Page 23 of Cross the Line

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“Not so fucking brave now,” he growls into my ear, pressing his hand into my neck harder until it might snap.

I want it to snap. Beg for it with every drive into me.

“I told you to watch your back, pretty boy.”

“Stop… stop… please…” The garble of words dies into bleak blankness as my face presses into the waterfall on the wall and drowns my plea.

“What was that?”

My heart pounds.

My body howls.

“Please.”

“Can’t hear you, pussy,” he scoffs, shoving so deep inside me that my teeth snap on my tongue and my scream shoots fromthereto my head.“Want me to drown you, yet?”

I don’t know.

I don’t know my prayers anymore.

I don’t know where God is to help me.

I don’t know how to make it stop.

I just close my eyes and wait for it to be over.

For the pain to end.

For him to leave.

My knees buckle, taking my feet from under me as I crash to the floor with an echoing shatter.

“Next time, it’ll be your whore. I will ruin every fucking hole she has, and I’ll make sure she knows it’s because of you. Understand?” His hand grips my jaw, lifting my blurred stare to his icy blue one as he holds Ryker’s bottle up in front of me.“Keep it, fucking pervert.”

Standing, he drops the bottle beside me with a pleased sigh when it shatters. Like me.

He washes his hands with my soap.

Humming mindlessly while I grip the shard of glass at my fingertips and clutch it in my hand. I keep waiting for the bite of it to sting. For itto shock me back to life. Maybe it’ll wake me up. Perhaps it’ll dull the burning pain lodged inside me.

But there’s just blood as he walks away, shaking his hands like the rest of him isn’t soaked through.

My blood.

My pain.

My shame.

CHAPTER 6

JAYDEN

Silence.

Everything is shrouded in silence.

My shock.

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