Chapter 9
Katelyn
I should be horrified at a knife handle sodomizing Eddie while it slices deep into the flesh of Heath’s palm. But all I can register is that he’s back. My Health is back. The eternal darkness that enshrouds my broken heart begins to flicker with the tiniest spark of light.
When I begged him to stop before he killed Eddie, it wasn’t because I cared if he lived or died, but because I didn’t want Heath to pay for my sins.
Every choice I’ve made in the last decade was for Heath, except for marrying Eddie—that decision was for me.
A choice I knew would forever keep me from Heath.
He’ll never forgive me for it, but as long as he’s back, I don’t care.
I want to run to him, wrap my arms around him and press my body to his with such fierce force that even God couldn't tear us apart. The surface beneath my feet becomes quicksand, holding me at bay as I desperately try to reach him. Drops of crimson flow from Heath’s hand and hit the soft wheaten sand.
“Your hand, Heath. Stop, you’re hurting your hand.” My voice catches, emotions buried deep for five years rising to the surface.
He looks different, my Heath, yet still the same.
His hair unruly, falling on his face, but that wild, carefree boy I knew is gone.
The man who stands before me isn’t treading water, hoping he doesn’t drown.
This Heath is sure of himself. He isn’t worried about those with power because he’s the one who wields it.
Eddie’s body is slumped, and his previously flaccid cock has risen.
“Maybe you should have made him your bitch, Kat. Seems like Eddie likes to be humiliated. Is that it, Eddie? You wanted to be fucked the way you’ve been fucking her?”
Eddie just grunts, his fingers digging in the sand. There’s no joy in watching him like this, humiliated and without control.
“Don’t turn away, Kat. Watch your precious husband. I want you to know what you chose. Was it worth it, Kat? Do you have the life you always dreamed of? A princess living in her castle?”
Heath’s words are laced with venom, each a bullet meant directly for my heart, to wound, maybe even to kill.
He doesn’t know the hell I choose to live in to protect him, to shield him, to save him.
I did him a favor by forcing him to leave five years ago.
I saved his life, and if I had to make the same choice today, I’d do it again.
“I have a great life.”
Heath scoffs. “So great that you’re out here on the beach getting raped by your husband.”
If he only knew how much better life with Eddie is compared to what it would be like without him.
Eddie might have issues, but at least he keeps it in check.
When he’s sober, Eddie is sweet, kind even.
But Heath won’t want to hear any of that.
He won’t want to hear about the nightmarish maze I’ve been navigating while he’s made a new life for himself and forgotten all about me.
I wish I could do the same, but my heart cannot let go.
The more time that passed, the more my heart longed for him.
Longed to run on the shores with the only man who will ever own my heart.
“That’s enough, Heath. ENOUGH!”
Heath pulls the knife from Eddie’s behind and locks his eyes with mine. The piercing gaze that used to see right through me, that fell upon me with admiration and respect, now shows nothing but rancid hate.
“Just go. I don’t want you to get in any trouble. I’ll take him back to the house and clean him up.”
“Does he give you such great care after her rapes you, Katelyn?”
“He’s not a rapist,” I lie.
The reality is that Eddie is just that. He’s soured and become cruel over the years. The guy Heath knew is unrecognizable in the man Eddie is today.
“Listen, you don’t need to get arrested. Henry and Eddie can get you in a lot of trouble. As much as I hate it, men like them still run the island. They take what they want, do what they want, and no one ever will be able to stop them.”
Something like humor with a shot of desire flashes in Heath’s eyes.
For a moment, I see the boy I once knew.
He strides toward me with the calculating movements a predator makes when stalking their prey.
His blood-stained hand roughly caresses my face, and when he looks into my eyes, I see the battle, a war between the bitter hate he now feels against the beautiful past we share.
My skin pricks with goose flesh as he roughly rubs my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. He doesn’t say a word, just locks me into his stare as if proving he knows the hold he still has on me. Silently telling me it will always be there.
“I’m not the naive, helpless boy you knew before.”
And I can see that he’s not. The decade we’ve been apart has been good to him. He left Wainscott Hollow a young man on the cusp of becoming and now he’s all man, chiseled angles, muscular, taller, broader. The furrows on his brow only add to his dark allure.
“It doesn’t matter how important you are now. They still have all the power. They’ll ruin you, Heath. Just run. Get away from here, they can’t hurt you if they can’t find you. The gravest mistake you could ever make is to return to Wainscott Hollow.”
Heath tugs at my lower lip and moves in until I feel his halted breath on my cheek. Being this close to him makes my heart accelerate to full speed. His scent, the feel of his rough skin.
Eddie made a quick exit scurrying away toward our home without looking behind him.
Before I can react and push Heath away, his mouth is on mine in a collision of explosive passion. His teeth gently graze my lips before he sinks them into my flesh, and the metallic taste of the blood invades my mouth.
He pulls back, and blood trickles from his full lower lip.
“Thing is, Kat, I don’t run with my tail between my legs anymore. Now, I bite back.”