“You don’t care if Abby knows anymore?” I was desperate, grasping at straws and wanting to protect her.
Then the real hammer came. The truth of how sick this whole situation actually was.
His eyes trained on his finger as it traced the V of Blake’s T-shirt, which rested protectively over my heart and my skin ached to concave beneath it. “Abby sleeps like a rock. Always has.” His eyes flicked back to mine. “Those little blue pills I slip her every now and then work like a charm.” Then he bore his stare into mine so I wouldn’t misconstrue what he was saying. “Always have.”
I gasped, my breaths halting in a ball beneath my rib cage as my mouth immediately dried. The fuzz in my head from a dawning hangover was making it hard to grasp what he was really telling me.
At my shock, Damon continued. “What? You thought I would ever just leave it to chance that she’d wake up and catch us? Give me a little more credit, beautiful.”
“I can’t . . . I can’t believe you would do that to her.” My voice was so low, so soft, so . . . insignificant. Like I had always been.
Damon shrugged. “Wasn’t enough to hurt her and it wasn’t all the time. Everyone does it. She’s fine.”
Reality whirled back into me in a blur as his finger dipped lower, between the crevice of my breasts. I slapped it away and tugged back on the other hand that was still holding me so tight. “Get your fucking hands off me,” I grit out.
He didn’t seem to hear that. Just studied my face as though it were no longer familiar to him. “You think you’re cute, don’t you? Flaunting, teasing, testing my limits. Dancing all sexy on your boyfriend while you’re eye-fucking me. Daring me to come and take you out of his arms.”
I gasped. Is he that delusional? He was sicker than I’d thought. I half-laughed as I stepped to push past him once again. “You need help. You should seek some out.”
He whipped me back against the counter once more, his eyes pinning me to the granite. “Don’t play coy with me. Your body may have been dancing with him, but you were looking at me. You don’t have to beg, beautiful. I’m right here.” His hand came down and cupped my sex.
I gasped into his palm as it shot up to cover my mouth. Once I was silenced, his hand began its descent, his fingers plucking at my bottom lip before it trailed past my jaw, skimming over my throat. His nail clipped my collarbone, pricking me just enough to snap my mind back to what was about to happen.
Again.
No.
Suddenly, calm washed away my fear, peace at the fact that this wouldn’t happen. I would stop him or die trying. He could fuck a corpse, but he wouldn’t take me alive. Not again.
As my body composed, absorbing my new fate, Damon released his grip on my arm, bringing both hands to the flat of my chest to finish his descent down. Still in a haze, Blake’s blue, loved-crazed eyes filled my mind, his smile warm and reassuring, his dimple so fucking cute and amazing. Warmth coated me, and I took his love with me, borrowed his strength as a cool hand slipped beneath the cotton of my shirt and squeezed my bare breast.
At the intrusion, Blake’s face exploded into a million bright stars, revealing the crazy person standing behind it. I sucked in a breath, Damon’s eyes opening wider as that action puffed out the breast he was holding. His greedy thumbs began to circle my nipples, his mouth hanging open as though he ached to taste one. His eyes flicked back to my lips, his face inching toward me to take my mouth. My lip curled back over my teeth, and I took my palm, mushing his face and throwing him back.
Finally.
Damon stumbled, trying to find his bearings, and I took the opportunity to move away from the counter he had locked me into and gain back a little more advantage.
“Remember it all, Eva. Remember all that I taught you. Every word I fucking said and every time I made your back hit those mats. Remember it and harness it and come out of the gates fucking swinging. Do not let this motherfucker own you. Not anymore. This is your life. Your house. Your rules.” The words Drew spoke only hours earlier rushed through me.
Crouching my knees a bit, I sat into them and flicked the sweatpants at my thighs to hike up the extra fabric beneath my feet and give myself more traction. The cool tile sent a wave of energy through me, like a jolt of adrenaline, and I widened my arms. Turning my palms up, I raised a mocking eyebrow, a half-smile crooked in the corner of my mouth as I trained my eyes at my violator. My enemy. “Come at me,” I recited Drew’s words.
Damon cocked his head, studying me. Then a smile slid across his amused face. He laughed. “You’re not serious.”
I adjusted my legs, not letting my guard down, then sunk deeper into my squat. “Oh, I’m serious. Come at me. Unless . . .” I quirked a brow. “Unless you’re scared.” I made a pouty face. “What’s the matter? You afraid I’m about to fuck you for once?” He stepped closer, and I swallowed deep, knowing this was it.
“Watch your fucking mouth.”
“Nope,” I spit his word back at him. “I’ve watched it long enough. It’s time for you to watch my mouth now.”
“Oh, I’m watching all right.” Evil dripped from his twisted features his lip pulled back over his teeth, and he took a step toward me. “And I’m gonna shut it for you.”
Quicker than I could register, he was on me then, but my body instinctively took over, slapping his hand away as it made to reach for my neck. I smiled once again. “Gonna have to try harder than that, asshole. I’ve been waiting years for this day, and if you don’t care who finds out, then neither. The fuck. Do I.” I curled my fingers into his shirt and threw him back.
Damon almost fell, landing in a crouch, one hand slamming to the floor to steady himself. When his eyes rose to mine, a chill washed over my entire body, and I knew it was over. He was coming at me with full force. My breathing loaded as the anticipation heightened.
“You little slut. How many times do I have to tell you they’ll never believe you?” He stood and brushed off his hands. “See all this?” He motioned to me. “You attacked me.” He grew more confident as he began to walk toward me. “Everyone saw your little display earlier.” Another step. “How you were looking at me, licking your lips and begging for me to touch you. To fuck you, as you call it.” Damon licked his lips and trailed his eyes down my body, still closing in on me. “Now you wanna cry victim?” He raised a brow, his smile widening. “Doesn’t work that way, sweetheart. The world is on to whores like you.”
My confidence dipped for a mere second, though my stance never did.
Was he right? Would no one trust my word?
He must have picked up on the hesitation because he took the small opportunity to lunge at me, coming full force for my torso like a barreling football player. My body slapped my mind to the forefront, screaming at it to look alive and do what it was trained for.
Survive.
The flat of my foot met his gut, and all the air whooshed from him in one large oof, taking him back a couple of steps. But I didn’t stop. Something in me clicked off. Rationale replaced with rage as I advanced on him.
He straightened quick, attempting to slap my cheek, but I easily smacked that hand away. He tried the other cheek, and I did the same with the other hand, still coming up on him. “Come on, hot stuff. Hit me,” I goaded, wanting the excuse to hurt him.
But something happened as Damon realized his position was being challenged. A familiar veil fell over his face, replacing whatever normalcy remained and displaying the true evil underneath.
There he is.
The devil himself stood toe-to-toe with me then. Staring at me on the other side of the island. One finger at a time, his fist curled in, and I knew he’d decided a mere slap wouldn’t do. He charged at me. In a flurry of fists, he attacked. But I had been expecting this. Trained to dodge them, no matter what.
One-two
One-two-three
One-two-three-four
I danced. And his breathing became heavy. Maybe too heavy to carry any weight if he was actually ab
le to make contact.
But he couldn’t.
I was too good for that.
The air moved through my lungs fluidly. Entering and exiting my mouth in small, quiet wisps as he circled and threw, missing one after another. I couldn’t help myself then. I decided to excite in a small victory and take my shot, landing an open-handed slap to the side of his face like the little bitch he actually was.
Damon seethed. His teeth bared, he came at me again, and I covered his other cheek with a full-on punch. His head bucked back, and I moved in, landing another square on his nose, and I delighted at the small red trickle that ran down.
But then he tasted it. Tasted the copper running between his teeth. He swiped at it and stared down at the color swatch on the top of his hand. The anger on his face stopped me cold, making all this too real. “You’ll pay for that.”
He was too fast.
The moment it took to stun me was all it took for him to be on me, for him to have the advantage. His large fingers wrapped firmly around my neck, blocking off all air and bringing a darkness into my eyes from all outside points. I covered his hands with my own—clawing, pulling, begging with wide eyes for him to loosen his grip, but he didn’t. Something completely consumed him, fueling him to follow through with the final betrayal I’d fallen victim to at his hands. At this very moment, he seemed intent on stripping away that final piece of me. My air. My life.
Darkness closed in in graying spider webs, my tongue poking through my lips as a dull numbness prickled the skin on my face. Beneath my skull boomed a pressure I didn’t think it could withstand.
The last thing I saw before my eyes lazily slid closed was that swipe of red between Damon’s two top teeth and the way his mouth curled around it. The last sound was the beats of my own heart rocking into my ears in slowing thumps. I was swimming. Levitating. Drifting off into a darkness filled with electric blue eyes, spiraling into a tunnel. A low voice whispered from somewhere in the darkness.
You’re dealing with someone who already knows all your weaknesses, Eva. The day you forget that is the day we’ll be peeling you back up off the floor.
The vision of Drew screamed at me then, hazel eyes blazing with fire. Go!
I pulled everything in. Though I couldn’t breathe and my arms felt like lead, my eyes shot open, my knee coming up to connect with Damon’s junk with as much force as I could find. I choked, coughing as he stumbled back, dragging in whatever oxygen I could while he straightened and came at me again.
“You thought I fucked you against your will all these years? Well, you’re about to really get fucked now. Hold on tight, beautiful. Your world’s about to end—”
“What the fuck! Eva?” The boom of Blake’s voice came from the entryway, and my eyes immediately shot to his, quickly begging him to put the pieces together and understand what was happening as I strained to catch a breath that was barely even there.
Crack!
The world melted away, blurring my vision in a swirl as I rolled over the side of my feet in a free fall. Searing pain met my skull for the second time as the other side of my head hit the granite countertop, a spiral of lights and darks falling with me as the back of my head screamed out in pain once more, hitting the marble tile beneath me. And then . . .
Nothing.
BLAKE
“YOU THOUGHT I fucked you against your will all these years? Well, you’re about to really get fucked now.”
Damon’s words froze me in time.
Him.
It was him.
How could I not have known?
Angel’s eyes locked with mine, desperate and pleading. They were so wide. Begging for me to understand? For my forgiveness? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have long to think about it because, quicker than the answer could come, Damon grabbed a stray bottle left over from last night. My lips parted to shout her name once more—to warn her, but the crash of glass slamming into the side of her head was what rang out instead, cracking me in two. The green eyes that I loved so much dulled instantaneously, rolling back to reveal white as she slumped over. I reached out, but it was too late. Her head bounced off the counter like a rubber ball, and I nearly chucked right there before she disappeared behind the kitchen island. With heavy breaths, my eyes shot to Damon, my mind in overdrive and completely unhinged. He advanced toward her with sick, glossed-over eyes, so focused he wasn’t even paying attention to me.
But he was going to.
I moved into the kitchen, calculating my moves, knowing first and foremost I had to protect her. And that meant getting him far the fuck away from her. I needed to keep my cool somehow even though my vision was being clouded by a sea of red. Rage pulsated from my fist that was closed so tight, my knuckles ached. I would make sure I was the last thing he saw on his way to hell.
“You,” I seethed with enough venom that Damon finally looked to me. “Don’t you fuckin’ touch her. You motherfucker. I should’ve known. You’ve always been a slimy scumbag. Child rapist actually makes sense.”
His clothes were hanging all out of place, his hair sticking out in every direction. That and his red-tipped nose made him look disheveled and unhinged, determined to end her life.
But that couldn’t happen.
Not if I ended his first.
Damon straightened, his convoluted brain twisting a warped smile on his face. He raised his brows. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your little slut came on to me. She’s wanted me forever. Begged for it all her life.”
Stride after stride, I moved in. Eyes on his throat, I could practically see the tic of the pulse I intended to extinguish. “How could you?” My voice cracked around the quiver in my lip, giving away my vulnerability at the thought of her pain. Vibrations shook me from my gut, making it almost hard to move forward. “She was a child. How could you do that to her?” A rock settled low in my stomach, then bubbled, growing, traveling to my throat as the truth settled deep in my bones. I thought I would be sick from the thought of his hands on her. From the look in his eyes right now as he recalled the times that they were. Lust laying on his disgusting fucking stare.
“I’m gonna kill you with my bare hands, you sick delusional fuck.” That last word grading from the back of my throat was all it took to put me close enough to lunge at him. I twisted his collar in one fist and pounded the other one into his dirty fucking mouth. A split ripped his bottom lip into two halves, and the look of blood sitting between it thrilled the fuck out of me. I cocked my fist back a second time but stopped in mid-air as he began to . . . laugh? The fucker was fucking laughing.
Damon’s own hands knotted into my shirt, and he tugged me to him, his face so close his eyes were able to see directly into mine. I shivered, witnessing all the years of her suffering in those eyes. In that one stare. Her innocence lying there, discarded, wrecked, and abused.
The alcohol on his breath clouded my vision, but his cold voice tunneled me back to reality. “What’s the matter, Blake?” His sarcastic eyes dragging to mine before a smirk split the cut on his lip wider, though he didn’t seem to notice. “You mad because I knew what that pussy tasted like first?” He scrubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, then glanced at the blood that lay there. He inhaled a quick breath before spitting a spatter of what remained on to my face.
Thinking ceased.
Logic floated away.
Something else settled in. Something animalistic.
A roar erupted from my throat as I pushed forward, slamming his body against the counter. His back bent backward from the force, his head smacking against the cabinets.
A burst of air pushed through my nostrils as they flared to capacity. The grit of my teeth seeming to crumble them in my mouth. I cocked my fist back into a trembling ball and crashed it down, an explosion erupting in my vision as I heard the bones of his cheek crunch beneath it.
Motherfucker needs to die.
His head snapped back but took the hit, probably still numb from the alcohol. And that was
good. I wanted him to take every hit I dished out. Because as long as he did, the more I could deliver.
I landed a kidney shot next, crumbling him to the side. That one he felt. It labored him enough for me to land another to his ribs. A crack splintered the air, and I knew I’d broken at least one. I dug my fists into his polo shirt and spun, swinging his body before tossing him. He slid the length of the island, an explosion of fruit, cups, and liquid flying out in his wake. A groan floated up from the floor as I rounded the corner of the granite. His legs came into view first, curled into him as he wrapped his arms around himself.
Good. He feels me.
I knelt beside him, clutching his shirt to yank him up to me. “Do you know what you did to her?” My spit fell on his forehead as I screamed in his face. “Do you!” My voice was so loud, my ears rang around the words. I bounced my hands down, knocking the back of his head off the tiles.
Blood filled the skin surrounding his left eye, turning it purple as it began to swell shut. The glassy look swimming around his irises let me know I was doing more damage than he was letting on. The cocky smile never left his face, though. Through every grunt and every groan, the stubborn son-of-a-bitch tried to make it seem as though I wasn’t hurting him, but that was about to change.
Eva’s angelic face flashed before my eyes, her lighthearted laugh fucking with my sense of reality.
I shook my head, and Damon appeared, goading my insides to end him.
Flash.
I’m with Eva again. She jumps on me with a squeal, wrapping her legs around me as I spin.
Flash.
She’s younger, sitting on her bed and listening to music. Singing with her eyes closed and a smile on her face, her head bopping in time with the music. Unsuspecting. Innocent. The bed beside her dips down, the smile on her face fading as realization sinks in that she isn’t alone, a look of terror replacing the happiness she had moments before.
Flash.
Him. With that same cocky-as-fuck smirk he was giving me right now, lurking beside her. Reaching for her.
Breathe You Page 34