Page 16 of Black Hearts

6

Celeste

It seemedlike the air in the room had turned dark all of a sudden, smoky and bitter with pure dread and trepidation.

Dwyer had his pants unzipped all the way now, and his turgid pink penis jutted out like a club. He was working away at my jeans with a knife, drawing out the process of cutting them off just to torment me. The table had been tilted back in the opposite direction so that I was facing him, and my fear-contorted features only seemed to make him harder.

“Please, don’t….” I moaned. I’d rather be stabbed in the neck than have this disgusting man force himself inside me.

His eyes gleamed with sick desire, and I knew he couldn’t wait to make me scream. He couldn’t wait to violate me so deeply, so utterly, that I might finally lose the will to fight back, my body forced to surrender everything to him.

“No! Don’t!” I cried out as he uncuffed my feet so that he could spread my legs. I kicked and shrieked, but he was much stronger than me, and with my hands still cuffed above my head, I had no hope.

He laughed and stuck a hand around my throat, dragging the air from my lungs and choking my screams into silence. I tried to twist my head down and sideways so that I could bite his other arm, but I couldn’t reach.

Suddenly he whirled around, his hand dropping from my throat. Someone had kicked the door in. “What the—”

An earth-shattering scream ripped from me as I saw who it was. “Alex! Help!” I shrieked.

He was here. He was really fucking here.

In a flash, he flew toward Dwyer, dragging him backward and away from me. The older man was no match in terms of strength, but he refused to go down without a fight, grunting as he tried his best to swing around and get in one good hit.

Alex’s eyes were lit with fury as he smashed his fist into Dwyer’s nose, and he dropped him to the ground with another hit to the jaw. Dwyer’s back slammed against the concrete when he went down, and his head made a sickening crack as it connected with the floor a split second afterwards.

Alex stared at him for a second, his knuckles coated with blood. Then he came for me, making quick work of the cuffs biting into my wrists before pulling me into his arms, away from the table. “I thought I fucking lost you,” he muttered, his voice gruff with emotion as he stroked my head.

“I’m sorry,” I whimpered as tears sprang to my eyes. “I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. I left.”

He drew back, his eyes dark and haunted. “Why did you go with them?”

He already knew half the answer to that. He knew I longed to be free, ached to step back into the real world and see all my friends again. So I knew what the real meaning behind his question was. The powerful connection we had, the same one that drew us together like magnets so many times in the past… was it not enough to make me realize he could be trusted in everything he said and that he truly did love me? Was it not enough to make me stay?

At the time, it wasn’t. But I was a fool. I didn’t know any better, and I screwed everything up. I almost paid the ultimate price because of it.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, tears endlessly streaming down my cheeks. “I was wrong. So wrong. Please forgive me, Alex. Please!”

“You don’t need to ask me for that. You always have it, and you’re safe now. I’ve got you,” he muttered, pulling me close again, his strong arms tightly wrapped around me. “I’ll never let you go. Never.”

“Good. I don’t want you to let me go,” I sobbed. “I love you. I don’t deserve to, but I do.”

“I love you too,” he murmured, his hands weaving in my hair.

We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity. I could finally breathe again, safe in his arms, and it was all I wanted to do—stay wrapped up in his warm embrace, feeling his hands on my skin and my hair, gently rubbing and stroking me until the last day seemed like a distant nightmare.

I knew it wasn’t over for us yet. Alex hadn’t chased away every demon in our lives, but for now, we were okay. We could take a breath and rest assured that the other was alive and well.

Dwyer stirred and moaned on the floor, and I stiffened, the feeling of dread and terror quickly returning.

Alex pulled away from me, grabbed a rope from the cart and tied Dwyer to the metal legs of the table. “Don’t worry. He’s not fucking moving anytime soon,” he said quietly, giving him a swift, hard kick in the ribs. Then he pulled a gun out of a pocket and smashed the side of the barrel into his temple. Dwyer groaned and slumped forward, passing out again.

Alex looked over at me again, and he spotted the goosebumps on my arms as I shivered in the corner. “You’re freezing,” he said, slowly putting down his gun. He removed his jacket and held it out to me.

I wiped my cheeks and shook my head. “It’s okay, you keep it. I have a jacket in here somewhere. He took it off me.” I cast my eyes around the room for a moment, then pointed. “There it is.”

It was bundled up in a corner with my shoes. Alex stepped over to it and picked it up. As he shook off the dust from the dirty floor, my heart charm bracelet and the photo of Evangeline slipped out. His eyes widened, and he stared at the photo for a long moment. Then he picked it up and held it out to me.

“Why do you have this?” he asked, his brow furrowed.

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