Page 129 of Cursed to Be Mine
My hairs rising, I stand. Varius torturing Micha himself would’ve been one thing, but to let Maddox have a go at her… She’ll never heal from whatever he did to her. Even I’m not proud enough to think that I wouldn’t crack in the end. Maddox’s methods are excruciating just to watch.
He normally enjoys it, a twisted little psycho, but there are times when he is forced to endure it just like I am with my role as reaper.
“She broke?” Scarlett asks, her voice trembling. “She survived what Antonio did to her, and then you…” Her face turns white as she looks away, knowing the answer without us needing to voice it. Moving towards her, I cup her face with my left hand. She flinches against me on a ragged exhale but doesn’t press for more answers, coming to terms with our fucked up world in her own way.
I study her, so fucking proud over how strong she is. Her bruises and busted lip are free of her skin, but they’re stuck in my mind, right at the forefront with every blink.I hit her.
I hit her over and over again, breaking with every crack of my knuckles while she stayed strong.
I rest my head against hers. The desire to jump out of the window my-fucking-self makes my muscles tight with the need to move. “I’m sorry,kira,” I murmur as my eyes fall to the hand touching her face.
A few minutes ago, it busted her lip. Left ugly bruises across her chest and face.
She says something, but I don’t hear her. I don’t hear anything even though she shoves at my chest, trying to get my eyes back on her.
I hurt her.
My body shudders.
Noise is nothing but a high-pitched shriek of pain.
I hurt her with my own damn hand.
Hers dig into my shirt and shake me. My eyes snap up, looking over to where Antonio kicked my sword.
Maddox is gone, undoubtedly having run downstairs to help my brothers.
I should be down there, killing any fucking Death Hunt members still lingering around.
But all I can think about is what her face looked like when I beat it. How the blood welled on her lips. How the bruises darkened her skin. How she closed her eyes after every hit so I couldn’t see her pain. How I wasn’t strong enough to not need her strength, forcing her to comfort me – the man who was fucking beating her.
My mouth opens, but I don’t hear my scream. I want to drop to my knees as agony slices through every tendon and every muscle, as my heart cuts like broken glass with every beat of my fucking pulse.
Tears blurring my eyes, I jerk away when she grabs my left hand, her touch a burn of guilt and shame. This hand beat her.
It’ll never touch her again.
Pulling my sword to me through my shadows, Ihack off the traitor.
Hurting my girl…
... is an unforgivable sin.
Forty-Two
HER
“Khalid!” I jerk forward to grab the sword from him, but it disappears into his shadows. His hand spurts blood into a growing pool that reminds me of the bite I gave him. He almost died then.
He’s not going to die now.
Tearing off my shirt, I reach for his arm, but he jerks back from me, his eyes cold and triumphant. “Let it bleed,” he hisses.
“Youpromised me!” I scream at him, wanting to slap some fucking sense into him like Ma always did to me.
Balling my fists,refusingto continue that cycle, I plea at him with my eyes. “Please let me wrap it.”
“It’ll just bleed through, and I don’t want –” His words twist with so much agony, my heart stops along with his. Adrenaline is the only thing that keeps it pumping. He’s turning white, and I fucking know he’s too in shock and too damn stubborn that he’ll let this go too far.“Khalid...what you did…it’s okay. I’m –”
