Page 56 of Torment

God, the pain.

The pain that was shooting from his chest straight through his heart was almost unbearable.

Scarlet started screaming, punching, and kicking the moment Brent took her from Riggs.

“Hunter!” She kept on screaming, and he could hear the fear in her voice, the desperation in the way she called out his name, begging him to help her. “Don’t. Please don’t! Take your hands off me. Hunter, don’t let him take me!”

“Scar!” Hunter yelled. He tried to push forward while he clawed and kicked at the two men making sure he would get fucking nowhere. “Scarlet. Fuck!”

A third set of hands pushed Hunter to the ground, forcing his face against the floor.

“Scarlet!”

“Hunter!”

It was no use. It was impossible for him to help her. All he could do was shout and scream like a man possessed.

While Hunter lay on the ground, watching helplessly as Brent led a screaming, fighting Scarlet away, all he thought about was how he had managed to fail her. It wasn’t just Blue he had failed anymore. It was Scarlet too. No matter how hard he tried, how badly he wanted to protect the people he cared most about, he always managed to let them down…to fail them in the worst possible way.

“Fight, Scar,” Hunter yelled after them. “Don’t you dare stop fighting.”

“Hunter!”

“Never stop fighting!”

And then the dam broke. The moment Scarlet was out the door, Hunter cried out as if his insides had been turned inside out. He screamed at the top of his lungs like the worst kind of pain was being inflicted on him—like his skin was being torn off inch by inch. Tears of anger, of rage, of desperation, and so much fucking agony spilled down his cheeks while he screamed her name over and over and over again.

“Hunter.”

A pair of hands jerked him up from the floor, and Hunter came face to face with Colton.

“Riggs, you motherfucker. Once I’m done with Brent, I’m coming after you.”

Colton held up his hand. “Stop with the threats.”

“How could you do this after you knew what that son of a bitch did to her?”

“I had no choice.”

“No choice!” Hunter yelled. “No fucking choice? Are you kidding me?”

“It’s the only way I can find her.”

“Find who?”

Riggs kept staring at him like he wanted to say something, but was biting his tongue. He sighed. “You won’t understand. But it had to be done.”

“Fuck you!” Hunter spat out.

Colton held up a taser, and Hunter started to laugh maniacally. “A taser, soldier boy? Really?”

“You’ll thank me for this one day.”

And then Hunter abruptly jolted forward as what felt like a million volts shot through his body, setting his insides—his mind—on fucking fire. Along with the waves of shock came flashes of memories. Memories of when Hunter had hope, of a time when he felt whole again. Images of blue eyes and full, heart-shaped lips rushed through his mind…all images of Scarlet. Blue was no longer there. She no longer owned that part of him that never allowed him to forget. But Scarlet did. Scarlet was there, in every memory, every moment, it was Scarlet’s face he saw. It was her…and now it would always be her.

The fiery shocks stopped, and everything around him slowly started to dim while it felt like he was falling to the ground in slow motion. His ears were ringing, his vision hazy, and his body completely numb.

When he finally landed on the ground, he vaguely saw a figure lean down. “I know you’ll find her again,” Hunter heard a voice say through the ringing still echoing in his ears.

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