Page 40 of Framed

Pain became a relative emotion, something I could withstand.

Something I could control.

Father was breathing hard, his chest visibly inhaling and exhaling. He glowered at my lack of reaction and struck my body harder with every blow. My stomach. My head. I was sure my eye was nearly swollen shut.

Then the blows stopped and I didn’t bother looking away.

“You’re as pathetic as your mother. You’re weak. You’re useless,” Father snarled as he cocked his fist again. This time when he connected, his fist was heavier and caused me to lose my balance.

I fell to the floor but didn’t curl up. I rose to my knees and coughed violently as dark red tinted the floor.

I thought he was finished, that I had received the extent of my punishment tonight. But the moment he punted his expensive shoe into my stomach, I fell once again onto the floor.

This time I was unmoving, barely breathing when the final blow struck.

I saw his foot raise and felt it connect with the side of my head before I lost consciousness.

A gargled cry woke me.

For a moment I was confused. My vision was blurry and I was standing but I don’t remember waking up.

The cry turned into a strangled choking noise and the haze in my eyes cleared as a panicked and teary-eyed Janice came into view. My hand was wrapped around her throat and I had her pinned up against the wall. She was turning blue. I ignored the pounding in my head like a dull base drum and released her with a curse. Her naked form sagged onto the floor.

My door flew open and Tucker walked in. His eyes carefully took in the scene before one of his dark eyebrows rose at me, silently asking me,What the fuck happened?

Why he was here? Fuck if I knew but I was thankful that for once he didn’t understand the concept of personal space.

“Get her out of here,” I said to him, and her eyes went wide again and there were tears brimming inside of them.

“Y-you almost killed me.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper. My eyes flew to her neck. There was a small bruise starting to form where my hands had been.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

This was exactly why I didn’t letanyonestay the night. My memory of last night was still hazy but I distinctly recalled Janice throwing herself at me during the post-game party celebrating our win. I’d slept with Janice before so she knew better. She knew better than to stay past her welcome, but similar to the other women I slept with on occasion, they had some fucked-up notion that they could “change” me. It was bullshit and I usually shut all that shit down but Janice was a little more determined than most.

“Almost.” I forced a smirk. It was an asshole thing to do but I couldn’t handle this shit right now. “If you don’t get the fuck out of my house, I’ll finish the job.”

It was an empty promise but by the terrified expression on Janice’s face, she believed every word.

I’d heard the rumors circulating about me. About how some girls looked at me in fear whenever they passed me on campus. Others thought it would be fun to fuck the playboy quarterback, saw it as a challenge. I was sure she’d also heard the rumors of what happened to the girls who gossiped about what happened behind closed doors.

Father handled those rumorspersonally. Not to protect me or my reputation, of course. He couldn’t give two shits about me or that. He was more focused on protecting his own brand, the persona he portrayed to the outside world. We were alike in that regard. I had a reputation to uphold until I graduated, until I was free from his grasp.

Shaking his head, Tucker gathered the sheet from my bed and handed it to Janice. Her gaze oscillated between Tucker and me until she finally snatched the sheet and wrapped it protectively around her body.

“I’ll tell my daddy on you.” Her brown eyes blazed and I had to give the girl credit for standing tall in this fucked up situation. She didn’t know it but I was doing her a favor. She would rather I handle it and not my father.

“No you won’t.” My voice was hard and the pounding in my head started to beat at a maddening rhythm. “Wouldn’t want to tarnish that good girl persona daddy has of his little girl, do you?” We both knew it to be true. Janice’s father was a politician in a neighboring town. She pretended to play the good politician’s daughter during the day and yet shes tripped in Little Vegas by night.

I didn’t know why she did it. She didn’t need the money. They were loaded, as were most shitheads that went to this school. Maybe as a fuck you to her father. Maybe she liked swinging on a pole in front of leering middle-aged men. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t say I cared enough to decipher it.

We had a no strings attached kind of relationship.

Rather, we used to. I doubted she wanted anything to do with me after last night but she knew the rules.

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