“Thisis who you are, Thorne. A fuckingwhorewho opens his mouth to anything but common sense. I’m not stopping until you agree,” he spat, lifting the bottle and his hand to wait for my reply.
Leveraging the cut I inflicted, I drove two fingers into the gash. The warmth of his corrupted life force greeted me, and I pushed deeper, praying to whatever would listen that it’d be enough for him to let go.
He leaned in, his whiskey-tainted breath curling around my nose. “My wife could do better than this.” He cracked my head back, liquor pouring over my face as it trickled down the sides of my cheeks. It was the only warning I received before my mouth filled with the substance, the continued pour giving me no time to breathe.
I was drowning.
I wasdrowning.
I was drowning.
Gasping for air, my addiction swathed my senses, replacing the oxygen I breathed.
A quick reprieve as his hand found itself around my neck, squeezing. “Sayit, or we’ll take all afternoon. I’ll call for someone to bring Matthew in here. Liquorisbest spent betweenfriends.”
Everything burned: my lips, my chest, my throat. One of life’s very requirements became nearly impossible as he contained me, rendering me helpless to his onslaught. But I couldn’t crack, I couldn’t break again, not when I’d finally stepped out from his shadows and back into the light.
“L-L-Leave Matthew out…of this…”
“Two seconds,” he answered, the bottle dangling in his hand. “Two seconds to make up for the shit you said, or I’llpersonallyhaul him in here, and you and I both know he won’t make it out of this room if that happens.”
Every part of me, every fractured piece of my fucked up soul screamed for me to listen, to obey. But something stirred inside me that refused, something that had been resting for far too long, snuffed out by the leash Andrew had wrapped around my throat.
Through rasped breaths, I said six words I knew I’d instantly regret. “I refuse to bow to you…”
“Fine.” He stepped back and set the bottle on the table. Rolling his sleeves to his elbows, he casually strolled to the door. With just an inch of it open, he ordered a soldier to bring Matthew hereimmediately.
The door shut, sealing the fate I’d passed to my friend as Andrew grabbed the bottle once again, cracking it against the surface of his desk. It broke, the jagged half held between his fingers.
Before I could stumble to stand, he kicked my knee, the power rendering my kneecap useless. He wasfuckingsmart to keep me from moving.
“Youdid this, Thorne. The next hour? That shit falls on you and your newfound defiance. If I had known you’d allow my son to fuck your respect, I’d have shipped him overseas.”
I struggled against him, trying my damndest to get my feet beneath me again. My body ached, but not in a way I was familiar with. No, this was a gut-churning guilt, a sinking realization that my idiocy had placed the only man I had left, the onlypersonI had left, in harm's way. The agony it blanketed over my heart overlapped everything else: the searing burn violating my throat, the bleeding wound in my shoulder, the bruises lining my face, and my broken nose.
A knock sent everything hurling into one feeling. “Sir?”
“Andrew, don’t… Don’t do this,” I pleaded, my voice breaking slightly. “This isn’t on him, it’s on me?—”
“Everything falls on you, but it’s your will that needs breaking.”
He opened the door, and before Matthew had time to block, to think, toact, Andrew tossed him into the room.
Matt hit the ground with a sickening thud that was louder than the slamming of the door, and that’s when the onslaughtraineddown on him.
Valens’ foot drove into Matthew’s side. His face was next, two kicks blackening his eyes and causing red saliva to spew as Matt instinctively curled against the floor.
It provided little defense. Andrew grabbed the back of his neck to give him the leverage he needed to pierce his side with the broken bottle. Thesamearea I’d attacked him.
Matt groaned, blood spewing from his lips, but it was his faltering, half-ass smile that broke me. “I-I’m fine…fine,” he repeated, as if he was anything but.
My bottom lip quivered, tears butting up against my waterline. The singular word came from me as a whisper, nearly too quiet to hear. “Stop…”
“Stop?” Andrew tossed him like a fucking ragdoll, his body hitting the edge of the desk before slumping to the ground. “I saidhour. Unlike you, I keep my word.”
“Andrew,please?—”
But there was no remorse, no lingering forgiveness in the depths of cobalt. I’d had my chance, and I disregarded it. Valens would beat my insubordination out of Matt, no matter what I yelled.
