Page 228 of Did They Break You

Slowly, Storm lowers me down, and I sway a little in my heeled boots, but Storm’s hands come to my hips, steadying me.

I stare at the bat.

Chase whimpering on the floor.

I should say no.

I should say no.

But the door is closed.

No one says anything.

There’s only the sounds of Chase crying.

I think about how he was with me.

The names he called me.

What he said his dad did to Cortland.

I reach my bloodied hand out for the bat.

“No, Remi, please,” Chase begs me, looking up at me, blood in his mouth as he curls tighter into a ball. “Please don’t.”

Cortland offers me the bat with a smile, his eyes full of pride. “Go ahead,” he says, nodding toward Chase on the floor.“Swing, little wolf.”

And so I do.

When I drop the bat,Chase isn’t moving.

My chest heaves, and I stumble back again. Again, Storm is there, catching me.

Cortland looks down at a bloodied and still Chase, then to me, arching a brow.

Silence is in the room, just the sound of my own pulse in my temple.

“Remi,” Van says, swallowing as he looks from Chase, to Cortland, to me. “We need to go.”

Cortland turns to him. “I already told you,” he says, wiping a bloody hand over his mouth. “She’s not leaving me.”

Van’s eyes narrow as he steps over Chase’s still body, getting in Cortland’s face. “You’re no different than him. This isn’tgood rapistversusbad rapist, you dumb fuck.” His hands are clenched into fists by his sides, a vein in his temple throbbing as his eyes gleam. “Remi,” he says without looking at me, “let me get you out of here.”

Cortland steps closer to Van, and I move toward them both, Storm letting me go.

I put a hand on both Van’s arm and Cortland’s, steadying myself. Steadying them.

“Van,” I whisper as they stare off. Slowly, his eyes come to me, and they soften, even as his jaw is still tight. “He’s not what you think he?—”

“He is, though. You just don’t see it, because he’s fucked with your head.”

“Watch how you fucking talk to?—”

“You don’t get to be the hero!” Van snarls those words in Cortland’s face, and they both glare at each other, both of their chests heaving as I hold them both, feeling the tension in their bodies. “You’re not a hero. And if you were, if youwant to be,you’ll let her go.”

Cortland pulls his lip ring between his teeth, his bottom lip blanching under his canine.

He turns to me.

---