Page 108 of Brutal Prince

Murder? Brutal torture and rape? Nothing random about it.

“Now…Is there something you want to ask me?”

My eyes fly back to Briar. My stomach twists, shooting sour bile up my throat.

Of course I do. More than anything. I swallow. It takes everything I have, but I eventually gather enough courage to ask.

“Did you…” I haul in a breath, but Briar waits, patient as the motherfucking grave.

“Did you rape Jessica?”

The world undulates around me as I wait for him to answer. My body responds, pulsing and throbbing as if I’m connected on some cosmic level.

Holy shit, that weed was strong.

No, it’s not that. It can’t be.

It’s Briar.

It’s this unfathomable connection we have.

I don’t understand it one bit — and I don’t consider myself a stupid person — but somehow, we’re the same.

I should have asked him if he killed her. That’s the greater sin here, right? But it doesn’t seem important right now. I can’t explain it any more than I can explain the fact that I’m still here, allowing him to touch me, allowing him to be part of my world when I should be miles away.

“I…” Briar’s throat moves. He looks away, but I grab his jaw and force him to look at me. My heart pounds, and I feel his jaw bunch under my fingertips, but I don’t release my grip.

And he doesn’t pull away, although it would be the easiest thing in the fucking world for him.

“Did. You. Rape. Her?”

His eyelids droop. His shoulders sag. A soft sigh washes over my face as he briefly squeezes closed his eyes before flaring them wide open.

“I don’t know, Indi.” When he looks up, his eyes are the softest I’ve ever seen him. Inside those blue irises, a maelstrom of confusion and frustration swirls.

“I can’t remember a fucking thing.”

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