Time slowed down, just for a moment.
Alix dragged her away. “Come on, you’ll like it. You may not like the guys after me, but…” Their bodies thumped against the walls and the floor as they made it to one of the unoccupied bedrooms. Her screams continued and became muffled when the door closed.
The guys turned to me, like I might do something.
I grabbed the deck of cards and shuffled. “Another round?”
They all looked slightly surprised, but that wore off as they drank from their beers and ate their pretzels.
I could still hear her screams.
My hands shuffled the cards as her face was imprinted in my mind.
Tears dripping down her cheeks.
I’d never seen her cry out of fear…only sorrow.
No. I wouldn’t help her.
I’d never seen her look that terrified.
No. She’s not my problem.
Her screams were still loud as she continued to fight a hopeless battle.
No.
She’d accepted her Red Snow with her head held high. She accepted a knife to her stomach without shedding a tear. She took my whip lashes with barely a sound. But this…was the thing she hated most.
No.
I started to deal the cards.
Her screams continued.
I stopped halfway, my eyes on the table, thinking of the way she’d looked when she brought me coffee in the morning, a new woman with her hair and makeup done. There had been affection in her eyes, like she wanted to take care of me. “God fucking dammit…” I slammed the cards down and got to my feet.
The guys all stilled as they watched me leave the front room and move down the hallway.
Her screams grew louder and louder the closer I came. I started to move quicker, afraid I’d waited too long. “Get the fuck off me!” I pushed the door open and found her on her knees at the edge of the bed, her hands tied behind her back while her head was forced into the mattress. Alix had his face between her legs, smelling her. Her face was turned to the doorway, and she went silent when she saw me. The look of relief on her face was indescribable. She closed her eyes, and the tears fell to the sheets as her lips quivered. She choked back a sob.
“Stop.”
Alix straightened and looked at me, his pants gone. “What?”
“Get off her.” Seeing it with my own eyes made me sick to my stomach. It was like being stabbed in the gut, taking the knife that had originally been meant for me. When Alix didn’t move, I raised my voice. “Now.”
He struggled to obey, angry at my orders but also wanting to keep the civility between us. “What the fuck, Magnus? What the hell happened to—”
“Don’t make me ask again.”
She continued to whimper on the bed, his fingers deep in her hair.
He finally moved away from her.
She sobbed harder once she was released, her tears shining in the light from the hallway.
He got to his feet, his hard dick hanging there. “I said we’ll forget your crimes—not hers.”
I could look the other way when her face was black and blue. I could look the other way when she had a wound in her stomach as she worked. I could look the other way when a noose was secured to her neck in her cabin. But I couldn’t look away for this. “Walk away, Alix.”
He was furious, like a bull that just saw red. But he didn’t fight me. He grabbed his bottoms and pushed past me as he left the room.
I knew I’d just relit a fire I spent weeks putting out.
I pulled out my knife and freed her wrists.
She moved off the bed and onto the floor, her wrists red and scarred because she’d tried so hard to get free. Tears still fell down her cheeks because she wouldn’t stop sobbing. She heaved like she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.
I watched her…getting sucked right back in.
Her arms covered her chest even though she was clothed from the waist up, and she shivered as if she were cold when she was just traumatized. Her tears glistened in the light, and she rocked herself gently, having a complete breakdown.
It was so fucking painful. My jaw clenched to keep a stoic expression, to keep all sympathy outside my body. But it was a fight I couldn’t continue anymore. I hadn’t thought this woman was capable of breaking like the others…and it was disturbing to see it happen. “I won’t let them do that to you.” My voice escaped as a whisper in an attempt to calm her.
Her eyes finally shifted to me, red and puffy. “I knew you would save me…” She crawled across the space between us and moved into my chest, her arms circling my neck and her face pressing into my shirt. Her eyes soaked the material instantly, and her fingers yanked on the shirt as she tried to pull me closer, like I was the only thing in the world that could put her back together.