Will he smell Lex on me? Inside me? Will he know I’ve become a willing participant? I had so many opportunities to escape, but I didn’t. Escape meant running back to the nightmare my husband and I share.
I pull into my driveway and stare at the house that doesn’t feel like my home anymore. I feel safer in my car. Safer with Lex. I tuck the pocketknife into my waistband and exit the car. The moment I step onto the first stair, the door whips open. A fog drifts over me as I stare at Bryce. He looks so cold, and his hardened mask shows no emotion, not even concern or excitement at seeing me. This blank nothingness is scarier than his rage.
His face finally twists into a familiar anger—the expression I’m used to. I see it in a renewed light this time, as if there’s a bullseye planted in the middle of his forehead now, and it almost makes me laugh. Ienjoythe idea that this might be his last anger-fueled inhale.
Bryce grabs my arm and rips me inside. The sharp points of his fingers dig into my flesh, painting another bruise on my skin.
“Where the hell have you been, Selena?”
I strain against his grasp. “I got carjacked,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Bullshit. Stop fucking lying to me.”
My eyes well with tears. “I’m not lying to you. I swear.”
I’m not lying, but I’m not telling the truth, either. Yes, I got carjacked, but then this whole road trip became something else entirely, something that made me see life in a different way, and I welcomed Lex into my home to get rid of my problems.
“It’s been days. Who did you run off with? Have you been fucking around on me?”
“I didn’t run off!” I take a deep breath, trying to push away the stampede of guilt that seeks to trample my voice. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Fucking whore,” he says with a curl of his lip.
“Bryce, please...” I plead. Such a familiar sound, yet it never made him stop. Pleading only angers him. He hates the weakness.
He silently broods, which is worse than when he yells. His fist pulls back, and before I can react, he punches me in the face. The force knocks me into the wall, and framed pictures fall and shatter at my feet.Hurry Lex,I think as the glass spreads along the floor. I don’t make a sound, though, because I know he gets off on it. I can’t even reach up and baby the stinging heat in my cheek.
He's never hit me in the face like this because it would be too hard to hide. His attacks have always targeted places my clothes could conceal. Everyone probably thought I ran off, and he has no reason to tell them I returned. He can kill me and no one will know any different, and that’s what I’m afraid of.
“You want to run off and be a whore? I’ll show you how whores get fucked.” Bryce grabs me by my hair, leads me to the kitchen, and bends me over the island. A mug falls off the countertop and crashes to the ground as I fight against him. I know what’s coming.
It’s not the first time.
I slip my hand down and grab the pocketknife from my waistband, concealing it in my balled fist. Cold air bites my skin as he pulls down my pants and works open his fly.
“You don’t even have underwear on? My god, Selena. I’m embarrassed to call you my wife.” The heat of his cock presses against me, and I pray he doesn’t notice the wetness that came from someone other than my husband.
From Lex.
I clench my eyes closed and try to ignore Bryce’s harsh grasp as he readies himself. I slip into my mind, where Lex still lives. I try to imagine him behind me. Tears slip past my closed eyes and drip onto the marble countertop. My pelvis rubs painfully against the lip of the island as he pushes his weight against me. I feel guilt, a lot of it, but not for allowing Lex to be inside me. I feel guilty for not fighting harder against Bryce. There’s a certain level of acceptance that lets shitty husbands do more than they should to their wives.
Clapping.
The sound forces my eyes to open. Lex stands a few feet away, smacking his hands together in sarcastic applause. Bryce stops and tucks himself back in his pants before zipping them. Only a moment later and he’d have made Lex a liar when he said no one else would get inside me.
Lex draws his pistol and aims it at him. “Don’t stop on my account.” He circles us, stops across from me, and leans against the island. His eyes meet mine for a moment before returning to Bryce. “She feels fucking amazing, doesn’t she?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Spit flies against the back of my arm from the raging force of Bryce’s words.
“The one who held your wife against her will,” Lex says with a proud, dark smile.
“I told you I wasn’t lying,” I whisper, though I doubt he hears me over the anger between his ears.
“Is that how you’d fuck her, boss?” Lex asks Bryce. “Come on, show me.”
My gaze rises to Lex, but he avoids my eyes as he looks over my head. I drop my forehead to the counter. The shame makes me wish for death all over again. Anger greets me in every direction, and I’m stuck in the middle of a sea of hatred.
“You’re pitiful. You can stop or you can fuck her, but mark my words, it’ll be the last time you’re inside her,” Lex says with a disgustingly calm demeanor. I don’t know how he’s so willing to let Bryce have sex with me, after—