Page 63 of Twisted Heathens
“None of your damn business.”
I grind to a halt, slamming her body into a nearby wall. It’s not gentle and she cries out in shock as I pin her against the hard brick, invading her space until we’re nose to nose.
“Talk to me like that again and you’ll regret it. I asked you a question.”
She breathes rapidly, eyes wide but unafraid. “And I said fuck off.”
Her defiance is new to me, but fuck if I don’t find it hot. The naive schoolgirl I once knew doesn’t exist anymore. My blackbird grew a spine.
“I said, what was he getting for you?” I roughly grab her chin, forcing her head up. “You will answer me, Brooklyn. I want to know what was so important that his cock was in your mouth instead of mine.”
She stares up at me, eyes burning. “Get your hands off me.”
After checking that we’re alone, I let out a frustrated growl and yank her arms above her head, pinning them there so she can’t move or struggle. “Want me to let go, huh? That’s what you want?”
Leaning in, I steal her frantic breaths and inhale her scent. Bathing in her pure fucking existence, painfully familiar and reminiscent of home. She isn’t allowed to breathe if it’s not for me.
“Let go,” she repeats.
“So you can run back to that asshole and beg on your knees?” I taunt.
“If that’s what I want, then you’re the last person to complain,” Brooklyn hits back angrily. “You have a shitty memory, Hud. All that time we spent together… who exactly taught me to beg on my fucking knees, huh?”
She moves so fast, I can’t dodge the headbutt that comes my way. Connecting with my nose which bursts instantly, blood streaming down into my mouth. She watches, waiting for my reaction. For a flinch or a cry, desperate to see my pain.
I don’t give her the fucking satisfaction.
I just lick my lips and maintain eye contact, letting her see the chaotic tangle of emotions beneath the surface. There’s nothing left to hide from her. She’s seen the absolute worst in me and hates my guts for it. Can’t get any worse than that.
“I’m not letting you go until you talk to me,” I state plainly. “You took one look at me the other week and came at me with a knife. I’m not blaming you, I earned that. But it took two of us to ruin our relationship, blackbird. Own your shit already.”
She thrashes in my arms, trying to break free as her eyes sparkle with tears. “Own my shit? You’re kidding, right? You should be in fucking prison for what you let them do to me. I was sixteen years old! Goddamn you. Godfuckingdamn you.”
Her words sting like acid as the buried memories roll through my mind. Brooklyn trussed up and restrained while I snorted coke off her bare breasts. Her knees knocking together as we shot up together for the first time, before I fucked her good and rough from behind. Pulling on her pearly white braids hard enough to rip hair free. Just the way she liked it, more punishment than pleasure. Treading that fine while we both clung to a single moment where living wasn’t a burden.
“Hate me all you want. But you can’t ignore me forever.”
She bares her teeth. “You walked away, not me.”
“I didn’t fucking walk away. I was adopted.”
“So what, a shitty half assed apology and you’re off the hook? You really thought that was enough? Five years you’ve been gone! Five fucking years and you want to argue that you’re the victim here,” she screams at me. “You left me alone in that hell and went swanning off into the sunset with your perfect new family. Do you have any idea of the damage you left behind?”
The anger sneaks back in like a silent assassin, my ever-present companion. I can’t keep a cool head any longer for this conversation. She needs to be taught a fucking lesson and reminded of who exactly owns her ass. I wrap a hand around her delicate throat and brush the pulse point there, finding her unsteady heartbeat. Just as her lips part on a sharp intake of breath, I squeeze hard, easily crushing her windpipe.
“I left when the girl I loved became a stranger,” I whisper harshly. “You were like a ghost. Staying wasn’t an option after what happened. So yes, I fucking ran. Blame me all you want. But you’re the one that cut me off when you turned your damn back on me and said that you didn’t love me anymore. I died that day, right there and then. It felt like this.”
With all my strength, I choke her, relishing her teary eyes and seizing chest. Desperately trying to suck in a breath that’s being stolen away. I could kill her with my bare hands without batting an eye. I release my grip just enough to let her gasp before tightening again, stealing back the privilege of breathing as she fails to fight me off.
“Does it hurt, baby? Your chest burning? Eyesight swimming? Good. I want you to fucking hurt, you little whore,” I lash out. “When you turned your back on me and walked away like nothing between us ever mattered, I felt like you’d taken a knife to my goddamn stomach and gutted me.”
I force a hand up Brooklyn’s shirt as I speak, even though she flinches away from my touch. Finding them through nothing but memory, I stroke the soft scars that litter her hips, showing her just how well I know her dark secrets.
“You cut me deeper than you ever cut yourself, Brooke. That’s why I never looked back. You took my heart and ground it into pathetic little pieces. Happy now?”
When I let go of her throat this time, she violently coughs and splutters. The tears stream freely down her cheeks as she sucks in deep, rattling breaths.
“Am I happy now? I fucking hate you,” she sobs. “I’m glad you left, because the only thing you were ever good for was ruining my damn life. From the day you walked into that nurse’s office, I was doomed. Walk away, Hudson. That’s all you’re good at. Leave me alone.”