He punches in the door code and opens the door.
An unfamiliar living room stretches before us. The house itself has a Pacific Northwest vibe: lots of raw wood, cool colors, and stone elements. But the furniture is decidedly modern, very mid-century and out of place. It’s fancy as hell, too, all that white leather and glass.
Last time I was here, I came in the side door, so I didn’t get a great view of the house.
Everything looks normal though, like you’d expect a freshly made-up vacation rental would look. There’s a binder on the coffee table that I flick open with a single finger, noticing laminated pages filled with information about local hiking trails, restaurants, and activities.
There are no coats on the coatrack, no shoes tucked beside the front door. The kitchen is clean, the sink free of dishes, and the back door is locked. X moves with pure confidence, lacking any scrap of the anxiety that pumps through my blood like poison.
He moves like the world is his to conquer, like he doesn’t owe anyone a damn thing. Make space for yourself. That’s what he told me at the waterfall. He isn’t worried about what might happen if someone stumbles on us here, not in the way that I am anyway. His only concern is our actual safety, but here I am wondering what I’d say to Chasm’s father’s friend if they were to show up unexpectedly. I’m worried about awkward social interactions.
Annoying. Get it together, Dakota.
I follow Maxx up the stairs, catching a glimpse of those family photos in the hallway that I took note of before, the ones of little Kwang-seon with his grandmother. Too cute. We head up, past the potted plant I knocked over last time, and make quick work of the bedrooms. The beds are made, the bathrooms have freshly folded towels on the counters, and the only thing in the entire house that catches my attention is … a white rabbit.
“What the hell?” Maxx asks as he opens the last door at the end of the upstairs hallway. The bunny is in a relatively small cage atop a chest of drawers that sits against the far wall. It looks at us with pretty pink eyes as we step into the room together.
“I take it that Chasm’s family doesn’t keep pets in their rental houses?” I query as Maxx turns a perplexed look in my direction.
“Seamus hates animals. He told me once that he thinks companion animals are better off dead than living as slaves.” X turns back to the bunny as I cringe inwardly. Yikes. Chas’s dad is batshit, isn’t he? “So, no, I don’t think this is his bunny.”
My phone—and not my Tess-phone mind you—buzzes in my blazer, and my eyes go wide. I slip it from my pocket and unlock the screen with my thumb, my eyes narrowing as I remember Maxx grabbing my hand and forcing it against the phone screen. Asshole.
I stare down at the text, but it takes my mind a minute to decipher the words there.
Princess, you are more than I ever could’ve imagined. I’m so proud of you. You’ve made great strides in the last few weeks. Now, you are not to leave the cabin until a bunny lies dead at the bottom of that cage.
X reads the words over my shoulder and starts cursing immediately.
“Shit,” he breathes, lacing his fingers together behind his head. “He wants us to kill the rabbit.”
I lift my head up from the phone to stare at the tiny, innocent animal twitching its whiskers at me from inside the cage. It doesn’t appear to be frightened, more curious than anything else. My stomach twists into impossible knots and my head spins with the implications of that text.
You are not to leave the cabin … until a bunny lies dead at the bottom of that cage.
So many things come crashing down on me all at once, and I end up sitting down on the edge of the bed, the phone still clutched in my right hand.
Spoiler alert: I’m not murdering a fucking bunny.
It feels like … like I’m being primed for something so much bigger than this, and I don’t like it. I don’t like that, this very morning, I let my anger get the better of me and gave into the rage I was feeling. Yes, the cars needed to be destroyed in order to protect Parrish, but did I have to do it with gusto? Did I have to take Mr. Volli’s bait and chuck the plan Maxx, Chasm, and I came up with right out the freaking window?
“I can’t kill a bunny,” I whisper, looking up at Maxx. “I can’t kill anything or anyone. I just can’t do something like that.”
X stares down at me with that gorgeous emerald gaze of his, the color similar to freshly budding sprouts or leaves in spring, alive and vibrant and brimming. He turns his attention to the cage before moving over to unlock it.
