Page 72 of Sacrifice (Corrupt Empire 2)

“It was horrible. He was saying all sorts of crazy things like I owed him and he was going to punish me for telling my dad I wouldn’t marry him. I was terrified he’d go through with it. He’d have made it hurt. I couldn’t stand it.”

If keeping Tristan alive for now wasn’t so fucking important, I’d go around there right now and beat the shit out of him. I’d fuck him up so badly, he’d be unrecognisable. Tension rippled through me, rage flooding my veins. I wasn’t into inflicting pain, but fuck if I didn’t want to make it hurt before I snuffed his life out.

“I’ll put him in the fucking ground for this.”

“Put who in the ground?”

I looked up, finding James standing in the doorway with a bundle of clothes in his arms.

Well fuck.

Avery looked behind us, her eyes going wide.

“No one. It was just a figure of speech, wasn’t it, Aiden?”

James came further into the room, eyebrow raised.

“And I’m the fucking pope. Who are you talking about?”

She looked at me. I gave her a nod.

“Tristan.”

“What did that cunt do?”

At least he wasn’t under any illusions about Tristan Shaw. I knew from Avery the three of them went to the same school.

“He pinned Avery to the sinks in the toilets earlier today,” I said. “I stopped him before he could do anything to her, but only because I had a meeting with Chuck.”

James dropped the clothes on the sofa. His expression turned dark.

“Seriously? Why didn’t you tell me, Ave?”

She turned back to me, her eyes filling with tears again. For fuck’s sake, she really was in a state today. I blamed the Shaws and whoever else was after her. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest. She let out a pitiful sob. My heart cracked at the sound.

“Shh, it’s okay, princess,” I whispered.

Turning my head up towards James, I gave him a dark look.

“I’ll talk to you about it later,” I told him.

He gave me an apologetic look, shuffling on his feet.

“I’ll just go see what I have in the kitchen for dinner,” he said.

He retreated from the room.

“I’m not hungry,” Avery sobbed into my chest.

I stroked her back.

“I know, but you need to eat. Here, James brought you something more comfortable to wear. Do you want me to help you change?”

She nodded against my chest. She pulled away, her face tear streaked. I unbuttoned her blouse, tugging it off her shoulders. I helped her out of her bra and put on the t-shirt James had left along with a jumper, both of which swamped her small frame. I unbuttoned her trousers and pulled them off her before helping her into jogging bottoms. I folded her clothes up and placed them on the side table next to the sofa.

“Do you feel a bit more comfortable now?” I asked.

She nodded. I picked up a blanket which was lying over the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her. I gave her the remote from the coffee table.

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