If there hadn’t been videos and photos, I might’ve thought it was just a nasty nightmare.
A cold sweat that has nothing to do with the temperature pops out all over me. I squeeze my eyes shut to block the memory. Otherwise, I’ll vomit and pass out.
No. NO.I inhale, deliberately slowing my breathing. I’m not that helpless college sophomore anymore. Never going to let myself become a victim again.
“Again, this isn’t funny. Did Zoe put you up to this?” She might’ve promised to let Aaron go in exchange for me, and he’d sell me out in a heartbeat. Still, he isn’t a total sociopath, just an irresponsible asshole who has no spine and big dreams he doesn’t recognize as impossible. “For once, be a good man. You’re my brother, damn it.”
“Who are you calling your brother?” Aaron says.
I freeze at his contemptuous tone. “What do you want?”
“What doIwant? You faked with me? Huh?”
Jude is here?My mouth dries.Jude’s the one behind this, not Zoe?
“I’m going to show you how a real man treats a little liar like you,” Jude says. “Not just you, but everyone on the planet! You thought you were so fucking clever, deleting all those videos and photos, but I’m not going to let you fuck me over again. This time, the whole thing’s gonna be livestreamed from the very beginning.”
Terror racks through me, but I grit my teeth. The fact that Jude is here is more reason to focus on the steps I need to take to fight back. He’s never, ever going to turn me into that helplessgirl again. “You’re going to livestream raping me?” Despite my best effort, my voice is too thin.
“It’s not rape if you beg for it. And the camera angle won’t show my face. But you? Everyone’s going to know who you are because I’m going to write your fucking name in all caps on your body with a permanent marker. And I’ll make sure to send the link to Bryce so he can see it. After all, that fucker should know what it’s like to have something of his violated by me. Again. He should feel the humiliation and helplessness. Publicly cuckolded! How pathetic!”
He laughs maniacally. Isn’t he afraid that the neighbors might hear? This place doesn’t seem to have much soundproofing.
“Then you’re going to sing for me like you did for him! No, better than you did for him!”
If my situation weren’t so dire, I’d laugh. Somehow, he found out that I sang for Bryce, but he never knew the circumstances or the tender affection I held for Bryce as I crooned at night to comfort him. So I sang some random songs off the top forty chart, and Jude was satisfied, thinking he’d had from me everything that Bryce had gotten.
He continues to rant, and I start to pick up clues. Jude’s upset I told him he was bad in bed, but that actually isn’t the main cause for his fury. He’s practically spitting with rage at Bryce. He’s trying to get under Bryce’s skinbyhurting me. Could this be the real reason he hurt me at Harvard? The unfairness and injustice of it all make my body shake. “Why do you hate him so much?”
“Oh, he acts so high and mighty. Thinks he’ssooo fucking smart. He’s never shown me the respect I deserve! He thinks he’s invulnerable. He said I couldn’t take anything valuable from him, but I did his most prized toy, and I will again.”
My mouth twists. “This is so pathetic. You don’t have the balls to go punch him in the face, so you’re going to abuse me? Are you going to show the world your tiny penis too?”
“Shut your piehole!”
Pain explodes in my hip. Jude must’ve kicked me, but he didn’t connect where it might hurt the most.
“Shit,” he mutters. He probably injured his foot.
“Aaron, be smart. Don’t get caught up in Jude’s revenge against Bryce. It isn’t worth going to prison for.”
“Yeah, right.” From the way his voice sounds, Aaron isn’t standing too close to me. “God, I hate you, flaunting yourself like some whore to be fucked, always faking being good and innocent.”
“What? I never flaunted anything!” My clothes were modest because of Sherry, and even when I went to Harvard, I wore similar clothes.
“Don’t think I didn’t notice,” Aaron says tautly.
Oh my God.“That’s disgustingly gross, especially for a brother. Or do you haveunbrotherlyfeelings for me?”
“Shut up!”
He might as well have screamed, “Yes!” My regard for him drops below zero. “Is this what your hatred and disdain are about? You can’t admit your impulses are your problem, so you have to blame the woman?”
“You don’t know shit!”
“I still care about Sherry, so if you don’t want to get caught up in this crime, let me go. Otherwise I’m reporting you to the police, too.”
“You don’t think we’ve planned this whole thing out? The video won’t show our faces, just yours. And we’re going to be each other’s alibis.” Jude sounds smug. He’s given this a lot of thought. Guess he was furious I ran off with Bryce and then taunted him over the phone the way I did. But I didn’t think he’d come after me like this. Much less that he and Aaron would be in it together.
