Page 115 of You Were Always Mine
Her lashes are wet, her breath trembling. “There’s nothing?—”
Bzzz.
The sound slices through the air between us. We both freeze.
I turn my head, slow, predator-calm, toward the glow lighting up her nightstand.
Another buzz. The phone lights again, face down, butthe screen betrays her with Tyler’s name in bold white letters.
Her whole body jolts, a strangled noise clawing out of her throat as I let go of her neck and reach past her. She scrambles to block me, but I shove her aside with a sharp jerk of my shoulder and snatch the phone up.
One glance. That’s all it takes.
The words burn like acid across the screen:
“You think you can ignore me? I’ll remind you how good my hands felt on you.”
My breath shatters. My knuckles whiten around the phone until the case creaks.
Behind me, she chokes out, “Kai, please?—”
But I’m already shaking, already breaking, the red mist crawling up the back of my skull.
The screen blurs as my vision goes white. His hands.
I don’t even realise I’ve roared until the sound tears my throat raw.
I whip around, slam the phone down so hard on the dresser it skids and cracks, and I’m on her—shoving her back into the wall, my hand fisting her hair, jerking her chin up so she can’t hide.
“What the fuck does he mean—” my voice is a snarl, spitting through my teeth — “his hands on you?”
Her eyes are wide, drenched, her mouth working but no words coming out fast enough.
“Scarlett.” I slam my palm flat beside her head, the plaster shaking. “Tell me. Now. Because if you don’t—” I drag her closer by the hair, forehead crashing to hers, breath shaking with pure fury, “—I swear to God, I will hunthim down blind. I’ll carve the truth out of his fucking throat.”
She’s trembling so hard I can feel it vibrate into my chest, her lips quivering, and still she stalls.
“Say it,” I growl, shoving harder, my other hand clamping her jaw. “Say what he did. Tell me what the fuck he touched.”
Her lips move soundlessly at first, her breath caught on sobs that rip right through me. My grip tightens on her jaw until she’s forced to look me dead in the eye.
And then it comes. Shattered. Small.
“He touched me, Kai.”
Everything inside me stops—only to detonate harder.
“Where.” The word rips out of me, not a question but a demand, a death sentence.
Her face crumples, and her whole body shakes as she whispers, “My thigh. Up my leg. I told him no—Kai, I told him to stop?—”
That’s it. That’s all I need.
The red haze drops so heavy I can taste blood. My hand slips from her jaw to her throat, squeezing—not to choke, but to keep her right here while my other fist slams into the wall beside her head, plaster cracking under my knuckles.
“You let me think it was nothing.” My voice is jagged, almost unrecognisable, breaking apart as it tears out of me. “All this fucking time, Scar, you lied. You let me sit there while that motherfucker—” My throat closes. I can’t finish. I drag in a breath sharp enough to shred my lungs. “He put his hands on you and you think I’m just going to breathe through it?”
Her tears are hot against my thumb. She shakes her head, broken, whispering, “Please don’t, Kai,don’t?—”
