I hear the belt buckle and terror grips me in its fist, holding me steady so the man I once called daddy can violate me. He reaches in front of me and I shiver with trepidation.
He shoves my panties into my mouth and hisses in my ear. “Don’t you make one fu*king sound, little Snowflake. You’re so pure, so beautiful, and you’re easy to break.” Suddenly burning pain zaps through me, igniting fiery agony between my legs, but when I scream the sound is muffled with the material in my mouth. He grips my wrists in his large rough hands, engulfing me as he holds them behind my back. I can’t fight back. There’s nothing I can do. Nobody can save me. I have to endure.
I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.
“You like that, slut? You’re no longer pure, but you’re still my Snowflake, aren’t you?” His hips slam into my ass, pushing me against the edge of my bed. His heavy weight pins me in place as he takes something I held dear. Something I was meant to gift the man I loved one day. Fluid runs down the inside of my thighs and I realize my virginity has been robbed from me when I wasn’t ready to give it. Fragments of me slowly morph into tiny pieces of the snowflake he’s just crushed and as they fall to the ground I vow I’ll survive.
I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.
Without warning he pulls out of me and warmth coats my back and my ass. “So pretty and white against your skin. I’ve marked you, sweet girl. You’re a whore now. Do you understand me? You are mine. My filthy tainted whore.” With that, he leaves me in my room. The blood trailing down my thighs stains the carpet below. One day it will be his blood. One day I’ll make him feel the pain I’m going through.
Charles. The monster from my nightmares.
Carter
Once we’d kicked in the door to the apartment my blood runs cold. It’s empty. The fu*ker got away and I’m fu*king angry. Red blurs my vision. Nothing else matters because he has to pay. I don’t care how. All that matters now is that he gets what he deserves.
“Where the fu*k is he?” My growl is low, menacing, and I don’t even recognize my own voice. There’s nothing that can compare to the fear and anxiety racing through me right now.
“We’ll find him, Carter. My men tracked his phone here. He must be using a burner.” Bennett pulls out his phone and hits dial. Stalking through the empty apartment, I find a suitcase and once I flip it open I heave. Inside are photos of both Katherine and Ella. But not the Ella I know now, the one from all those years ago. The girl who had everything ripped from her. The girl who was ruined by a monster.
My heart tightens in my chest, leaving me breathless. “Bennett.” The tension radiating through my body is like a coil, tightening so much I’m sure when I snap I’m going to hurt everyone and everything in my path.
“fu*k.” He hisses the word and turns on his heel, talking to someone on the phone. I need to get back to my woman. She needs me. Until we can find this fu*ker I’ll spend every fu*king second of my time by her side.
When my best friend joins me in the bedroom again I notice the dark expression on his face. When I first met Bennett, he was a kid who was constantly stoned and fu*ked anything with tits. He’s changed a lot over the years, but the one thing I won’t forget is what he looks like when he’s got murder on the brain.
You see, my best friend almost killed someone once. We were out clubbing one night when we stumbled by a couple having a go at each other. The woman was crying and the man had just laid into her. Bennett walked up to the guy and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him out. Although, he didn’t stop there. He straddled the twat and kept punching him. His fists were bloodied when I finally pulled him off.
That night was the first and only night I saw him lose control. It was the only time I’ve ever been afraid of the man who was like a brother to me. And now, when I see him, I recognize the danger and rage in those green eyes. It’s as if someone else has taken over his body.
“I’m going to find that fu*king piece of shit and when I do, he’ll never be able to walk again. That I promise you.” His voice drips with venom and as it coils around me, I feel the warmth, and I know he’ll do anything to keep Ella and Kat safe. And I’ll never be able to thank him for loving her as much as I do.
Bennett helped me free Ella by giving her something she didn’t know she could feel.
Pleasure. Love. Affection.
“We need to get back to her.” I cut a glance at him and he nods. He’s not listening to me. Well, he is, but his mind is elsewhere. That faraway look in his eyes is evidence that this is affecting him more than he’s letting on. “Bennett.”
He looks toward me.
“We’ll find him.”
“I know. I’m just…. fu*k… I don’t know. I feel like I failed you, like I failed her.” That’s something we have in common. I’ve had this instilled into me since I was a child. When you do something, do it with pride. Give your all and now that we’ve lost Charles, I feel that failure too.
“You haven’t failed either of us, mate. We’ll find him. Don’t doubt.” We head to the car and once we’re inside I pull my phone from my pocket and type out a message to the woman who’s found herself engraved in my heart. Letting her know I’m on my way.
“I should tell you something,” Bennett utters then, his voice tentative, and my chest tightens.
“What?” As soon as the question leaves my lips my best friend places a hand on my shoulder. Turning, my eyes meet his. I have a bad feeling he’s about to deliver a resounding punch to my gut.
“He knows where she lives. When I was there she received a ‘gift’.” He lifts his fingers, creating air quotes around the word as he spits it like venom.
Pulling out my phone, I dial her number again. It feels like the millionth time I’m calling. Each ring drags me into the depths of hell. Fear forms a lump in my throat, and my chest aches painfully.
As soon as I hear her voicemail every nerve in my body alights with agony. He’s got her. He must have. “We need to get back to Ella, right the fu*k now.”
He pumps the accelerator until we’re tearing through the ground toward the exit.
My best friend knows how to drive like a fu*king maniac, and I’m glad he’s with me. I would’ve probably killed myself trying to get to her apartment, because the only thing I see now is red. Blood. Flowing from that evil fu*ker’s body. My hands coated in it because I’ll make sure he doesn’t survive.
“We’ll get her, Carter. I won’t tell you to calm down, but just know I’ll help you. There’s nothing I won’t do for you.” He glances at me, and when his eyes turn forward, he whispers, “For her.”
Casting a glance at him, I realize his feelings for her are deeper than I thought. Even though we’d spoken about our pact, we didn’t seal the deal, but this has made it clear. “I know you love her.”