Page 76 of Promises in the Dark

I could practically taste the bloodlust on my tongue, the overwhelming urge to pummel this sorry excuse for a man into the ground.

“Oh, you’ve got jokes? Let’s see how funny you are when you’re six foot under,” I spat.

“Oh, scary,” he mocked, wiping the blood from his busted lip.

That was it.

I didn’t bother with words this time. Instead, I lunged forward again, my fist aimed straight for his gut. He grunted, doubling over in pain, but he was quick to recover, swinging a wild punch at my head.

I ducked easily, the adrenaline surging through me. This? This was the shit I lived for. The raw, primal violence.

He might’ve fought back, but it was like watching a goddamn chihuahua trying to take down a rabid pitbull with rabies. Pathetic.

Blood was everywhere—on the walls, on the floor, smeared across my knuckles. But I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Not until he was on the ground, a bloody fucking mess.

“Fuck you,” I spat, standing over him like a conqueror.

He groaned, tried to push himself up. My boot found his ribs, shoving him back down where he belonged.

“Rogue, stop!” Red’s voice cut through the chaos, but I barely registered it.

The punches kept coming. Fist after fist, smashing into his face, his gut, wherever the fuck I wanted. And it feltgood. So goddamn good.

Time blurred. Was it seconds? Minutes? Hours? I didn’t fucking know. All I saw was red. All I felt was the satisfying crunch of bone and flesh giving way under my fists.

And then suddenly, Red was there, her hands on my shoulders, shaking me. Her eyes were wide, horrified.

“Rogue, what the hell?” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the ringing in my ears.

Then, suddenly, it was over. He was a bloody, broken mess on the ground, whimpering like the pathetic worm he was.

I shrugged her off, my jaw clenched so tight it hurt. “I took care of your fucking problem,” I snarled, my words laced with bitterness.

She shot me a glare that could freeze hell over. “You call this taking care of it?” she snapped, gesturing to the bloody, broken mess of her ex.

I laughed, a bitter, cold bark that had no humor behind it.

“You’re welcome.”

But instead of aiming all that anger at the asshole who made her life a living hell, she turned that shit on me.

“Fuck you, Rogue.”

I raised an eyebrow, taken aback by the venom in her voice. “Oh, now you’re pissed?” I scoffed, feeling the bitterness curdle into full-blown rage.

Her eyes were blazing, practically on fire, and all that anger was directed squarely at me. “Violence isn’t the answer,” she spat, her voice echoing down the empty corridor.

The molten anger in my chest surged higher.

She didn’t fucking get it.

“Oh, and what the fuck would you have me do, huh?” I snapped, my fists clenching at my sides. “Sit back and let that piece of shit walk all over you?”

She stepped closer, her eyes boring into mine. “No, you idiot,” she hissed, her eyes drilling into mine. “I would have expected you to be better than this.”

Better than this.

Better than defending her? Better than putting that asshole in his place? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After everything he’d done to her, after all the hell he’d put her through,she still had the balls to feel sorry for him?

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