Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
I tensed.
“All the times he was alone with her, inside of her, coming and forgetting about you,” he told Emmy. “You can see it, right?”
You son of a bitch.
“But we don’t care,” he went on. “Do we? We don’t care that he’ll fall back into her bed at the first sign of trouble.”
I flexed my jaw, the scent from the anti-bacterial wipes stinging my nostrils. My brain was fried. I didn’t know how to get what I wanted anymore without resorting to just taking it.
“Go ahead,” Aydin told me, his eyes flashing to Alex behind me. “Take her. I want to see how it was with you two. All the things she let you do to her, because that’s how easily she forgets and moves on.” Then he gestured to Em. “We’ll watch.”
But before I could act, he grabbed me and shoved me onto the bed. I fell, Emmy whimpering and jumping off the mattress as Aydin came down on me and dug a knee into my gut. I growled as he gripped my neck with one hand and backhanded me with the other.
I squeezed my eyes shut, the pain shooting through my jaw and up the side of my face, but after a moment, I slowly turned my head back to face him, ready for more.
Come on.
His eyes pierced, and he leaned down, his breath warming my lips. “Mine,” he breathed out. “All of you are mine. You’re not leaving. They’re not leaving. And when your little shits arrive, I’m going to hang them in the cellar by their ankles like dead deer.”
He hauled me up off the bed, and I stumbled back before he came in and punched me in the stomach, sending me hunched over.
“Will…” Alex stepped forward.
But I shot out my hand. “Stay back,” I told her. “Stay back.”
It took a few seconds, but I rose again and faced him, taking his shit but not taking it lying down. I can be a team player, but I’m strong.
He walked up to me, slamming another uppercut into my stomach. Bile rose up my throat. I hunched over again, out of breath and my head spinning.
“You don’t have what it takes to be me,” he gritted out, standing over me.
“Will,” I heard Emmy call.
And then Alex. “What the hell are you doing?” she growled at me. “Do something!”
“He can’t,” Aydin told her. “Because he can’t lead. This is all he is. Don’t you see it?”
I rose up to see him glaring at her.
“Don’t you?” he yelled at Alex again.
Aydin punched and kicked, and my eyes watered as fire tore through my body. He knocked me down and then fisted my throat as we rolled around on the floor. I wouldn’t fight back. Not yet.
Not yet.
But I wouldn’t cower, either. It was the only way. Men like him needed to feel power, but he wouldn’t respect me if I begged like Micah.
He needed me.
He wouldn’t be able to tie his shoes without me someday.
Blood dripped out of my nose, and my ribs hurt. I barely registered the girls on us, trying to pry us off each other, but we rolled, forcing them back. Locking my elbows, I gripped his jaw and pushed him away from me. Sweat broke out across my forehead, and he breathed hard, the scratch I accidently left on his cheekbone red and jagged.
“Entertain me,” he said. “Let me watch, and let your girl watch, so she knows exactly how hard you missed her during your time apart.”
“I did miss her,” I whispered up at him, so only he heard. “Several times a day, in an array of fascinating places.”
His eyes flared, and he growled. “Fuck you!”
I broke out into a laugh, even through the pain, because he was coming undone.
That was it. For some reason, he was jealous, and I didn’t know why, but that was it. Did he want me or something? Maybe Alex?
“Come on!” I bellowed. “Hit me again!”
Break. Fucking break, because it was time.
He pulled back his fist, and I braced myself, but then something swung down behind him, slamming against the back of his neck.
He jerked, his eyes etched with pain, and then he fell over. I looked up at Alex standing there with a lamp in her fists.
He rolled over, hissing through his teeth as he locked eyes with her. “You better be ready to finish what you—”
She shot out the lamp, headbutting him, and he fell back, blood pouring down his mouth. He held his face.
“Alex…” I gasped.
Shit.
But the next thing I knew, the lamp hit my nose, too, a searing pain shooting through my head. I dropped back to the floor next to Aydin as the girls went to work.
My eyes watered, and I couldn’t even open them, but I felt one of them pull off my belt, and I barely realized what was happening as I was dragged to the wall, catching glimpses of the girls struggling to move us.