I won’t survive him again.
I barely escaped last time.
I push to my knees, my body screaming at me in pain as I try to stand. I just need to keep running. If I keep running, he can’t catch me. And if he can’t catch me, I’ll be safe.
Running always keeps me safe.
I’m wrenched from my nightmare by raised voices, and it takes a second for me to calm my breathing and accept this reality, despite my brain telling me I need to run.
"And what if we won’t give her up?" Sawyer says, his voice cold and harsh. I don’t think I’ve heard him sound like that before, but I use his voice as an anchor to connect me to where I am. Sitting up, I tune into what’s going on across the room, since no one seems to have noticed that I’m awake.
"Did I ask you to?" Cole responds icily. This might be as close to an argument between them as I’ve ever witnessed. They don’t seem to break rank too often in front of people. They might avoid talking to each other and disagree with their actions, but they never argue. "This wasn’t my idea, I got as much choice in this deal as you did. As she did. Have you ever tried to stop my dad from doing anything? I have, and it doesn’t end well. The only way to protect her was to go along with it. I was willing to do that before I knew her, so how do you think I feel now?"
Huh. Didn’t see that coming.
After everything else that happened tonight, I almost forgot about my impending engagement, complete pile of bullshit that it is, and I’m absolutely not going through with it. Not after everything.
They should have just told me.
I take advantage of the pause in their conversation and speak up. "Howdoyou feel now?"
They turn to face me, a mixture of shock and ‘oh shit’ running across their faces as they realize I’m awake and privy to their conversation.
"Well?" I say, tilting my head as I watch them squirm. "How do you feel now?"
I don’t ask it of anyone in particular, but my gaze doesn’t leave my supposed fiancé.
"You definitely seemed to feel something when you fucked me during halftime," I bite, quirking a brow as I lean back against the cushions of the couch, folding my arms across my chest. "You didn’t seem to mind pretending to want me when it benefited you that way. Or was that just a part of your plan? Fuck me, hope that I fell for you, so when daddy dearest announced his plan, I’d just get swept up in the joy of a wedding? At having been plucked from poverty like this is some sort of Cinderella story?"
"Briar—" Travis starts, and I cut my gaze to him.
"I wasn’t asking you, Travis." I’m harsher than I should be, considering how much they’ve saved my ass tonight, but I’m trying not to think about that right now. "I was speaking to myfiancé."
Cole visibly gulps, but seems to slide his cool mask into place and looks totally indifferent.
"That isn’t what that was," he says, folding his arms over his wide chest. "That was just us. I wasn’t exactly thinking about my dad while I fucked you."
Sawyer laughs and ducks out of sight, further into the kitchen space.
"You still didn’t answer my question. How do you feel now?"
"This is ridiculous, we have more important shit to deal with right now, Briar. Like you killing someone," Travis interjects, and it's like he poured a bucket of ice water over my head. "How about we talk about that, and the fact that we’re basically your accomplices since we dealt with it? How about you think of that before you attack us for shit we had no control over?"
I press my lips together, clenching my hands to fists to hide the tremors in them, even with my arms folded over my chest.
"I didn’t ask you to do any of that. I would have called the police, explained that he attacked me." I adjust my position, curling my knees against my chest as I brush a hand against my bruised throat.
Hell, that hurts.
"Even if no one believed me, it would have been the truth. Evidence would have been on my side. I would have dealt with the consequences of it, like normal people do."
"You ungrateful—" Travis starts, but Cole slaps a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Don’t," he says lowly. "She doesn’t understand any of it, so of course she thinks that way."
"What don’t I understand?" I challenge, and Asher moves to come and sit with me while Travis and Cole head out the back of the house into the yard.
My eyes follow them out and I notice the sun is starting to paint the sky already.