“Don’t fucking to talk to her. And keep Daisy’s name out of your mouth,” Jaxon orders.
His voice is stronger, more him, but it’s shaky, just like the rest of him. I rub his side and wrap my arm around him, holding him tight as Gauge walks closer, the flashlight so blinding that I hide my face.
“Oh, Hope. I really wanted something better for you… well, as long as that better was caught on film. Shame I only got Daisy a few times on camera. But my audio recorder did a good job.”
“What did you do to her?” Jaxon hisses.
A sharp crack echoes and I wince, trying to tug Jaxon back. He lifts his head and I see red streaking down from his temple.
“It’s just a panic attack. Just her fighting with herself about self-harm and suicide, you know? She wascrazy. She was sodepressed. She just couldn’t handle it anymore,” Gauge says, but there’s no sympathy in his voice. “She wasn’t strong like Hope here. Is that why you chose her? To replace our poor, pathetic sister?”
“Jax,” I breathe. “Please. Please.”
The gun twists in my direction and I hear him cocking it. “You only need to open your mouth when you’re taking dick and I’m sure that’s what your lips are best for.”
All the times I just let it happen, all the times I refused to fight because it would be worse, it couldalwaysbe worse.
I bury my face in Jaxon’s shoulder and whisper, just for him. “Buy time. Keep him talking. The guys will come back.”
They have to come back. They have to know something’s wrong. They always do.
But the barrel of the gun keeps glinting at me. From this angle, it looks like it’s growing, like its only purpose is to kill Jax and me. In Gauge’s hand, that’s exactly what it will do.
DIMITRI
I follow the sound of the noise with Knox at my side. We’re not taking chances. He’s ready to stab someone and break some bones. I’m ready to shoot and be done with this. In my opinion, the quicker this is over the better. Things don’t need to be drawn out.
All these problems have lasted long enough and last night proved that we’re better without problems on our plate. Hope deserves to smile. She deserves to laugh. And she deserves to fuck without feeling like her world is going to crumble around her.
Knox holds his hand up before we get to the kitchen.
I stare at his hand so I don’t replay what we last saw when we walked in here. Hope, terrified, half-naked, chained to the table, barely alive. Putting myself in that mindset will end all rational thought and Ihaveto be rational.
I hear the recording pause and some heavy breathing, a whimper that’s too familiar. I see Knox’s body tense and feel his reaction like it’s my own. That’sHope. Our Hope.
Knox curls his hands into fists, then reaches back. I put the gun in his hand without question. He wants to make up for not killing Hope’s dad, I’ll happily let him go for it.
“Alive,” I hiss just as he steps forward, gun drawn.
The frantic typing doesn’t stop even as the man looks up. He smirks slightly. “Look who it is.”
Knox’s hand doesn’t shake. He moves forward, the barrel aimed not at the guy’s head, but at his throat. Knox doesn’t blink. I don’t even know if he’s breathing.
“Come on, Knox. I saw plenty last time around. We all know you can’t take a shot,” the man chuckles before brushing his blonde hair away from his face, a scar running through his eyebrow.
“And me?” I ask as I wonder where I’ve seen him before.
He looks at me for a long moment as Knox passes me a knife. The man leans back, his false bravado showing in the way his lips twitch down for a second. And then, I remember. The therapist’s office, waiting room. He was there.
“What makes you think I’m alone?” he spits.
“What makes you think that’ll change the outcome, cum sock?” Knox snarls.
He laughs. “What, you going to beg me to take down the videos Coach Harbaugh made us a fortune on? No. They’re loved. Hope is so…” He groans and licks his lips. “God, that fight in her, then her total submission. The way she just bent to his will… you know it firsthand. It’s decadent. It’s priceless… which means itearns plenty. Take down the videos again and again. Make them scarce. It just drives prices up.”
Knox steps forward, not in range where the man can grab the gun before Knox can shoot, but close enough that the laugh dies on his tongue.
He sneers. “You don’t get how big this is. It’s not just me who wants this. All over the world, people love our little shattered Hope.”
