“Why?” he mimicked my voice. “You little shits come up here every year and think you own this place, acting like you’re better than us. You’re not. You aren’t anything.”

I blinked against the tears filling my eyes. A cord of familiarity rang inside me.

He dragged me past the coffee table, toward the blankets. “And that fucker Kyler? He thinks he’s the shit, right? Thinking he can boss me around.”

It hit me then, and for a second I couldn’t move as realization sunk in. I knew who it was behind the mask. I almost blurted it out, but clamped my jaw shut. If he thought I didn’t know he was Zach, then I probably had a better chance of walking away from this. At least, I hoped I did, and I clung onto that.

“Come on, dude. This is enough,” Bat Guy said from somewhere behind us. “She’s scared, okay? We need to get out of here. You fucked with their stuff enough already. This has gone too far.”

“Too far?” Zach hissed in my ear, and I shuddered in revulsion. “Like it wasn’t too far when Kyler fucked my girlfriend? Or the fact that he’s with her right now?”

Holy shit—did he mean Sasha? Kyler had mentioned that there’d had been something between Zach and Sasha, but Kyler had said nothing had happened between him and Sasha. I suddenly got the animosity between the two at the bar.

He’d lied to me, actually lied to me. And now Kyler was with her and I was with Zach. How unbelievably fucking twisted,

Kyler had slept with Zach’s girlfriend, once upon a time.

The rusty knife that had been planted in my heart when I’d heard where Kyler was twisted deeper, and then broke off. I was in this situation because of Kyler and his inability to keep his dick in his pants. Plain and simple. The emotional pain slicing through me was just as potent as my stinging lip and aching muscles, and the bruises on the inside would take a hell of a lot longer to fade than the ones that no doubt blotted my skin. The hurting went to a whole new level, cutting in so far I knew there was no chance of repairing this.

That is, if I actually made it out of here alive.

I struggled to get control of my breathing to think around the soul-shattering hurt and panic. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. My lower lip was numb, causing me to stumble over my words. “I’m sorry that he slept with your girlfriend. I’m so—”

“You’re sorry?” Zach laughed harshly as he shoved me forward. “That little bastard should be sorry.”

Okay. Obviously sympathizing with the psycho wasn’t going to work. Scrambling off my knees, I spun around, aiming for the doorway to the foyer. I could get out the front door, and then what? Run like hell.

I made it halfway across the room before he got hold of my jacket. In a frantic attempt at escape, I tore the zipper down and slipped out of it. I’d almost made it to the door when he tackled me from behind. I hit the floor hard. My cry was lost in Bat Guy’s shouts. Zach roughly flipped me onto my back and the terror amplified, bursting through me. I swung at him, my knuckles glancing his jaw. He caught my hands, easily pinning them beside my head.

“God, you’re fucking feisty for a midget, aren’t you?” Zach laughed, and through the slits of the ski mask, his eyes held a scary gleam to them. “You and Kyler are just friends, huh? Fuck-buddies by the look of it. Yeah, I saw you two in front of the window. Would’ve got you out of the bar sooner if I’d known you were just another one of Kyler’s whores.”

Just another one of Kyler’s whores.

Rage swamped me, a fiery burn that slithered through my veins like poison. I bucked my hips, trying to throw him. “Get off me!”

“Hey!” Bat Guy shouted, his voice a high-pitch squeal. “This is going too far! I didn’t sign up for this shit! Fucking with the house is one thing, but this? Hell no. I’m not a part of this.”

“Whatever,” Zach growled. “Get the fuck out, then.”

Breathing heavy, my eyes locked with Zach’s. How far was he going to take this? Obviously, what was happening wasn’t a part of any plan. Bat Guy was way too freaked out for that to be the case. They must’ve been watching. Saw Kyler leave, and then me. They probably hadn’t expected me to show up in the middle of them vandalizing Kyler’s car. But now? My brain couldn’t go where this kind of stuff ended. This couldn’t be happening to me.

A door slammed shut somewhere in the house, and the last of my hope dwindled. Bat Guy was gone. I was alone with Zach, and revenge glittered in his stare.

Kyler

Coasting over the snow, I cursed under my breath. Way too much time had passed since I’d left for the lodge. Syd probably thought Bigfoot or something had eaten me. I hadn’t intended on taking so long. Good news was that I learned that progress had already been made on the town’s roads, and the main ones were clear enough for slow traffic.

Man, my head was still spinning from what’d happened when Sasha had strolled into the lodge. It solidified two age-old sayings—the past always comes back to bite you in the ass, and no good deed goes unpunished.

Jesus. H. Christ.

All I wanted to do was gather Syd up and get as far away from here as possible. Coasting to a stop beside the other snowmobile, I frowned. What the hell was that doing out? Had Syd gone somewhere and come back?

Irritation bit deep as I turned the engine off. Goddamn it, would she ever listen to me? The last thing I wanted was her running around by herself, especially after what I’d learned from Sasha.

Fucking Zach—fucking redneck, backwoods asshole—had been behind the shit going on at the house. Apparently, he’d busted out a couple of her windows too. That little punk still couldn’t get past the fact Sasha had moved on. You’d think by the way Zach acted over a year later that Sasha had the golden vagina or something. Shit.

It took everything in my power not to find my way to where Zach lived and beat the living shit out of him. His screwed-up obsession with Sasha could’ve gotten Syd hurt—or worse.

It would’ve been your fault, whispered an insidious voice.

Fuck. That was true.

Whipping my helmet off, I hopped off the snowmobile just as someone came running out from under the half-closed garage door.

First thought: What the fuck?

Second thought: Fucker was wearing a ski mask and was coming out of my house, where Syd was? Oh hell-to-the-motherfucking no.

Throwing the helmet down, I caught the son of a bitch around the waist as he tried to dart around the house. I took him down in the snow, planting my knee in the dude’s stomach.

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, gripping the guy by the shoulders. “Answer me!”

The man held up his hands. “I don’t have nothing to do with this. I swear. He said he just wanted to fuck with the house and your car. That was—”

Grabbing hold of the edges of the ski mask, I yanked it up over the fucker’s head. It was one of Zach’s cronies. He’d been at the bar a few nights back. Without even thinking twice, I slammed my fist into the guy’s face. “Where is he?”

The guy looked like he was about to piss himself as he jerked his chin toward the garage. His bloody lips trembled.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but Zach, man, he hates you for that shit with Sasha. He’s inside, man.”

I went stock-still for a second. It was like the world had just fucking crashed on top of me. Fear exploded in the back of my throat and it tasted like I’d swallowed a mouthful of blood.

Springing off the douche, I tore through the snow and skidded across the cement. I hit the side of my SUV and rebounded. My head shut down as I flew through the open door, my eyes scanning the room for Syd.

Footfalls thudded upstairs and a cry rang out, stopping my heart. Shit, that sounded like Syd. Oh, my God, that sounded like her. My hands were already forming fists and pure rage boiled my blood, turning to ice at the sound of a fucking gunshot from above. Oh, God—Syd. If she was hurt, I swore to fucking God, I’d kill the bastard. There’d be no stopping me.