The door opens again and a giant man ducks under the frame. His face is hidden under a black balaclava and before I can shout a warning, he wraps an arm around Mr. Parker’s neck and forces him to his knees.

“Let go of me,” Mr. Parker gurgles, his hands slapping frantically at the giant’s.

The priest laughs. “Hey, Zach. Watch this.”

He turns me to face him and his mouth crashes onto mine. He kisses me deeply, the sharp scent of him wrapping around me like a thorny rose. His lips take on a soft, coaxing quality and my own part in shock. The second they do, his tongue is in my mouth. I try to pull away, but his hand is still clenched in my hair, trapping me. Heat surges through my body and all I can think is that this is my first kiss. Not Mr. Parker in front of the altar. A crazy not-priest in the back room of a cathedral.

I don’t want to kiss him back but I’m already doing it, pressing my lips to his, touching his tongue with mine. Something in me knows what to do. More than knows. Wants.

A high, awful scream rips through the air and the priest laughs into my mouth. He pulls away and the desire I feel to keep kissing him is a hundred times worse than his hands on me. He leers like he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “You kept this pussy on ice too long, Zach. One little kiss and she’s butter.”

The huge man still has Mr. Parker in a chokehold. My fiancé writhes and jerks, tears streaming down his dark red cheeks. “January! January!”

My heart slams against my ribs. “Please let him go?”

The priest ignores me, spinning me around so his hips press into my backside.

There’s another explosion. A thick book bounces onto my foot, but I barely feel it. The priest’s hand is sliding along my stomach, rising to cup my left breast.

“Let’s see what we have here,” he mutters.

“Nnnggijos,” Mr. Parker moans.

“Yes,” the priest says, caressing my breast. My legs go weak. I want it to feel bad, but it just feels wrong. Like saying the alphabet backward. Everything inside me is hot and ringing with fear, but I know it’s not my fault. I don’t want to do this. He’s making me.

The priest nuzzles his face into my neck. “Me and the boys are gonna have fun with her, Parker. But don’t be jealous, you’ll get to watch.”

Mr. Parker makes a high, whining noise like a dying insect.

The priest’s fingers toy with my nipple through my dress. “We’ll break her in, Parker. Fuck her every way a girl can be fucked.”

The man in the balaclava gives a rumbling laugh and I stop breathing. Thinking. I try to disappear inside myself.

“You think you know what’s gonna happen, Zach,” the fake priest says in my ear. “You’re wrong. You’ve got no imagination. The things the four of us have dreamed up to do to your little virgin… you’re gonna blow your brains out just to end it.”