Chapter 36 #3
“Snowflake, it’s okay, it’s me. I’m not going to hurt ya,” I whispered.
I wanted to reach in and grab her and hold her, but she was shaking like a scared wee animal.
I tried touching her arm again, and she continued to cry, her body trembling harder, and my heart was shattered into a million little pieces.
The white-hot rage that burned inside of me, pushing me to kill the man who did this to her, was only tempered by her fear.
She was more important, but after…Axel was going to pay.
“Please, Snowflake, let me help ya,” I said softly.
“Look at me. I’d never hurt ya. I love you. ”
Her head slowly lifted from her arm, and she looked at me.
I’d never be able to forget the horror in her silvery eyes.
Her knuckles were split and bleeding. She had a cut on her cheek and a massive bruise on the other side of her face, but it was the glimpse of her torn blouse that told the story and hammered the final nail into Axel’s coffin.
“Myles?” Her split bottom lip trembled.
“Yeah, Snowflake, it’s me,” I said, slowly laying my hand on her arm. I didn’t think she could cry harder, but she broke down in gut-wrenching sobs as she stared into my eyes.
“I fought so hard. I’m sorry.” What the hell was she apologizing to me for? “I couldn’t stop him.”
“Come here, it’s okay, come on.”
Ren whimpered as she turned around in the small space.
Her blouse fell open, bruises coated her pail skin, and part of a large handprint lined the side of her neck.
There was nothing in this world that my da or anyone else could do to break me, but seeing my sweet Snowflake like this was a thousand bullets to my soul.
She winced as she crawled out to me, and tears filled my eyes as Ren wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her head as she sobbed and reached in, twisting my heart with the broken sound.
“Shh, I’ve got you. Yer going to be okay.” Her body shook while I held her, and for the first time since I met her, she seemed tiny. She was the furthest thing from a weak person, and to see her like this was killing me.
“I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t stop him,” Ren mumbled into my neck on repeat, and I held her tighter.
“I’ve got ya,” I said, not sure what to say. There were no words that could make this better, but I wanted to fix every scrape and bruise. I wanted to go back in time and be faster. I wanted to wipe Snowflake’s memory of any of this happening.
“I’m so sorry. I wanted you to be my first,” Ren said so softly that I almost didn’t hear her.
I squeezed my eyes tight as she confirmed what Axel had done.
He was not only dead, but I was going to make it as painful as possible.
There was one thing Da taught me that was useful, and that was how to torture someone and make them wish for death.
I’d been on the other end of those lessons more than once, and I would make sure that Axel felt every last excruciating thing I did to him before he died.
“Don’t apologize about this, Snowflake. Please don’t do that. This is not yer fault. Okay?” She nodded. “I mean it, never, ever do that. Not to me or anyone else. No matter what he said or did, this is not yer fault.”
Each tear that fell from her eyes and coated my skin was another cut I was going to make on Axel’s body.
For every sob that fell from her mouth was another minute that he screamed and begged for his life.
I’d almost forgotten the dark evil that lived coiled inside of me, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do to avenge my Snowflake and what was taken from her.
“Here,” Blake said as he squatted down beside us. He had her blue jacket in his hands, but he didn’t try to touch her.
“Do you want yer jacket, Snowflake? Blake has it for ya if ya do,” I said as her crying slowed. She nodded again. “Okay, I need to stand up. I’m gonna pick ya up with me, okay?” She held on to me tighter and kept her head buried in my neck.
Nash grabbed me from behind and helped me stand so that I didn’t jostle Ren around.
“Can I set you on yer feet?”
“Yeah,” she said, and I slowly placed her feet on the floor. Ren winced and doubled over, grabbing at her stomach, and all I could do was hold her steady as fresh tears fell.
There was very little in this world that brought me happiness, but from the first moment I looked into Ren’s eyes, I knew that I would love her with my whole being.
Seeing the pain she was in, hearing her cry, and knowing that I didn’t protect her when she needed me the most was tearing my heart from my body.
I looked over my shoulder at Nash. His face was a blank mask, but his eyes were filled with the same rage that was alive in my gut.
His eyes locked with mine, and we shared a silent understanding, one that promised pain and revenge.
It was the only thing keeping me from falling apart right here in front of her.
I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t place that on her doorstep when she’d been nothing but a rock for me.
No one hurt the woman I loved and lived. Nothing, not even the school, was going to stand in my way. Axel underestimated my wrath, but before the fucker died, he would hear the echo of his screams.