Page 55 of Breaker

I don’t know how his teeth don’t crack with how hard he’s clenching his jaw.

“I will not marry Zane,” I say, backing away toward the door.

He has the fucking nerve to laugh.

“Call it off, or I’ll tell Clyde everything.”

If rage had a color, it’s the shade of red that burns on Rune’s face as he shoots forward, teeth bared, fury twisting his features. “Don’t threaten me, girl,” he snarls.

I suck in air, trying to keep my hands from trembling as I reach for the doorknob behind me. My fear slick palms slip over the cool metal. Terror floods my chest, and my heart nearly explodes as he marches closer.

“No one will believe you. You’re a nasty fucking whore and everyone knows it.”

I grip the knob, but he’s on me. My back hits the door as his hand wraps around my throat, fingers digging painfully into the soft place under my jaw. I don’t fight. I know better.

Using his body to trap me, Rune pins me to the door, making panic and fear tangle in my throat. He’s not a big man, not like our men. He’s fit for his age, lean muscles like a runner, but not much bulk. It’s his meanness that gives him strength, and he’s using every ounce of that meanness against me now.

Stupid, stupid girl.

“Everyone knows you’ll fuck anything with a dick,” he whispers, spittle hitting my face. I flinch at the venom in his voice but gather a breath to spew my own. I open my mouth to tell him that I fucked his daughter, so it’s not just dicks anymore. That I ate her cunt, and she did mine when his hand slams over my mouth trapping my words in place. “No one will believe that I, the man who took you in after your mother murdered my wife, her best friend over money, would ever lay a finger on you.” He drags in a breath, anger and hatred making his chest heave. “No one would believe that the man who raised you as his daughter would ever—“ his hips punch and his dick hits my belly, ”—ever hurt his little girl.”

His hand smashes into my nose, forcing my head to the side, his slick palm slipping over my cheek. A tear breaks free.

He’s right.

All that pain that was let go when I confessed. All that hope that I was safe. All that stupid courage I felt after telling Delly and the men what Rune had done to me, vanishes.

My mother was right. I am a stupid girl.

And Rune’s right.

No one will believe me.

No one with any power to do anything.

Clyde may be Rune’s advisor, but he’s just that. He holds no power. Not over a man like Rune.

His hand smashes harder down over my mouth and he leans in to sweep his lips over my cheek. “Cora, my little girl, don’t cry.”

More tears leak out, slipping down my cheeks and pooling where his hand covers my mouth. Rune grinds his hardness into my waist and I gasp out a sob under his palm, the tears flowing freely. His hand drops from my mouth, but the one at my throat squeezes tighter. Bile rises in my throat, nearly choking me as his vile mouth drags along my jaw, ragged breaths like rank fumes along my skin as his lips skim down the side of my neck, over my collarbone, then down to my breast. My fingers curl into the wood door at my back, fear making my limbs weak. When a soft kiss lands on the top of my breasts, my body goes still.

“Papa,” I whisper, panic needling up my arms. Down my back. Making my hands clench into fists. I want to push him away but in the past any time I’ve tried, the consequences have been so much worse.

“Shh,” he whispers, heat seeping through my shirt and searing my skin.

I already know what’s going to happen before he does it.

I know from the last time I tried to stand up to him.

Rune presses against my windpipe, so hard I choke on my gasp just as his teeth sink into my flesh though my shirt. Myscream is trapped in my throat, agony ripping a hole through me as he bites harder. Harder still.

When he finally lets me go, pain stabs through my chest. I crumble to my knees, gasping for air through my sobs.

Be quiet. Be quiet. Clyde can’t hear.

“Get up,” Rune says. “Go to your room and I swear to god, Cora, never threaten me again.”

He uses the tip of his shoe to nudge me out of his way and the door shuts quietly behind him.

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