CHAPTER 60 #3
“Best part of sticking around this shithole city was getting to watch you blossom into a woman. A woman I intend to break.” He held up my pocketknife, twisting it in front of me.
“Some couples? They get matching tattoos. You and me? We’re gonna have matching scars. Only yours ain’t gonna be so pretty.”
My body shook with the effort of trying to break from his grip, but he pressed his full weight on my chest, crushing my lungs. White-hot pain streaked along my face, from the corner of my eye to my jaw. I let out a hoarse scream behind his palm, as tears slipped down my temples.
“It’s a shame, really. You were so pretty. Now you’re a monster. A used-up fucking whore. Although, I’m sure you were spreading your thighs for every college dick, weren’t you? I bet you had a rotating door of dicks sticking it in that little pussy of yours, didn’t you?”
Fuck you!
The drugs must’ve been kicking in, as vertigo shifted my vision. That, or I was passing out, I couldn’t tell. In my periphery, the room widened and shrank and spun. A drowsy warmth settled over me, like I wanted to sleep, desperately needed to close my eyes.
Through the haze, I heard a distant pounding.
Angelo froze over me, attention turned toward the door.
“Lilia!” That voice. I recognized it. Deep. Authoritative.
A sob caught in my throat as more tears slipped down my temples.
Devryck! I wanted to call out. Please!
“You keep your fucking mouth shut,” Angelo whispered, nearly crushing my jaw with his grip. “Keep your fucking mouth shut until he leaves.”
No! No! Devryck! Help me!
Another pound against the door. “Lilia! It’s Professor Bramwell. Are you there?”
Behind Angelo’s palm, I sniveled, coughing and choking on the snot gathered at my nose.
“Professor, huh?” he said quietly. “You fucking a teacher, slut?” His hand snaked down to my panties, and he curled his fingers to a tight fist around my flesh, squeezing.
A wild cry rattled my throat, the pain unbearable as I kicked to get him to release me.
“Did he break you already? Huh?” Angelo said with a snarl.
That was it. I needed to get him angry. Mad enough to want to hurt me. To distract him from Devryck.
I nodded. “He fucked so good,” I said behind his palm and laughed through tears.
“’The fuck did you say?”
I intentionally distorted my voice again and forced a laugh.
He removed his hand, squeezing my jaw instead. “Say it again, cunt.”
“He fucked me so good.”
A hard blow struck my cheek on a flash of light, vibrating the bones. “Whore!” he screamed over the ringing in my ears. Grip tight to my throat, he trapped the air in my lungs. “We’ll see how good it feels when I fuck you with the business end of my blade.”
A gurgling scream sputtered up my throat.
Pounding at the door grew distant beneath the blood pulsing in my ears.
My body jerked and jostled as he gathered his arms beneath me, my limbs heavy and numb.
Whatever he’d given me had rendered me useless and nerveless.
He dragged me toward the wall with ease, holding me against him, my back to his chest, and he held out his gun.
“Ain’t nobody coming through that fucking door without me filling them with lead. ”
No . The minute Devryck appeared, he’d be shot. I couldn’t let that happen. Even if it killed me, I refused to let this ruthless bastard murder him in front of me.
Fight him.
Something caught my eye underneath my bed.
My old trophy for track and field that I’d haphazardly thrown there while cleaning my room. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath. Fucking this up meant he’d surely kill me, then Devryck. I had to be precise. And fast. An impossible thought, when my arms had begun to turn numb.
Mustering what little strength I had left, I reached behind and gripped Angelo’s nuts so hard my hands shook with the effort.
A boisterous, gurgling scream hammered my ear, and the moment he released me, I fell awkwardly to the side, fighting the effect of the drug that had me feeling like I was swimming through quicksand.
Ragged breaths razed my lungs, as I dragged myself toward the edge of the bed, clawing at the floor.
As my body got yanked backward, I snagged the weighted metal base of the trophy.
“Fucking bitch!” Angelo bellowed, and as he twisted me around, I swung out with the momentum, knocking him in the skull with the heavy iron. He fell to the side on a thunk, groaning.
A prickling weakness shot through my arms, as I struck him again, bashing him square in the forehead. Blood seeped from his crown and over his temples, as he rolled his head back and forth with heavily-hooded eyes that made him look drunk.
A curling black void seeped in from the fringes, crawling over me with determined fingers that slowly pulled me out of consciousness.
Screams breached the darkness. Horrible screams. Mine? I couldn’t tell.
The noise fractured inside my head, as I was once again hurled toward an inescapable silence.
Blackness.
Incendiary eyes stared down at me. Furious eyes that glowed a hot molten copper. “Lilia,” he said, his voice like a dark angel’s. My avenging angel. Was I dead? I had to be.
Blackness.
Warmth engulfed me. A cozy heat. I curled into myself, falling deeper into sleep.
Deeper.
Deeper.
Silence pulled me under.