Savage Desires (Ironcliff Falls #2)

Chapter One

Krista

“When I find you, I’m going to fucking kill you, Krista!” Austin screams from somewhere in the house. I sit huddled in the back corner of the guest room closet, praying he doesn’t find me.

If I had known when we got together that it would all end like this, I never would have texted him back.

I never would have gone on that date. Hell, maybe I would have just shot myself to save myself the pain of going through a relationship with him.

He is fucking psychotic, but he hides it so well.

Austin and I have been together for a year and a half.

In the beginning, it was just like it is in every abusive relationship.

He was great. No… He was perfect. I didn’t realize that was a massive red flag until I tried to leave for the first time three months into our relationship.

He slapped me so hard that I couldn’t hear out of that ear for two weeks.

My face was swollen, and the welt stayed for an entire day.

Then he showered me with love and affection, but not until after he begged me, sobbing on his knees, for me not to leave him.

I gave him another chance, but it was too late.

He learned that if he pushed me far enough, I would bend.

I have a few options. I could wait it out and see if he calms down. I could come out, let him knock me around for a while, and pray he doesn’t kill me, or I can call my brother.

Maverick has no idea that Austin is abusive.

If he did know, Austin would already be rotting in the ground by now.

I’ve not been willing to tell him because I know that my brother will beat him to death.

I really don’t want my brother to go to jail, but I also don’t want him and Dad to have to plan my funeral because Austin killed me.

I slowly stand up, trying not to bump the wall. I peek out and see that my phone is on the dresser. Why the fuck did I set it down? I can’t see the bedroom door, so I have to just take a chance. When I open the door to the closet, it creaks loudly, and I freeze.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

“Krista!” Austin screams as I hear him stomp down the hallway.

I panic and run out of the closet. When I see the bedroom door is open, I pivot and rush to the door to slam it shut.

I manage to get it locked just before Austin starts beating on it.

I then run to my phone and hurriedly search for my brother’s cell number.

It’s the middle of the day, so he’s likely at work.

Instead of calling his cell, I call his office phone.

“Open the goddamn door, bitch!” Austin screams, slamming his body against the door.

“Hey, Kris. What’s…” I hear Maverick answer.

“I need you. Please, Mav. He’s going to kill me, please,” I sob into the phone. He says something, but I can’t make it out through my own tears. “Please hurry. If he gets to me… Please hurry.”

“You fucking bitch!” Austin screams at me when the door finally gives out and slams open.

“No, please. I’m sorry!” I scream as I automatically collapse to curl myself into the fetal position so I can protect my face. I am gripping onto the phone when he grabs me by the arm and drags me out of the room.

“You stupid fucking bitch. No one fucking leaves me. I fucking own you, whore!” he shouts as he drags me down the hall to our room. I still have the phone with me. He doesn’t notice it until he pulls me up, but then snatches it from my hands. I am sobbing so hard that I can’t form words.

Austin tosses the phone on the bed before shoving me onto the mattress. “Stop,” I beg tearfully. “Please, stop.”

“You’re mine,” he growls, yanking my leggings down to my ankles. He climbs onto the bed to straddle me, but leans over to grab the lube from his side table. “You want to flirt with men like a fucking whore, let me fucking remind you who fucking owns you, bitch.”

“Please don’t, Austin. Please. I’m sorry,” I sob, trying to claw my way out from under him. He lets me get a few inches before grabbing my hips, yanking my body up, and shoving into my ass as hard and deep as he can. “Ow! Stop. Please, no. That hurts. Please stop. Please.”

I scream and beg him to stop as he slams into me over and over again.

He rarely even touches me, but when he does, it’s brutal.

I fight, even though my muscles burn, and it’s only making the pain worse.

I’m done giving in to him, though. I always stop fighting back, praying he stops hitting me. Praying he stops raping me.

The time passes slowly, and I have forced myself not to think about my phone and the fact that my brother is likely still on the line.

I do eventually stop fighting, but only because I am out of energy.

I am still crying as he rapes me, forcing grunts from me with every violent thrust he makes into my body.

When he comes, he groans loudly as he thrusts a few more times, but then pulls out of me and gets off the bed.

My entire body is trembling as I curl myself up, still weeping.

“No matter where you go, I fucking own you, Krista. Don’t you ever fucking forget that,” Austin says, grabbing me by the hair and pulling my head back.

It dawns on me that he’s about to run. He knows that Maverick is on his way, and he’s not sticking around. That’s the smartest thing he’s ever done, honestly. Maverick is going to kill him either way, but he thinks he is invincible.

I hear Austin leave the room and then the house.

I grab my throw blanket and pull it down to bury my face in it.

I have no energy or willpower to move. I should get up so Maverick doesn’t find me like this.

I hope I’m not injured, and it doesn’t feel like it.

Luckily, Austin doesn’t want friction burns from dry fucking me, so he has always used lube when he does this.

All of this started because a man smiled at me, and I smiled back.

Austin didn’t care that he was just being nice, and I was too.

He didn’t care that I knew better than to cheat on him.

If the little things set him off, I can’t imagine how painful it would be if I actually did cheat.

I did make the mistake of telling him I was leaving him, so this was the result of that.

I lie here and cry until I run out of tears. Maverick’s office is nearly an hour’s drive, but I hear a vehicle tear into the driveway about forty minutes after I placed the original call. I hear three doors slam before the front door opens, which means he brought Brady and Luke with him.

I don’t have time to process that until I hear them rushing into the room. “Kris,” Maverick says, lifting my face to hold between his hands. Someone covers me, but someone else takes my leggings off my ankles. I go to speak, but Maverick shushes me.

“Shh. Just listen,” he says softly. “I love you so fucking much, Kris. I’m sorry he hurt you.”

“Please don’t leave me here,” I cry.

Maverick sits and pulls me up so he can hug me to his chest. “Brady and Luke are going to clean you up and help you get dressed,” he says as he gently strokes my hair. “You are going to go hang out with them for a few days, and Dad and I will handle him.”

“Please don’t…”

“Krista,” Maverick says, leaning back to look at me. “I heard the fear in your voice when he got into that room. I heard you beg him to stop. I heard every second of him raping you while you sobbed… He will fucking die for this, and there is nothing you can say to spare him.”

“Just don’t get yourself put in jail for this,” I say quietly.

“I won’t,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “I promise.”

“Speak up if you need us to stop, okay?” Brady warns.

“Okay,” I whisper.

They roll me back to my belly, and Maverick rubs my back as I cry into my blanket.

Brady and Luke are so fucking gentle, it almost makes me forget they look like they cannibalize their enemies for fun.

Imagine a six and a half foot tattooed Viking, but make him business casual.

My brother looks the same way, but I am short and thick.

When they are done cleaning me, one of them helps me put on clean panties and shorts before Maverick pulls me up to stand. “Thank you for coming,” I say quietly.

“First of all,” Maverick says, lifting my chin. “Keep your head up. Okay? You have nothing to feel ashamed of.”

“Okay,” I say gently.

“Now, it was actually Brady who answered your call. I wasn’t in the room,” he tells me.

“I was afraid you were about to hear me die,” I admit. “I think I’d prefer that over getting raped…” I start to say.

“No, absolutely not. You are not going to sit here and wish you were dead. Fuck that. I will kick your little ass if I ever hear you say that again, Krista Leanne,” Maverick scolds me.

I frown at him, and Brady laughs before he pulls me away and hugs me tightly. “Now you get to chill with us,” he says, handing me off to Luke.

“Until he finds me,” I shrug.

“And he will die,” Luke says, squeezing me.

“I mean, he’s going to either way,” Maverick adds.

“Am I going to their house?” I ask my brother.

“No, I think you three should get out of town for a bit,” he tells me. “Ironcliff Falls has a little retreat going on. Grab a cabin and enjoy the Fourth of July.”

“They stay pretty booked up. We might end up in a tent,” Brady says.

“Nah, we can bring the little camper,” Luke says. “We will have to snuggle up together, but it has a king bed.”

“That’s one way to keep her safe. Just sandwich her between the two of you,” Maverick laughs.

“Uh,” I laugh nervously.

“Don’t worry, Kris. We don’t bite,” Brady says, but then promptly growls and dramatically bites my shoulder.

“You freak,” I laugh, pushing him away. He catches my wrist and pulls me back to his chest so Luke can wrap his arm around me from behind, squishing me between them.

Brady and Luke are devastatingly gorgeous, and I never doubted why Austin hated me being around them.

They are always flirty with me and have never hidden that they’d be down to fuck me together.

It’s a fantasy that lives rent-free in my head, but I know they won’t do shit after what they walked in on.

“So, let’s get your shit together, and we can go,” Maverick says.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner that he was hurting me,” I say.

“I knew he treated you like shit, but I didn’t know he was putting his hands on you. Truthfully, we were planning to show up tomorrow and take you anyway.”

“Wait. Really?” I ask.

“Yep. When you were on the phone with Dad last week, he heard Austin call you a stupid whore because he thought you were on the phone with someone else.”

“Ah. So Dad was making you come get me?”

“No, I decided. He just said I needed to be the one to come get you because he’d kill him if he came and got you.”

“Let’s get to it, girl,” Brady says. “Next stop, Ironcliff Falls!”