Vandal pulled out of my ass, and I whimpered at the sensation, then again when he picked me up off Zero and lifted me into his arms as he got to his feet. I felt caked with dirt and grass and blood, and cum was dripping from my pussy and ass, coating my thighs. The gag was starting to hurt my mouth, but Vandal was too busy holding me up to deal with it yet. Maybe his brain felt as rattled as mine did.
Was it over, or was he bringing me back to the altar?
Bright lights blazed to life. There were shouts—then there were men—strangers in the dark running toward us. There was the glint of guns, and I couldn’t breathe. I was hyperventilating but couldn’t stop. What were these men doing here?
They were in uniforms—bulletproof vests.
The police? But...why?
All I could think was that they’d found out Vandal really was a killer and they were here in the knick of time.
I sagged in Vandal’s grip and he struggled to hold me up.
“Put the girl down!” one of the police officers demanded. I could see them more clearly now that their glaring lights weren’t in my eyes.
It really was the police.
“Let her go. Now!”
Carefully, Vandal lowered me to the ground. The grass was damp against my cheek, or maybe my cheek was damp. I struggled to sit up, but my body felt weak and didn’t want to obey me.
Hands were on me, people shining a light in my eyes. “She looks drugged. I see blood.”
“I found a knife over here!”
“We got here just in time.”
I tried to focus on what was going on. Everything was happening so fast.
Vandal was on his knees with his hands in the air, and Zero was beside him doing the same. Both of them were shirtless, pants askew, looking menacing with their wild hair, grim expressions, and wealth of tattoos. Someone pulled the gag’s tie from my face and fished the fabric out of my mouth. The air seemed to come in too fast then, making my head swim.
“This was all consensual,” Vandal was saying. An officer told him to shut up.
“How are you doing, sweetheart?” a female EMT asked me, wrapping a blanket around my shoulders, my teeth were chattering, and my eyes felt huge. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. I was confused, naked, and more than a little embarrassed. My brain was trying to shut down, the edges of my vision still dark. They were checking my blood pressure, and had clamped a pulse oximeter to my finger before I even gathered enough scraps of thought together to open my mouth.
“They can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe now,” the male EMT said at my shoulder. He unbuckled the cuffs from my wrists and checked me over for damage there. Other than a bit of chafing, I doubted there was any.
“Do you know these men? Were they holding you against your will?” A male police officer asked from just beyond the EMTs.
Someone was reading Vandal his rights.
“No, stop. Why are you people here? I don’t understand…”
“A couple driving by heard you screaming. They sent us to help. Damn good thing they had their windows open or they never would have heard you.”
“No, it’s not like that.” I begged, trying to catch the female EMT’s attention.
“It’s not like what? Were you free to leave?” the male EMT asked.
“Well, no…” My brain stammered through the explanation, trying to figure out exactly how much they needed to know. “I mean, yes.” I shook my head, trying to clear it.
“Her oxygen is a bit low. Can you take some deep breaths for me?”
I tried, but I was still panicking.
“Her blood pressure is off the charts.”
“Considering what these men were about to do to her, I’m not surprised. You never think things like this are going to happen in a small town. It’s supposed to be safe here.”
Someone said something about human trafficking.
“No... I’m fine! They didn’t do anything wrong. It was research.”
The male EMT’s brows rose. “Research?” He shone a flashlight in my eyes and told me to stare straight ahead. “What did they drug you with?”
“They didn’t drug me with anything. I’m only freaking out because no one is listening to me.”
Vandal and Zero were on their feet, their hands cuffed behind their backs. The police were leading them up the lawn toward the path to the driveway.
“No, tell them to stop!” I waved my hands ineffectually at them, trying to will them to listen. “This is all research for my book. They were helping me figure out a scene.”
Both EMTs looked at me in disbelief. The police officer standing behind them shouted to one of the other men and the whole parade of officers ground to a halt.
“So you’re telling me this was consensual? That this was your idea?” the police officer asked.
“Yes!”
Never in my life had I been more relieved that Redwood didn’t have its own police force. These people were from a bigger town not far away, and thankfully I didn’t know any of them. “I’m a writer. We’ve been staying here for months so I could work on my book. These guys were helping me with some research. I’m sorry. We had no idea anyone could hear us acting things out. Nobody has complained about noise before. The nearest neighbor is kilometers away.”
The three of them exchanged looks. The police officer started to chuckle.
“You’re serious? What do you write?”
“Horror novels.”
He blew out a breath and waved one of the other officers over to explain. I sat there, sore, dripping cum, and wishing that dying of embarrassment was a literal option for me.
“We should charge the three of you with disturbing the peace,” the officer grumbled. “What if there was a real emergency while we were busy here?”
The female EMT patted my hand reassuringly, but I failed to be reassured.
“I’m sorry—we had no idea you’d been called. If you have to charge someone, it should be me. They were just being nice and helping me out. I was the one who was yelling. Getting into character—you know?” My face felt as red as the reflection of the police lights I could see bouncing off the cottage windows.
The male EMT gestured to the cut on my chest which turned out to be far shallower than I’d thought. “If this is what you consider nice, you need to reconsider your choice in boyfriends.”
I gave him a shaky laugh. “You’ve heard of method acting? I do method writing. Believe me, if I’d had any idea people might hear us, we would have kept it down.”
The police officer grunted. There was a lot more talking after that, but maybe an hour later the three squad cars and the ambulance were leaving the property.
I was sitting on the chaise lounge and wearing a nightgown by the time we were alone. Vandal had gone into the house for a moment and come back out with three beers, cracking them open one by one and handing them out. Zero sank down behind me and wrapped his arms around me but left me free enough to drink a beer. Vandal crouched down in front of me and took a swig from his own bottle.
“So...”
We looked at Vandal expectantly, but the one word seemed to be all he could come up with for a couple of minutes.
“Yeah,” Zero finally replied.
I gave a humiliated laugh and covered my face for a moment, wishing I could crawl under a rock.