than usual, because I’d stayed behind to check out a book from the library—my phone pinged with a text message from Robin.

‘Hey, I finally found my phone! Can you meet me at the old Miller dairy farm on Ashby Road at four o’clock? You know the place
—
we had a picnic there once. Logan and I have a special surprise for you :) Xoxo’

“What?” I muttered to myself before replying. Four o’clock was pretty damn soon, so she wasn’t giving me much notice.

‘
A surprise? All the way out there?
’

‘Trust me…it’s gorgeous!’
she replied.
‘I don’t wanna spoil it too much, but let’s just say it involves your favorite foods and a movie played on a white sheet against the barn wall. Logan got this projector thing and everything! There’s more to the surprise, but you’ll just have to see when you get here…’

‘Okay. Sounds really sweet. See you both in a while, then.’

It seemed weird for the two of them to have plotted some sort of surprise behind my back, but I was excited all the same. Logan surprised me in different ways all the time, and he and Robin had probably organized this to cheer me up, seeing as the last few days had been stressful for me. I was glad that they were becoming friends, because it meant that we could all hang out together.

Once I arrived at home, I asked Mom if I could borrow her new car seeing as mine had finally given up the ghost, and then I took off, driving as quickly as I could along the route that led to Ashby Road. It was on the outskirts of the city, where a few old ranches still stood. The old Miller property had once been a small dairy farm, and I’d gone on several picnics there over the years with friends. A small river ran through it, so that and the historical buildings made it a cool little spot to hang out for an afternoon.

Part of me wished I’d had more time to prepare for the surprise movie and picnic, but I brushed the thought aside. I was sweaty, underdressed and had just finished back-to-back college lectures, but that wouldn’t keep me away from anything with Logan. I knew he liked me no matter what—he’d seen me at my worst, after all.

A shiver ran through me as I finally entered the Miller farm. I couldn’t see either Logan or Robin’s car, and that freaked me out a little. Then I remembered that there was a huge parking area around the other side of the barn, and I assumed that they’d parked there.

I got out of the car and headed towards the barn. It was a rickety old building, but I was trying not to focus on that. I was more interested on what was on the inside, and on seeing what Logan and Robin had in store for me. The door opened with a squeak as I pushed it, and my heart raced with anticipation as I waited to see what exciting things were behind it.

I was stunned—and more than a little disappointed—to find it dark, cold, and empty.

What the hell?

“Hello?” I called out, feeling dejected. After coming all the way out here, I’d been expecting a little more than this. Had I come to the wrong place? I quickly pulled out my phone to check on the GPS, but the words
Miller Dairy Estate
were still staring out at me. Could there be another Miller farm near our city that I didn’t know about? No, Robin had mentioned that she was at the place where we’d had picnics before, so I was definitely in the right spot.

“Logan? Robin?”

Still no answer. Was this somehow supposed to be a part of the surprise?

I stepped forward to try and find more in the dim light of the barn, and suddenly I felt someone’s rough hands grabbing me from behind.

“Hey—” I tried to call out, but my mouth was quickly covered by another hand.

What the hell was going on? This wasn’t a surprise. This was a horror movie.

I was spun around by the strong arms gripping me, and I wound up staring at two faces—faces I’d never wanted to see again.

Travis and Becca.

“Hi, Sasha.” Becca smiled smugly. “It’s nice to see you on this fine afternoon.”

“What the hell do you want?” I choked out, finally able to breathe again now that Travis’ hand was gone. “What the hell is all of this?”

Becca walked around me and grabbed something from one of the dark corners of the barn. When she returned, I saw that she had a length of rope and a roll of grey duct tape in her hands. What the hell was happening? Had I taken a wrong turn and stumbled onto the set of a bad mob movie?

She smirked at me as she approached. “I told you to watch your back, didn’t I?”

God, she’d actually been serious when she said that. I’d happily pushed it to one side, just as Robin and Logan had, wanting to believe that she was just angry over being caught out the other night. I hadn’t thought she’d actually do something this stupid.

“What’s your problem with me?” I asked, panic creeping into my voice as I tried to struggle free from Travis’ grip. “I never did anything to either of you! You’re the ones who screwed me over!”

“We just want the money you promised us for those photos,” Travis said before sniffing and continuing. “We need it.”

He sounded crazed, and the sniffing made me wonder if he was on drugs. He had to be. Why else would he be acting so crazily? I already knew that Becca had somewhat of a cocaine problem, and full-on drug addiction would certainly explain their insane behavior.

It also made them that much more dangerous.

“You should’ve just gotten it from stepfather dearest and handed it over. But instead you had to get your stupid stepbrother and Robin involved,” Becca cut in. “Why the fuck is that Logan prick so defensive of you, anyway? You’re screwing him, right?”

My mind was whirring, trying to find a way out of this, but nothing seemed to spring forth. I wasn’t sure that I could outrun them, I had no way of grabbing my phone and calling anyone to save me, and I didn’t think I could fight the pair of them.

What the hell was I going to do?

Before I decided on anything, Travis began pushing me towards an old wooden pen on the side of the barn, where cattle would’ve once been kept. This all happened in a split-second, before I could even think about reacting. I thrashed and struggled against him, but it was no good; he was far too strong, and I was like a toddler trying to fight off an adult during a tantrum. He held me still, and I felt Becca wrapping the tape around my arms, holding them in place against the gate of the pen before adding the rope to secure them even more. After she’d finished on my arms, they both got to work on securing my legs as well. I was screaming and yelling throughout this, but it was absolutely pointless. No one lived anywhere near this place, and hardly anyone ever came here.

Shit. I was completely screwed.

Once they were satisfied that I wouldn’t be able to escape their clutches, they stepped backwards to examine their work with pride. They celebrated their achievement by wrapping their bodies around each other and kissing like horny teenagers, and when they finally broke apart, Becca arched an eyebrow at me and giggled.

“Don’t worry, Sasha. We’re not
that
crazy. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re just going to scare your family into thinking you’ve really been kidnapped. Politician’s kids get kidnapped all the time, and we’re getting that money from you one way or another.”

“You’re bat-shit crazy. They’ll know it was you, and they’ll find me. Do you think they won’t call the police as soon as they realize I’m missing?”

She ignored me, and I looked at Travis instead. “Travis, can you not see how senseless this plan is? You guys will get caught so fast!” I said. “But if you let me go now, you won’t be in trouble. We can just call it a joke.”

There was no way this was a joke, but I was trying to be calm in the hope that they’d realize how bad this idea was and let me go.

“What are you talking about?” Travis said. He lazily pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up, as if he were bored by the entire situation. “We’re fine. No one will look for you out here.”

Now that my eyes had adjusted to the dim light in the barn, I could see that his pupils were pinpricked, which confirmed that he was high on something.

“Right. Even if that were true, how exactly are you going to get money from doing all of this?” I asked. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around how utterly stupid and deluded they were. “What, you’re just gonna call up my stepfather and demand ransom money? I mean…come on. You won’t get away with that. As soon as you let me go, I’ll tell the police it was you guys, and they’ll be after you in no time. Have you even thought about this plan
at all
?”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said, rolling his eyes. “The cops in this city are fucking idiots, anyway. We’ll just tell them you lied about who took you to get back at us for cheating with each other while we were dating.”

It was almost unfathomable how dumb they were, and I tried a different tactic. If I could get them to turn on each other, then maybe they’d give up and let me go home.

“Well, speaking of cheating, did you know your girlfriend is cheating on you with one of her professors?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Nice try, but I already know about that. She told me the other night, and I told her it was a good idea,” he replied. “She always gets what she wants, and so do I. Doesn’t matter how.”

Crap. Could they honestly not see how fucked up their relationship was?

Becca moved closer to Travis to kiss him again, and in the process she managed to knock the cigarette out of his hand. I saw it tumble from his hand and land in a pile of hay, and my eyes widened as I saw it catch fire almost instantly. It was only a few orange flames flickering, but it was enough to scare the crap out of me.

“Oh, fuck!” Travis said, fear spreading across his face as he tried and failed to stamp the fire out. “What the hell did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to, it was an accident! Shit, come on, we all need to get out of here!”

“But what about…?” He jerked his thumb towards the rope and tape that was still binding me to the cattle pen gate.

“Just untie her from it, you moron!” Becca screeched.

Travis crouched down and yanked at the knots on my legs to no avail, and he shouted back at Becca a second later. “Where’s my pocket knife? You did these knots up way too fucking tight.”

“It’s in the car.”

“Fuck…”

The fire was spreading more by the second, and I stared at them with wide eyes, silently praying that this was all a nightmare.

“This was only supposed to scare her for a couple of hours to get back at her! We can’t just leave her here!” Becca said.

“There’s no fucking time. The car’s ages away, so by the time we get the knife, this place will be half gone,” Travis replied, his voice panicked as he saw the flames now licking at the side of the barn. “Sorry, Sasha.”

With that, he turned and ran, and Becca gave me one last lingering look before following him.

“Are you fucking serious?” I screamed as they dashed out of the barn. “Don’t leave me in here!”

My voice fell on deaf ears, and I was on my own. I was going to have to help myself. I pulled, I thrashed, and I struggled, but there was just no way that I could get myself free. They had tied me up too tightly. On top of that, smoke was rising in the air, and I could feel myself getting woozy.

A series of faces flashed through my mind as dizziness overwhelmed me—my friends, my family, even my college professors. I tried to take a breath and choked on acrid smoke, and one face in particular flashed in my mind.
Logan.

Then everything went black.