Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
My throat was getting raw. I knew he was winding to the point.
A stark sadness flashed in his eyes. His mouth tightened. “I usually treat those girls like trash. It’s fucked up, and I’m not justifying my ways. It’s a response to how bitchy they can be at times. I used ’em last night, but that’s not been anything new. Fleur, Cedar, even Victoria, back in the day—they aren’t sluts, but they do have healthy sexual appetites. They trust us guys, hence the reason why they get around, but it’s only our group.
“I’m sharing all this because they iced me out last night, and that’s not good. You need to understand the significance of them icing me out. They’ve never iced me out before. I don’t know how the cards are going to fall with the guys, but if the girls iced me out, something happened with their families or Victoria’s family. I’m sorry to lay all that on you, but when you walk down there for breakfast, Victoria is here, and I have a feeling you and I both might be walking into a bloodbath.”
Dread took root in my legs, anchoring me down.
My tone was dull even to my own ears. “I called Kash last night. Had a feeling something happened. He said he couldn’t talk about it on the phone because he didn’t know who was listening. This is bad.”
Matt was frowning. “This is bad.”
I tried to move. I couldn’t. I was still anchored in place.
“You going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” That cost me, too. “I’ll be fine.”
I think …
“Okay.” I wasn’t looking, but I could feel his concern. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway.”
That was sweet.
My brother waiting to have my back … or no.
I looked just as he was leaving. “Matt.”
He paused, looking back.
I flashed him a grin. “Team Batt.”
His eyes warmed, but he didn’t return my grin. “Team Batt. All the way.”
Now that was sweet.
He went out to wait, but it didn’t take me long to finish changing. If we were walking into battle, a part of me was absorbing Torie’s and Tamara’s ways. I dressed like a warrior.
Okay, I didn’t really. They would’ve worn leather pants, black corsets, and they would’ve had their hair greased back or in braids like a Viking.
I just put on black leggings, but they had a leather strip that went down the side of my leg. I paired that with a black hoodie sweatshirt that wasn’t baggy, not at all. It stuck to me like a second skin.
And my hair … I couldn’t do the grease look, but I could do the braids. I had two braids on each side of my face, so I was half Viking right now.
It took me longer than I thought, but Matt didn’t gripe when I opened the door. He just took me in and noted, “Ready for battle.”
“Ready for battle.”
There was no guard outside my door.
I never questioned it until later. I never thought to.
That’d be my first mistake that day.
FORTY-TWO
When I walked into the breakfast area, the groups were split down the middle. My cohort was on one side and Matt’s was on the other.
Matt rounded behind me and stood in the middle.
Cedar and Fleur were in the middle, like us.
A very angry Victoria was in front of them.
I swallowed, seeing Victoria.
Her eyes were bloodshot. Her eyes almost matched her hair, which was wild and messed, and she had an unnatural pallor to her skin that I knew wasn’t healthy.
I wished I had pushed Kash more to fill me in on what happened. I had a second for that thought before her eyes snapped to mine, and I knew two things at once.
One: she wasn’t well. She had a crazy look in her eyes.
And two: she was here for me.
“He likes to fuck hard.”
She launched. That was her first attack.
I had time enough to suck in my breath, fortify my insides, because I knew more assaults were coming.
Matt growled, “Not cool, Vic.”
She ignored him, sweeping around him. The air around her got even chillier. “He likes to make you come first, maybe two times, before he lets loose, and when he does, you are the only person in the world to him. That’s how he makes you feel, isn’t it?” Her eyes were so cold. She drew back, her head high, as if she were holding court. “That’s how he made me always feel. I missed him when he tossed me aside. You get addicted to him. He does that. Makes you feel that intoxication, that high, and then he pounds you with pleasure, and he pounds you so hard you just gasp for more. Then he tosses you out, and it’s freezing out there.”
The others started to rally now.
Torie and Tamara pushed to my side.
Torie started to step forward, “Listen—”
I held a hand up. No matter what, I needed to handle this. Me. Not them.