Page 44 of Duress
“Is it true?” The question comes out in a choked whisper as I force the words out. The idea that she knew the truth this whole time… The betrayal cuts deep. So deep I can feel it physically. I press my aching hand against my chest, where it feels like my heart is cleaving in two.
Bryce shifts, rolling on to his side, his laugh morphing into a coughing fit that sends blood splattering on the carpet. He pushes up to his hands and knees, shooting a vicious stare in Everly’s direction.
“I don’t know what you think you can prove, little brother, but I promise you if you open that can of worms, I am not the only one that will pay the price for it. Do you really think you could turn my wife against me when she has as much to lose as I do? What do you think it will do to our poor mother if you accuse her son of murdering herhusband?” Bryce wipes the blood dripping from his nose on his shirt sleeve, looking more annoyed than defensive about being accused of murder.
The mention of our mother gives me pause. Oh god… What would this truth do to her? She barely functioned for years after Dad died. If she found out her own son killed him…
Sensing my hesitation, Bryce presses on. “Dane, I thought you were smarter than this. A man like me does not get where he is in life without knowing how to pull some strings. I’m willing to forget this little incident if you are. You have no evidence supporting your ridiculous accusation, and you can’t compel her to testify. Spousal privilege.” I shoot him an incredulous look. He has truly lost it if he thinks I’m going to just drop this, even if it hurts to reveal the truth.
“He can’t compel me to testify, but I can volunteer to willingly.” Everly’s voice is as cold and as sharp as the knife that feels lodged in my heart right now. “I don’t care if I go to jail too. You manipulated me, and I am tired of carrying the weight of your crimes. If I have to go to jail so Dane can have his justice, then I am okay with that. I told you I was done with you. I meant it.” Everly carefully gets to her feet, her body still trembling from the adrenaline surge of the confrontation, but her voice is strong. The look she gives Bryce is as cold and unyielding as steel. She shows no uncertainty in her decision.
“Dane, call the police. I want to report Bryce for assault and murder.” She doesn’t look at me at all. I don’t knowhow to resolve the conflicting emotions warring inside of me right now.
“You backstabbing little bitch!” Bryce lunges from his position on the ground, tackling Everly to the ground. Her back knocks against a framed picture of them from their wedding on the way to the ground, sending the frame crashing down on top of them. Shattered glass crunches under them as Bryce pins Everly to the ground, his hands wrapped around her throat in a deadly grip. “You’re going to pay for that!”
Bryce is lost to madness as he chokes her. Everly’s hands flail around her, groping, searching for something to use as a weapon. My mind finally catches up to what is happening, and I jump into the fray, knocking Bryce off of her. We roll against the wall, my body pinned between it and Bryce as I hold on to him in a headlock with my legs around his waist. Out the corner of my eye, I see his arm rise up, with a long shard of glass clenched in his fist. Everly sees it too and rolls out the way of his strike just in time.
I do my best to hold on to Bryce, but he bucks and flails in my hold like an angry bull. His arm holding the glass shard swings wildly.
“Everly, run! Get away from him! Call for help!” I try to adjust my hold on Bryce to get better leverage to cut off his airway, but when I do, he swings his arm back, sinking the glass into my side, just under my ribs. Pain erupts where he stabbed me, causing my hold on him to go slack.
“Dane! No!” Everly’s horrified cry cuts through the blood pounding in my ears, muffling my hearing. Bryce isup now, stalking after her as she frantically backs away from him. I try to get up, but when I move the pain lances through me, immobilizing me there on the floor. My side becomes wet and sticky from the blood pouring from the wound, and my vision darkens at the edges. I lose track of Bryce and Everly as I focus on holding pressure on the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding.
“I’m going to fucking kill you!”
“Go fuck yourself, Bryce! I am sick of your shit!” There is a loud thud, a grunt, and then the sound of something heavy rolling down the stairs. The last thing I see before I pass out is Everly’s angelic face as she kneels next to me, her trembling hands pressing down on to hold pressure as my hand falls away limply.
“Don’t you dare die, Dane. Stay with me. Please stay with me.”
CHAPTER 40
EVERLY
“You backstabbing little bitch!” Bryce’s face, bloody and battered from Dane’s furious beating, morphs into a terrifying mask as he lunges for me. His body collides against mine, slamming me against the wall with force. There is a loud snap of glass cracking as my head smacks against the large framed wedding portrait of us hanging on the wall. Stars explode in my vision, and something sharp slices into my scalp. Our bodies tumble to the floor, the portrait coming loose from its place on the wall follow us, raining shattered glass down everywhere.
Bryce’s hands are wrapped around my throat, squeezing so hard it feels like he is going to crush my trachea. “You’re going to pay for that!” His outraged yell is muffled thanks to the blood pounding in my ears. My hands claw and scramble, searching for something, anything to use as a weapon to get him off of me.
His eyes are black with rage, his face twisted indemonic fury that makes him unrecognizable from the man I married. From the man I once loved. Tears slide down my face as my vision darkens once more, and I think this time he might succeed in killing me. All I can think is that at least he won’t be able to get away with my murder. Not with Dane here to witness it.
There is another furious roar and then Bryce’s crushing weight is gone. I suck in some air and immediately begin coughing and choking as my lungs remember how to breathe.
Bryce and Dance roll away until their bodies crash against the other wall, where Dane has Bryce in a headlock. “Everly, run! Get away from him! Call for help!”
Gasping, I get on my hands and knees slowly, trying to follow Dane’s orders. Then in terrifying slow motion, my eyes lock on Bryce’s arm as it swings up wildly, holding a deadly looking shard of glass in his fist. Blood drips from his hand where the glass cuts into his flesh, but Bryce doesn’t seem to notice. I watch, horrified, as his arm descends, plunging the shard into Dane.
“Dane! No!” I crawl backward, scrambling to my feet as Bryce staggers to his feet, Dane clutching the wound on his side as blood pours from it entirely too quickly. Oh, god. He’s going to die.
“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Bryce lurches at me, his face unrecognizable, contorted by demonic fury. Gone is the man I used to love. Gone is the boy who saved me and made me feel safe. The young idealistic lawyer who charmed my dad and took me to Paris. The dotinghusband who carried me across the threshold of our first home is nowhere to be found. No trace of him remains in monster standing in front of me. I don’t know if he ever truly existed.
When he lunges for me, I don’t think. I only react.
“Go fuck yourself, Bryce! I am sick of your shit!”
Reaching for the closest thing I can find, my hand lands on a heavy ceramic vase I made him as a gift for our ten year anniversary. I painted scenes from our honeymoon in Italy on it, and suggested he take it to his office and put a plant in it. It has sat unused on this hallway table for the last five years. It’s so heavy it jerks my arm down, pulling my shoulder, but I swing it anyway, aiming for Bryce’s head.
The momentum of the swing sends my body turning away from him just as he reaches for me again. The heavy vase makes a sickening thud as it makes contact with the side of Bryce’s head. He stumbles, eyes wide in surprise, then his body pitches forward as he runs out of hallway and meets the top of the stairs. My own momentum sends me crashing to the ground in the opposite direction, barely missing the same fate Bryce just met.
I don’t wait to see if he gets up and comes back for me. I scramble over to Dane and press my hands against his side, now drenched in a catastrophic amount of blood. He’s barely conscious, his arms going limp as I take over holding pressure
