Page 104 of Burned & Bound

All of it had me fucked up and suffocating.

By the time I dragged myself into his house at the end of the day, I was numb from head to toe. My body was sluggish and labored, making everything more difficult. Every inch of my skin hurt. Even my clothes felt like fucking razors tearing into me. I was fucking dying. I could feel the crash and spiral coming with no hope of staving it off. All I wanted to do was crawl into a hole until it passed.

But no. Here I was entertaining the idea of doing dinner with Jackson because I felt guilty for all the shit I put him through. I said I wanted a normal relationship with him, but I couldn’t even be normal for one fucking day.

I did leave Jackson to do the fucking cooking—God help us both. Who knew how it’d turn out, but he wasn’t letting me near the stove, and I didn’t want to either. Instead, I stood in the living room as I listened to him drone on and on about something.

Truthfully, my brain couldn’t process a damn thing he said. The words were a garbled mess in my ears. Everything felt fuzzy and hazy while I did my damnedest to fight a losing battle to pay attention to him. I just kept zoning out on the floor, watching the wood dance around like it had a life of its own.

But when something touched my arm, I lost the fight as the darkness dragged me under.

CHAPTER 72

jackson

The first hit cameout of nowhere, taking me by surprise and knocking me on my ass. I saw fucking stars, and I tasted blood as my lip split on contact. The blow took it out of me for a hot minute as my brain struggled to catch up.

I was on my feet just as my side table was thrown across the room. The lamp shattered on the floor, sending glass everywhere.

West raged, eyes wide and glassy.Fuck, I never should’ve touched his arm. This was West in the bar all over again—crazed and completely out of control. A feral animal unable to rein himself in.

He came at me hard and fast, and it took everything I had to end up behind him. I did the only thing I could think of to keep him from tearing through me and my house: I grabbed him.

The frenzy it sent him in was explosive. I barely managed to maintain my hold on him as we crashed to the ground. I dragged his back to my chest and locked my arms over his. His screaming was unintelligible as I wrestled to keep him down. The only clear thing I could make out was thecontinuous no. From how hard he fought me and the screaming, I didn’t want to know what memory had dragged him under.

“C’mon, West,” I grunted.Shit, I rode bulls for a living but holding onto him was harder.“C’mon, baby, I need you to come back to me.”

Nothing.

Not a damn response.

He bucked in my arms, completely unhinged. He was fighting for his life. His heart pounded wildly against my hand on his chest while his choppy breaths threatened to break my hold.

Fuck, he was stronger than I gave him credit for.

“West!” I snapped through grit teeth. I squeezed harder and clung to some shred of hope that I could break through his craze. My back hit a wall. I groaned with the impact as he pushed back harder. “Please, baby… I need you to hear me.”

I pleaded and begged, but everything fell on deaf ears. It left me stuck wrangling him in with a desperate hope that he’d come around.

Eventually, his fight weakened. I didn’t let up, even as his screaming subsided completely. He pushed against my arms, but I held on tighter, unsure of what the fuck was happening.How bad would it get if I did let go?

West shoved against my arms harder until my hold broke. He rushed to his feet, falling over himself as he put as much distance between me and him as the room would allow. I sagged against the wall as I worked to catch my breath.

His wide-eyed gaze trailed over the room. The heaving of his chest increased as he took in the damage, and that crazed expression dissolved into something of guilt and despair.

“I’m… I’m…” A pathetic whine escaped him. His hands tugged at his hair as his words turned to senseless mumbling. He stumbled his way through the kitchen, knocking over shit as he went, and rushed straight out the back door.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed and scrambled after him.To do what? Who the fuck knew?I just… had to do something. I couldn’t just leave him on the lawn.

“It hurts! It hurts!” West gasped. He struggled out of his shirt and threw it aside. I took the stairs two at a time and joined him on the grass but maintained my distance. I didn’t have a clue what the fuck to do.

“West, come on, baby, look at me,” I said.

His rambling was all over the place as he continued stripping—kicking off his shoes and almost falling over, wrestling off his pants and socks. All the while, the pain in his voice amplified with every passing moment.

I was completely helpless—frozen in my spot. I didn’t know what to do. How to help him.

His knees gave out, and he collapsed in the grass. Screaming filled the night as his fingers tugged on his hair. He curled into himself, his body wracked with painful sobs as something tore him to pieces from the inside out.

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