Page 88 of The Boy I Loved
She shook her head, not realizing he was seconds away from ending her life.
Tristan shrugged. Without warning, he cocked his arm back and smashed the hammer onto her pussy with so much brutality, I could hear the bones snap on impact. Emerson’s scream was instant, slicing through the silent air like nails on a screeching chalkboard.
Hazel gasped, jumping against me. I tightened my grip around her, silently willing her to not jump to the rescue. She seemed to want to do that a lot.
“Please,” Emerson shrieked, holding her hands out in front of her body like it would protect her.
Tristan swung again, smashing the hammer against one of her hands this time since it was in his way. Another scream tore from her lungs as she jerked it back, cradling her broken fingers to herchest. Pure agony was etched in her features, tears streaming down her face.
The next hit was to her pussy again, another crack echoing through the room. He swung and swung and swung until the poor girl couldn’t cry any longer. The pain had consumed her so viscerally that she’d grown numb. Once her cunt was nothing but a bloody, caved in mesh of flesh, he walked around the table, his eyes falling on hers.
“Nothing personal, baby,” he said. “I’ve just grown bored of you.”
And with that, he swung the hammer down on her face. She choked on her own tooth as it was knocked from its socket, falling into the back of her throat. He didn’t give her time to recover before hitting her again, in the eye this time. And then in the temple. By the time he was done, she was completely unrecognizable … and dead.
Tristan was covered in blood splatter, not bothering to wipe it off. At this point, it was becoming a trademark for him.
“Clay’s going to have your ass for that,” Vincent pointed out, though he couldn’t stop the small grin from tugging at his lips.
Tristan shrugged, making his way across the room and depositing the hammer in one of the bins. “She didn’t follow the rules,” he said simply. “Clay will understand.”
Hazel was still trembling against me, her gaze fixated on the lifeless girl sprawled over the table. I’d never seen her so shaken up before. This was the exact shit I’d tried so hard to protect her from. It was too late for that now, though. She wasn’t a child, and she wouldn’t stay innocent. She was doing a decent job of keeping herself alive by following rules and keeping her mouth shut, but I wondered … how long would that last?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
HAZEL
It wasn’tuntil I was in my new room with Stacy at my back that I crumpled on my mattress. A gut-wrenching sob tore from my throat, agony trickling through me with the weight of the horrors I’d just witnessed. That girl … she hadn’t done anything wrong. Tristandidgive me an easy question. It was a fucking no-brainer. My body shook violently, but I tried my best to keep the sound-level down.
Emerson. That was her name. My mind whirled as the events catapulted through my brain in a constant loop. She said she loved him, and he mocked her for it. How could she ever love someone like him? He was awful.
“Hazel,” Stacy said lightly, her own voice strained. She wasn’t immune to what had just happened, but she’d probably experienced and witnessed so much by now that she’d begun to grow desensitized to it.
When I didn’t respond, opting to bury my face in my pillow, her footsteps sounded against the wooden floor. The bed dipped as she joined me, followed by a soft thump when she lowered her body parallel to mine. Through the gap between my arm and the rest of the room, I could make out her concerned brown eyes.
What a fucking twist.
The girl who hated me and made my life a living hell growing up was pitying me.
“Why did he do that to her?” I grumbled, turning my head so I could see her better.
Stacy grimaced, rolling her lower lip between her teeth before releasing it with a harsh pop. “He enjoys it. These guys…” she trailed off. “Trying to understand them will just make you more and more confused. They’re evil.”
I’d gathered that already. I just didn’t realize that people could be so vile that they inflicted pain for fun.
Tristan made me an offer. He said if I consumed that…
Bile rose to my throat, my head unwilling to form the word. He said if I consumed it, he’d grant me and a friend access to the lounge. I chose Stacy to come with me. Tristan had already targeted her once, and with her being up here, she wasn’t likely to get in his way as much. Lauren would be okay. Hopefully.
“Tristan seems to like you enough though,” she added with a faint smile.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. He liked Emerson at one point, too.”
Stacy grimaced. “That’s true. Hopefully you get out of here before he gets bored.”
Get out of here.She meant sold. I wasn’t sure if that was any better. If people were buying women, they were probably just as vile. I wiped the tears from my cheeks and blew out a breath. How had my life gotten so twisted?
“At least we have real beds now,” I said, changing the subject.
