Poison

When I reached the student parking lot that afternoon, someone snapped a bag over my head and bound my hands behind my back with rope, the knots tight and restricting, almost as if done professionally.

“Don’t say a word,” the man growled into my ear, shoving me forward.

“Can you let up?” I whispered. “You’re hurting me.”

After grunting ever so softly, he released my arm, opened a car door, and pushed me in. The car was silent, but I could hear more than one person’s breathing. Three people, maybe?

Someone grabbed the top of the bag on my head and yanked it off. When they tore it off me completely, I kept my eyes closed, in pure fear of who I’d see staring back at me because it definitely wasn’t anyone good. One moment passed, then two, and then I reluctantly opened my eyes. Staring back at me wasn’t one, wasn’t two, but it was all three of the most dangerous boys at Redwood.

Poison.

“You’re the pretty girl who likes to show herself off on camera?” Kai asked.

My eyes widened.

For the past three months, I had been talking to Poison online, and they now knew my darkest secrets.

“What is wrong with you guys?” I exclaimed. “Do you think that tying me up and putting a bag over my head is funny?! Because it’s not! I could’ve died from suffocation, and you would have had a dead fucking body on your hands.”

João curled his lips into a smirk. “Nothing we haven’t dealt with before.”

“Untie me,” I said through gritted teeth. “What do you want? I’ll give you as much money as you want to keep this a secret. Please.”

Landon chuckled. “Oh, we don’t want your parents’ dirty money, Imani. We want you.”