All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1) by Jamie Campbell (my miracle luna book free read .TXT) 📕

could see him better. His eyes were as black as the building had been as he studied me. There was intelligence behind his gaze, something the two thugs beside me clearly lacked. Once upon a time before the Event, he was probably a fairly decent guy, good looking, too. I hoped some of that decency still remained, even if he hid it most of the time.

“What’s your name?” he asked me.

“Everly.”

“I’m Jet, it’s nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for me to shake. Considering my arms were held out to my sides by my captors, there was no chance I was touching him. He took his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. He was thin like the others, but there were still muscles on his body. “What are you doing down here, Everly?”

“I got lost, I didn’t know where I was.”

He came in close to me, his face only an inch away from mine. It was uncomfortable staring into his eyes but I wasn’t going to look away. I didn’t have my freedom, but my dignity was going to stick around for a little while longer.

“You should have left while you had a chance,” he warned. Like that wasn’t already quite clear in my current predicament. You didn’t need to be a genius to work that out.

“She had this with her,” the thug to my right said, holding up the food Oliver had found for me. “We’ve got dinner for an entire week in here.”

All the other boys were suddenly a lot more interested in me now with the mention of food. They all approached, making a circle around us.

“What should we do with her, Jet?” thug to my left asked.

Jet was still studying me like I was some sort of freak at the circus. I didn’t want to know what was going on in his mind at that point. It was probably not something I would be pleased about.

“Tie her up. I want to have a nice, long chat with Miss Everly here,” Jet ordered, managing to make every hair on my body stand at attention with fear.

I didn’t make it easy for them. I thrashed about with the remainder of my energy until they held me down and tied me to a broken wooden chair. It leaned dangerously to the side and creaked every time I managed to move. I didn’t trust it to hold my weight for very long.

I probably wasn’t going to last very long.

So we had the same life expectancy.

While my food was equally divided amongst the group, Jet pulled another chair in front of me. He spun it around backwards and sat down, leaning on the back with his head on his arms. “So, Everly, we don’t get many visitors.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I replied sarcastically. My mother used to warn me about my smart mouth getting me into trouble. I probably should have listened to her and developed better habits.

Too late now.

Jet laughed, snorting through his nose. “How long do you think you’re going to last here if you talk to me like that? Huh?”

“Let me go and you won’t have to hear it anymore.”

“When we’re getting along so well? What’s the rush?” He pretended to be offended. I doubted anything I said would offend him. Little girls wouldn’t even register on his radar. “So where’d you get the food? It’s a sweet haul.”

“From the hall at the school. They give away food every day.”

“Not to everyone,” he pointed out. For just a second, there was something else besides malice in his eyes, hurt? Disappointment? A memory he had tried to forget? I couldn’t tell. “How old are you?”

“How old are you?” I shot back. I didn’t even care, I just didn’t want him knowing anything else about me. He didn’t deserve to speak to me like we were making new friends when I was tied up and at his mercy.

“Old enough to know better. Now, your turn.”

“Go to hell.”

He fell into a new round of laughter. He was just playing with me, like a kitten would a mouse. It never ended well for the mouse. I doubted I would fare any better.

“Everly, Everly, Everly,” he started, shaking his head. “When are you going to learn, princess? I’m the one in charge here. I can do absolutely anything to you and do you know who’d care?” He held up his hand and made a zero with his thumb and index finger. “Now let’s try this again. How old are you?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because I’m bored and you’re my new toy. Answer the question.”

Did I really have any choice? “Seventeen.”

“Seventeen… you look younger.”

“So you like girls young, huh?” I half expected him to backhand me for being so insolent. It was stupid of me but the words were out before I could stop them. Perhaps if he hated me, he would let me go so he didn’t have to put up with me anymore.

Of course, he could also kill me for the same reason. It wasn’t like there were any police or courts to punish murderers anymore. The law no longer existed.

But instead of inflicting pain onto me, Jet ran his hand down the side of my face. It was so gentle and tender that it completely threw me off guard. “There are only young girls left,” he whispered.

I was frozen in place as he took his hand back. A new possibility for them deciding to keep me around occurred to me. This one was a fate worse than death. Half a dozen boys, one girl. The older guys were probably missing female company.

I needed to get the hell out of here.

Jet continued to stare at me. “Where do you live?”

“In a house.”

“Where?”

“In the city,” I lied. If