My feet begin to move faster, and I pass her pants wadded in a mess in the sand, but that’s when I hear her. I hear her scream. The sound I know I’ll never be able to forget.
I turn the corner and see him between her legs, his hand wrapped around her throat.
“Shhh…” he growls, “Shut the fuck up.”
Quickly I close the space between us, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and ripping him off my sister.
Zack.
“Eric—”
My fist crashes into his face before he has a chance to complete his sentence. His eyes are dark and violent, unlike I’ve ever seen them before, and for a split second, I’m completely surprised.
He throws a right hook before I have the chance to block it, causing radiating pain to my jaw. Rising to his feet, I quickly follow, tackling him to the sand. He wiggles beneath me and pulls a knife from his pocket, grazing my ribcage. I wince in pain but grab his wrist in a death grip, slamming it to the ground.
I feel this overwhelming sense of fear, one of us isn’t leaving the beach. Him or me. He won’t allow me to leave this beach, knowing that I could ruin his life or Emma could. I can still hear Emma’s faint sobbing to my right, my hesitation earns another hit to my nose, and I make a quick decision. Only this time, I don’t hesitate.
I grab his throat and squeeze. Hard.
He struggles beneath me, and I turn off all emotions as I watch his eyes dim and feel his body go limp.
“Eric! You are going to kill him, Eric!”
I let go and frantically get off of him. My eyes meet Emma’s, and I see pure fear and torment. She lets out a deep breath, followed by a loud sob, and her entire body trembles. I pull her up against me in the sand and cradle her in my arms.
Maybe I killed him. I don’t know, and more surprisingly, I don’t care. I run my hand over Emma’s hair and hold onto her dearly. This was my fault.
My stupid birthday.
My inability to protect her.
The police show up and take Emma to the Emergency Room. I assured her it was okay and that I would get there as quickly as possible. I am placed in handcuffs. Suddenly the beach is full of people, whispers, and blue lights. My head is pushed into the back of the cop car, and I catch one last glance at Taylor standing on the beach. Feeling absolutely nothing when I look at her. Nothing like I did before. I didn’t believe in love anymore, and she was nothing more than a distraction.
I could probably kiss becoming a doctor goodbye after this, but I learned a very valuable lesson.
Don’t trust anyone.
CHAPTER 7
KARLY
I swipe through the edits for my fitness app and smile when I realize some of the bugs from the original release are now fixed. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more, thanks to a few really important investors, which will be happy when they start receiving some return, and hopefully, they will. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, and I’m terrified it will fail.
You are only relevant because you dated me.
I can still hear Ashton’s words in the back of my mind anytime I start to feel proud of myself. Even the slightest sense of accomplishment and I remember every awful thing he’s ever said to me.
You are going out like that?
Don’t you think you should put some makeup on?
That dress looks a little small.
I shiver thinking about him. I haven’t seen him since the day that Eric ran him out of my apartment months ago. I blocked his number and left him without any way to fuck with my mind or my body.
He’s never physically hit me, but he’s pushed me a few times. Maybe even grabbed my arm a little too tight. He yelled a lot, more than anyone I’ve ever known, and his temper was quick to spiral out of control. He’s been arrested for public brawling more times than I can count.
Opening Instagram on my phone, I type Ashton Slade into the search bar and scroll through his profile.