Page 85 of Brutal Prince

Briar

Indi’s story comes out slowly, reluctantly. But then it builds speed. I’m swept along like a leaf down a river running heavy with snowmelt.

I want her to stop.

I want her to keep going.

I want to hear everything.

And then I want to forget I heard anything at all.

Because I can do that for her. I can take away her pain, her suffering, her nightmares.

Christ, how can she not have fucking nightmares?

Her eyes glow, but this time her anger, her hate, it isn’t directed at me. But it’s just as fucking beautiful as if it was.

“I went out that night. The night he killed her.” Her voice grows thick before she clears her throat. “Random house party, wasn’t even anything special.”

Indi blinks, but the movement is frozen in time. I can’t look away from her eyes, but at the same time I feel drawn to watch her lips as she speaks. Could be because she’s barely more than whispering.

I understand. A secret this dark, this depraved — no one should ever have to hear it.

I lean in until her face is a blur. Until every word touches my mouth in a flurry of her breath.

“Got drunk. Got easy. But then I had to go home. Always gotta go home, right?”

I tighten my grip around the back of her neck. I want to cut in, to tell her home isn’t the end-all and the be-all of this fucking life. Take it from someone whose home is nothing but an empty shell. Or from a guy like Marcus, where home is a rusty bear trap just waiting to slam shut.

Not unless that home is with me.

“I thought the cab driver took me to the wrong address.” A soft laugh puffs against my lips, and I lick them on instinct. I lean back a little, cradling her face in my hands. Not wanting her to stop, already feeling her sense of relief as these words spill out of the dank, dark hole she shoved them in.

“It was all black, my house. And still smoking. Hardly anything left of the place.” She shakes her head, and I tighten my grip until she stops. Her eyes fix on me, draw at me until I want to kiss her. Instead, I smooth away a chunk of hair from her forehead.

“I got a bit mental when I figured out what had happened. When it all sunk in. They gave me a really strong sedative. It was better then. Everything wasn’t so loud anymore, so bright, so fucking real. But I still knew what was going on. Guess the other people didn’t know that. The cops and shit.”

Her eyes drop, but I tilt her head back until she looks at me again.

“I overheard two of them talking. If I hadn’t been so fucked up, I’d have covered my ears, walked away…something.” She shakes her head. “But I just sat there. Listening to every fucking word.

“They said he’d…he’d had to have done this kind of thing before, because it didn’t look amateurish. The ropes, the knots he used. How rough…how rough he’d been when he’d raped her.”

My heart feels like it wants to fucking implode under the weight of Indi’s words. But I swore to her I’d listen, that I’d take this burden from her. I have broad shoulders and a big heart. She’s a tiny thing. No one like her can withstand this kind of shit. I can. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.

“He stabbed her with one of our kitchen knives. Not just once, but over and over and over again. And then he strangled her with his belt.”

She should be sobbing again, but it’s as if there’s nothing left.

“He left her tied up. Wrists and ankles, face down on the bed. There was still…he’d used a soda bottle to, to—” Indi shakes her head hard, signaling the end of the morbid recitation.

I crush her against me, inhaling her scent. She’s stiff at first, but then she relaxes. I can feel her heart pounding against my chest, just as I’m sure she can feel mine.

But slowly, ever so fucking slowly, her heartbeat grows softer, steadier. I like to think I tame it. That, as an animal, only I could know how. But if that were true, then I’d have learned to tame mine a long time ago. And I haven’t. If anything, it just starts beating harder the longer I have her against me.

Because I still want her. Right here, right now, despite everything I’ve just heard. Perhaps because of everything I’ve just heard. I want to drown her sorrow with ecstasy.

But it’s not right. It’s not decent.

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