Page 148 of Bound By Her

He rubbed his eyes, trying to focus on the dark room, but a creeping unease settled in his gut. His pulse pounded in his ears. The air was thick, suffocating, charged with something unspoken—something violent.

A scream. It split the silence, raw and terrified.

Adrenaline spiked through him, tearing away the last remnants of sleep.

Another scream.

Followed by the sharp shatter of breaking glass.

What the fuck?

Bryson bolted upright.

“Kay!” His voice was hoarse, desperate. He scanned the dimly lit room. Empty.

“Kaydon!” he shouted again, already moving.

He grabbed the first thing he could—a pair of sweats—pulling them on as he lunged for the door. His fingers curled around the handle. He yanked.

Locked.

“Fuck!” His heart hammered in his chest.

His hands fumbled for another way out—a vent, a chair, anything—but another scream tore through the house, and his body went ice cold.

Bryson’s breath hitched. His mind went blank.

The door crashed open.

Blinding light flooding the room.

“What the fuck is going on?” Kaydon said in a hushed voice, his shoulder still hunched from ramming the door down.

Kaydon’s movements were stiff, and Bryson reluctantly remembered the evening’s events.

“I’ll kill him for what he did to you,” Bryson said, touching Kaydon’s face.

“You’re gonna have to beat me to it,” Kaydon said, putting a hand over his.

Bryson wanted to hold him, to touch him. To take all his clothes off and inventory his injuries. To kiss every bruise and every strike.

Another scream, this one less shrill and more like a wail, broke through the silence.

“That’s Adria,” they both said in unison.

Seth met them in the hall, and the three of them ran.

“What do we do?” Seth asked.

“Where is Eric?” Kaydon said.

They rushed in the direction of the screams. When they reached the first floor, the house was eerily quiet. Bryson put a finger to his lips.

Barefoot, they crept through the living room and into the kitchen. Near the breakfast bar Bryson stood still, listening. Adria’s bedroom was on the second floor of the east wing, but the commotion had clearly been from the first.

Bryson thought about the north wing. It was off-limits, but he followed his instincts, moving into the frontfoyer and then right to the north hall, Kaydon and Seth behind him.

A faint glow flickered ahead. Adria’s muffled cries cut through the silence, growing clearer with every step.

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