Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
“Torie,” he barked.
I knew what he was going to do, and I started struggling. “No. That’s not fair.”
But Torie came over, taking in everything, and I already saw her go from my friend to his employee. She was set, the epitome of a cool professional. “What do you need?”
“Take her. Keep her in my office until this is done.”
I was pushed toward Torie, but I swung free. “No!” He couldn’t make me. Torie couldn’t make me. Scott and Drake were closing in, and shit. They could.
I found Kash, my eyes burning. “Don’t. Do not shove me in a corner for this. I mean it, Kashton. She was there that day. She was taunting me. She’s a part of that nightmare. Don’t make me go away.”
He wavered, and then Victoria was at the table. Her eyes were on us. She was watching and waiting.
God.
I hated her. I didn’t wait for Kash to make his decision. I rounded him and went at her. “You were there that day. I know you lied to me, and I know what really happened, but what you said to me…” I choked off, my entire body feeling like it was squeezing in on itself. “Get out of here.”
I cringed, hearing myself.
I sounded like a wounded, feral animal that was backed into a corner.
But no. That’s how I was feeling.
She was here. She had come for me, sought me out, and she took a knife to my heart. With her words, she thrust that blade into me over and over again, only to leave, and then he sent them for my mother.
My mother.
I was shaking.
“You vile bitch. You are pathetic. You are hateful inside, and you have to spew that outwards. You have to hurt others so you’re not hurting as much? Is that it? Or was it just payback? Because Kash didn’t want you, so you flew back to damage the one he does want?”
She was silent.
Why was she so silent?
Why was this starting to not feel right?
No.
No!
I would not stop. I had a right to lay into her, and my entire body was writhing in fury. My vision was only seeing red. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted more than that. I wanted to destroy her. But she wasn’t saying a thing. She wasn’t reacting.
She wasn’t reacting.
There was no anger on her face.
Oh, God.
She was—she was remorseful. I saw it. I saw it in her eyes, and no, no, no.
No!
“Stop it,” I growled, advancing on her. My hands were in fists. “Stop. You don’t get to be the good one now. You’re not the victim here. You’re not. You victimized. You hurt me. You hurt me on the same day I lost my—”
An arm went around my waist.
I lost it.
I couldn’t keep—Jesus, why wasn’t she fighting me? I needed her to fight me.
I needed it to breathe. I needed it to—There was so much pressure inside me. I felt like a balloon ready to pop, and I had to hurt her to make some of it go away.
That arm wasn’t restraining me.
That arm was just holding me. A chest came up behind me, and I knew that chest.
Kash was standing there behind me, holding me, and his head bent. His lips were on my shoulder.
I was still trembling.
I hated Victoria. I hated her with everything in me.
She was the one who did all of this …
No.
I stopped, freezing in place.
That wasn’t me talking in my head.
I smelled Chrissy. I felt her. I could hear her laughter, and I sagged in Kash’s arms.
I was done.
Everything Victoria did to me, I was doing to her.
Round and round.
The train never stops. But I was hurting. The pressure was building, building, building. It was going to rip me apart, and right behind it was pain. Just pure and horrifying and paralyzing pain, and I couldn’t feel that. I didn’t want to feel that. I wanted to rip apart my skin, push my hand deep inside, grab that pain, and yank it out of me.
I wanted it out of me for good.
Bailey.
That was my mom again. I was hearing me, and I knew she wasn’t there, but she was. She’d come back to haunt me.
“Mom,” I broke, my head folding down. My knees gave out, and down I went.
Kash caught me and he lifted me.
I curled into him, just needing him, and then he was moving through the crowd.
“Here.” That was Torie.
A door opened. We were through it. The club’s music faded.
Kash was carrying me down a hallway. Then we were in an elevator. We were going up, and then another hallway.
“Sir.” His guard.
A door opened, and then I was being lowered onto a couch.
I looked up, but the room was dark. There were neon lights flaring from a window behind him. He’d brought me to his office.
I hadn’t been in this room for so long.