Mason didn’t agree, but he did say, “With this group, we fight back smart. Okay?”

I hadn’t been smart. Sebastian outsmarted me.

I thought, Fuck me.

“I figured you wouldn’t drink. You’d be coming into enemy territory, and Mason would’ve coached you better. That meant a clear head, but I also knew this would take a long time. There’s a lot to explain, and I’m not even done. I still have more to enlighten you about. I knew you’d want some water. The only problem was that.” He gestured to a cupboard behind me.

My arms were growing heavier the more he talked, but I opened it. Two cases of water sat there. I could’ve grabbed one of those twenty-four bottles. I’d taken the single one in the refrigerator.

Sebastian said, as his hand rested on top of the bar an inch from mine, “But I eliminated the risk and put only one in there.”

“How?”

“A syringe,” he said so matter-of-factly. “If you turned your bottle over, a very, very small leak would show up. It was big enough, though, for what I needed.”

Everything was getting even heavier. I wanted to lie down.

“Sam?”

I wanted to shake my head. I didn’t want to hear the rest. He hadn’t won. He just thought he had, but he’d find that out in the morning. I started to look around. I needed a chair. I would tell him where his plan wouldn’t work out when I woke up.

I needed to rest.

“You’re not going to fall asleep.”

That was not what my eyelids were saying. I grinned, laughing at my stupid joke. My eyeballs, my legs, everything in me wanted to check out and go away.

“You’re going to stay awake.”

Pfft.

He was an idiot. I took a step around the bar. That couch was my goal, but my body went the other direction. Sebastian grabbed me.

I didn’t want him to touch me. I tried to swing my hand at him. Nothing. I slapped my other arm. I started to shake my head, but the room turned to the left. It wasn’t upside down. It was just sitting at a side angle.

He helped me to the couch. His touch was soothing. He cradled the back of my head, and I was placed on a pillow.

“There you go. See? That’s not too bad.”

Asshole.

I wanted to growl at him.

I couldn’t do a thing, except hear him and stare at him.

My body was almost paralyzed. He could do as he pleased. This…this was what he thought of when I came to the party.

He’d drugged me, and he was going to rape me.

“Ah, yes.” His head floated right above mine. He was staring down into my eyes, waiting. “I see it now. You know what I’m going to do, don’t you?” His hand ran down my forehead and traced the side of my jaw, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. It was almost loving. “My grandfather and The Network want Mason and his father in with them, but that can’t happen. Mason pissed me off, so no, he won’t be brought in. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that from happening. I thought the little battle would be over in a few months. I underestimated you guys. All of you. Mason. Logan. You. Even Nate. All four of you were together in this against me. I don’t know how to fight like that. It’s me, but I realized I could use the fraternity against you. When Nate left the house, it didn’t take me much to stir up resentment. The hit-and-run was my idea, and of course, Mason was the target. He already knew that, and he knew why. I wanted to hurt him, but I wanted him to live with it. I thought football was his obsession. I was wrong.” He sighed to himself. His hand fell to my arm. He began rubbing it in circles, caressing me.

A tear welled up in my eye. I couldn’t do a thing. I wanted to run. That was all I wanted.

Sebastian continued, “I realized it was you. I needed to find a way to destroy you. Summer was supposed to help me, but everything she told me about you, none of it seemed to matter. I already knew about Analise. Your other father and stepmother—they weren’t weak. Your only weakness is yourself. Once I knew what I had to do, I guess you brought it about. When you came here, that was the perfect time to do this.”

He looked down, skimming up and down my body. “You really are beautiful, Sam. All that running has kept you toned. I can see why Garrett fell for your mother. With your eyes and how your face is framed, you’re both stunning to look at. There’s a light inside of you.”

He sat up and leaned over me, so his head was directly above mine. His eyes went dead. “And I will enjoy taking that light away from you because that’s how I’m going to destroy Mason. I don’t need a camera. I don’t need to record anything for blackmail. Just me, violating you over and over tonight. That will do enough damage. You’ll never get over it. You’ll never be whole again because that’s what rape does to a person.”

Mason…

He wouldn’t be here in time. This was going to happen now. He’d be too late.

Sebastian laughed to himself. “At least, that’s what the psychologists all say. Now, let’s get to it.”

I started to go somewhere else.

He was taking his clothes off, so I closed my eyes. It would be Sebastian’s body, but it would be Mason in my mind. Sebastian would be raping me while Mason would be holding me.

It’d be Mason.

Where was Mason?

MASON

Upload the information. Click Send to everyone in The Network—or those we knew.

That was the plan and I got inside, uploaded everything to the closest computer I could find to Sebastian’s location, but once I heard Sam’s voice coming from the vent, the plans changed. I heard what Sebastian was going to do to her.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Opening the door, I stood there for a minute. He didn’t hear me come in and he was bending over her now, stroking her face like she was his damn child. It was tender and loving.

It made me sick.

“I told myself I was going to be smarter,” I murmured. My hands were flexing into fists, then relaxing, and flexing back again.

His head jerked up. His eyes went wide. Blood drained from his face, and he stumbled away from the couch, moving back a few feet. “Mason.”

I stepped inside. His gaze went to the door, and my head tilted to the side. Fear and panic were there.

Good. I wanted him to be pissing himself. His pants should’ve been drenched already.