Page 65 of Craving Consequences

EVERLYY

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“Bron.”

My voice is a cracked gasp caught in my throat. Wedged tight next to my heart. It wavers as I teeter between fight and flight, and a heavy buzz emanating between my ears.

He’s a vibrating force of barely restrained rage looming over me. It coils off him in heavy wisps that circle my throat and squeezes.

“We need to talk.”

I disagree, but he’s dragging me through the landscape of cars. Vehicles absent of a single soul to call on.

“I don’t want—”

His grip tightens with my protest. It wrenches, folding my arm around behind my back.

The pain is searing, a blinding splinter of heat and pressure that cripples my knees, but falling only adds weight to the pull.

“Make one sound and I’ll break your fucking arm,” he warns when I give a strangled scream .

His promise is solidified by the hard tug of my arm that I’m sure dislocated my shoulder. The overwhelming pulse of agony fills my throat with bile. Spots dance across my vision as my entire body sways.

I’m vaguely aware of dropping my purse. My keys. My list tumbles away with the breeze and vanishes beneath a car. It all means nothing as I obediently let him propel me to the very back of the lot. To the bright, cherry red Escalade I bought with my money.

“Get the fuck inside,” he hisses yanking the passenger side door open for me for the first time ever.

I’m shoved inside. The door cracks behind me. Within seconds, before I can even process my breathing, he’s behind the wheel.

“You really fucked up, Everly. You stupid bitch. You really thought you could fuck with me?”

I can’t answer. The pain is beyond comprehension. It’s a brutal fist of heat destroying my senses. I can do nothing but cradle my arm and will back the waves of nausea bubbling up my chest.

I think it’s broken.

I’ve never broken a bone in my life, but I can’t feel my fingers. I can’t move them.

In the distance, Bron is screaming words that keep getting shredded in the piercing shrieking between my ears .

“Did you think you could keep hiding behind my dad and Weaver? Did you think they could stop me just because you let them fuck you?”

Fire explodes across my skull in a sharp crackle that has tears springing behind my eyes. I just become aware of the fist he has twisted in my hair when stars explode and the world momentarily dips into darkness. Pain busts from the temple he slams into the window.

He’s screaming louder. I think. I’m barely keeping my eyes open as the heat of the assault chokes the air.

“Please...” I think I whimper, but my entire face feels puffy and numb.

“Begging isn’t going to save you.” He’s breathing hard.

Dark patches of color rides high across his cheeks, emphasizing the murderous fire behind his eyes.

“You ruined my entire life. You fucked everything up.” His fist catches the steering wheel, releasing a blast of horn. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I don’t think he wants an actual answer, but he does when he swings his arm back and catches me in the chest with five knuckles.

“What is wrong with you?” he shrieks louder. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

We turn down somewhere. The pavement turns to dirt. The road closes to walls of dense forest. I hadn’t been paying attention and I have no idea where we are .

He won’t hurt me. He wouldn’t.

The heat in my arm, the pounding in my head disagree as I’m taken deeper into the unknown.

“Where are we going?” I choke out.

I get a slap for my attempts. A clap against my ear that sends the bells ringing.

“Shut up!”

There is only one reason to take a person into the wilderness to chat . Only one reason to not want witnesses. Not a soul knows where I am. No one is coming to save me.

We hit a dead end in a small clearing. He pulls the SUV off to the side and kills the engine.

There’s a second of silence before he’s on me. Fists and palms fly in a waterfall of pain. Defending myself with one arm does nothing when he has my hair twisted up in one hand.

“You worthless bitch! You dumb fucking cunt.” Blood erupts across my tongue with the slap of his palm across my mouth. “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to bury your worthless, whore body in the woods for the animals to find.”

“Bron, stop!” I cry, trying to pry his fingers from my hair. “Please. Stop!”

He’s not listening.

His eyes are pits of justified fury, of a madness so deep and dark, nothing I say is going to make a difference .

“Your little stunt cost me my job.” He spits into my face. I feel the spittle hit my cheeks. “Getting arrested for assault ... assault, Everly! When did I fucking assault you? Huh?”

His fingers unravel from my hair to circle my neck. He squeezes just enough to send prickles across my lips.

“When did I assault you, Everly? Even when you fucking deserved it for being so fucking stupid, I never touched you.”

He shoves me. I crash into the door. My head bounces off the window. The crack disorients everything for only a second but it’s enough time for him to get out of the car and round to my side.

My door is yanked open and I nearly fall out. I might have preferred it to the clamp of his hands on my injured arm dragging me to the ground.

The wind is knocked out of me as I lie in the dirt, wheezing and choking on the tears I can’t stop. On the pain that keeps threatening to take me under, but I can’t let it; while I don’t think I want to be awake for what he has planned, passing out terrifies me even more.

The toe of his sandals catches the back of my thighs. The momentum shoves my body forward on my bad shoulder.

“I lost everything because of you.,” he snarls over my wail.

“My dad kicked me out of my house because of you. I have nothing left of my inheritance because you conned my dad into giving you all my money. You stole from me. I lost my job because of you. I lost my listing because you gave your house to Abram. Abram? That puke face? You knew how much this meant to me. I know you did it to spite me.”

I did.

I made sure to ruin everything he’s ever had. Not slightly. Not enough for him to rebuild. I burned his life in Jefferson to the ground and shit on the ashes.

As a consequence, I created this situation I’m currently in.

“If you hurt me, Lachlan will—”

His hands fist into my hair and I’m dragged up. Dirt and rocks cut into the naked flesh of my knees. Tears the skin on my calves. I feel strands getting torn from their roots. I’m blinded by tears that obscure his face when he shoves it into mine.

“Are you not listening? Because of you, Lachlan, ” he spits Lachlan’s name the way he used to say Dad, “disowned me. Cut me off, gave you my money, all because he crawled between your legs!”

I think he was aiming between my legs, but his kick gets me in the gut.

I can’t even wheeze. What air I had in my lungs escapes in a squeak. A whimper that is lost in the war drums slamming into my skull as the entire world fades behind the torrent of fire.

It’s unlike any pain I’ve ever felt in my life.

It washes away what humanity I possess so I’m no more than a shell of broken pieces I can’t clutch together with only one good arm.

The air is ashes caked in my throat, burning, and still I inhale nothing.

I can barely make a sound. Barely move. I might be dying.

Violent fingers press into my jaw and twists, dragging my face off the ground. Whatever he sees brings a satisfied smirk to his face.

“I have a secret.” His free hand dabs at the bits of dirt clinging to my tear-soaked cheek.

“I fucked your bestie.” He snickers when I choke on my own sobs.

“Right on your kitchen counter. Bent her over and railed her wet cunt.” His head cocks to one side.

“Fucking boring. You’d think with all the practice she’s had, she’d have been better, but.

..” the smirk makes my queasy stomach churn.

“I made it worth my time. Fucked the bitch raw. Should have set a time limit if she couldn’t handle it.

Was almost satisfying when she begged me to stop, but after all the bullshit she put me through, all the insults, I wasn’t passing up this opportunity to finally make the bitch cry and bleed. ”

My heart seizes around the implication. At the sheer joy lighting his face. The arrogance alone as he openly brags about hurting Lauren.

Raping her.

“Why?” I croak, not surprised to taste bile and blood on my tongue.

His vise on my jaw unfurls and he takes a step back. It’s not far. His need to lord his power over me stretches his shadow across my prone body. It forces my chin back to peer up into his cruel features.

“Because she’s a whore, Everly. I’ve been telling you that for years.

Bitches like her beg for the cock. She begged for it.

Went down on her knees like a proper whore and sucked me off before bending over and taking it in the cunt.

” He blows out a breath. “Kind of like how you let my dad and Weaver pound your holes. Unlike Lauren, you took it like a champ. I was almost jealous that I didn’t take my shot when you were ready to spread your legs for me. ”

Nothing he’s saying makes any sense, but asking isn’t going to get me any answers.

“What are you going to do to me?” I rasp.

His knees bend and he crouches until we’re eye level.

“You’re going to tell everyone you lied.

That you made it all up because we had a fight and you’re a conniving cunt who tried to ruin my life.

You’re going to make sure my dad takes me back.

You’re going to give me my money back. You’re going to fire Abram and give me your house to sell and you’re going to pay in whatever way I see fit until I get bored with you. ”

The logic is irrefutable. I can tell him I accept. Go along with everything he says until we’re back in town.

“Okay.”

His brown eyes search my face. Amusement curls his mouth .