Page 361 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

Briar stops with a hand on his zip. I go rigid in shock, and then melt with fear. Marcus pulls back, but from the fierce stinging where his teeth were, I know he broke the skin.

“Christ,” Briar breathes.

My eyes fly to him, but his gaze is transfixed on the spot where Marcus bit me.

“What?” Marcus demands. “Bitch wouldn’t lay still.”

Briar clears his throat, and hurriedly zips down his fly. “That was so fucking hot.”

He’s bullshitting, of course. I can see the disgust in his eyes. But I guess, just like some relationships force rose-tinted glasses on your nose, Marcus doesn’t notice anything but what he wants to.

And his friend just told him it was hot when he bit me.

So he bites me again. This time, right on my breast.

Chapter Forty-Eight

Briar

Indi thrashes under me, and all I can do is watch. The gun’s too far away for me to grab, and Marcus is in the way. I’m one step closer to disabling him, but Indi’s a loose cannon. I can’t depend on her to stay still and not get herself killed, I just can’t.

I’m in some kind of limbo-land. I know I sound like I’m reading lines off a script. My body moves in fits and starts like I’m a stop animation clay model, not a human being.

Marcus is unraveling. Maybe so far gone in this fantasy of his that he’s lost touch of reality. I guess, to him, everything is swell. He and his best friend are double-tagging this stuck up virgin, just like he’d planned for us with Jessica.

A plan I’d fucked up when I’d passed out.

“I’ll hold her down,” Marcus says. “You fuck her.”

“Yes,” I say woodenly, and climb off Indi’s stomach.

Her eyes are shut, and she’s whimpering through the gag every time one of us speaks.

I can’t imagine what fresh hell this is for her, but I don’t think there’s any other way either of us gets out of this alive. I’mfully aware, however, that if something goes wrong in the next minute, she might die thinking I caved in and let my black soul take over.

Kneeling beside her waist, I grab her wrists from Marcus and wrap the fingers of my other hand around her neck.

Her eyes fly open. A piece of me dies when I see tears glittering in those lashes, trapped diamonds. It’s already too late. She hates me now. She always will. Doesn’t matter how this ends. Doesn’t matter if you save her or just prolong her suffering.

Indi Virgo will never be mine. Not how I wanted her to be, anyway.

I make sure there’s barely any pressure on her neck. Her eyes flit between me and Marcus, where he’s forcing open her legs and holding her down.

What can I possibly say to her?

Should I even bother?

I tug loose her gag and kiss her instead. Then she moans into my mouth, shuddering.

“Come on, bro. Fuck her already.”

I break off the kiss, and I don’t look at Marcus. I can’t, because then I’d have to see what he’s doing to make her shudder and convulse so. And that would break me.

“I want you to fuck her,” I say, not daring to take my eyes off Indi’s.

“What?”

“Please, bro. I want to…” My voice fades as hurt bleeds into Indi’s eyes. I can’t imagine how betrayed she must feel right now. The indignation, the shame? But I force the words out anyway, knowing they’ll cut me deeper than any knife ever could.

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