Page 94 of Merciless Prince
I smirked and heaved another pile of snow into the pit. Then I paused and frowned, letting the shovel dangle over the ground beside me. “What did you just say?” I asked, looking over at Derrick.
His brows furrowed. “Uh… that I like hearing her scream. Why?”
“You said familiar,” I said, pulse picking up. “How is that a familiar sound to you?”
Derrick shuffled in his spot, head slightly shaking. “That’s not what I said.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said stiffly.
“Well, I just meant in general,” he replied. “I like hearing dumb sluts like her screaming, y’know? I didn’t mean her specifically.”
My heart hammered in my chest as my brain rushed to make sense of the new flurry of doubts and suspicions. An image of Shay struggling on her bed as Derrick pushed his way between her legs wormed its way into my mind, and my gut clenched.
All I could see before me now was a different version of Derrick; a version that had been there all along but always appeared normal until I realized I was looking at it the wrong way.
In our group of friends, he’d always been known as the nice guy. The white knight who went out of his way to defend and protect women. I couldn’t count the number of times he’d left a party or club early with a blackout-drunk girl, telling us he wanted to make sure she got home safely before some creepy asshole got his hands on her.
Now, the blinders had fallen off, and I saw the truth.Hewas the creepy asshole who had his hands all over those defenseless women. He was a fucking predator.
“Tell me the truth,” I said in a low voice. “Tell me what you did to her.”
He lifted his palms. “Okay, look, I didn’t tell you the whole story before,” he said. “She came on to me. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want you to know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because it’s obvious you want to fuck her, so I figured you’d be pissed if you found out she came on to me. But that’s what happened. She was practically begging for it, and I decided to go for it. After I got her clothes half-off, everything changed. She stopped kissing me, totally lost her shit, and attacked me.” He threw his hands up again. “So that’s it. The whole story. I didn’t do anything wrong. She’s just a crazy bitch.”
“She didn’t hit on you,” I said, letting the shovel fall to the ground with a heavy thud. “She fought you. She begged you to stop.”
I saw Derrick swallow. “Come on, Kill,” he muttered.
I took a step toward him. “I’m right, aren’t I? Shay was telling the truth earlier.”
“Jesus, man, why do you even care?” he said, shaking his head. “It’sher.She’s nothing.”
A roaring sound suddenly filled my head. Everything flashed red, and I hurled myself forward, fist connecting with Derrick’s nose. He cried out and stumbled backward, both hands to his face, blood pooling through his fingers.
“What the fuck?” He flung the red droplets to the ground and lunged at me.
I surged forward and had my hands wrapped around his throat before he could lay a single punch on me. It was like a switch had flipped inside my mind, triggering my rage. It tore through my body like fire, pure and incandescent, making me into a machine.
“Killian,” Derrick spluttered, fingertips raking at my hands as he tried and failed to pull them off. His nails left angry red streaks on my skin; the same scratches he left on Shay’s thighs earlier. “Stop…”
If I squeezed any harder or ripped his stitches, he’d be dead. Instead I let go of his throat and hooked him on the jaw, knocking him onto his ass.
He landed with a heavy thud and an anguished grunt. “Jesus Christ, man,” he gritted out, one hand rubbing at his jaw as red bloomed across it. “What the fuck is your problem?”
I put my foot on his chest, resting all my weight on him until he started choking and spluttering again. “If you touch a hair on Shay’s head ever again, you’re fucking dead. Got it?”
“I… I thought you wanted me to make her talk,” he spluttered. “I thought you wouldn’t care.”
I crouched down and latched a white-knuckled hand onto his bruised jaw, wrenching it upward until he let out an agonized groan. “I meant what I said,” I growled. “Touch her again and I’ll put you in the fucking ground.”
Everything was shifting in my world now, settling into new and unfamiliar territories. I had no idea when it happened, but somewhere along the line, my mind had claimed Shay as something more than a possession. Now I knew I would hurt anyone who threatened her, no matter who they were to me. I’d even kill them if it came down to it.
Suddenly it hit me. In this moment,Iwas the main threat to her life.
“Shit. Shay!” I turned away from Derrick and jumped into the shallow pit, using my hands to dig and scrape the snow away from her body.
