Brawl (30 page)

I stay still, fixing unblinking eyes on his, ignoring his demand. The strong, defiant, and wilful parts of my personality that Mik’s spent the last four years helping me put back together won’t let me bow down to this monster again. He can threaten my brothers as much as he wants because I know that they’re safe this time.

There’s nothing he can do.

Mik’s going to put this madman in the ground for daring to touch me again. I can feel it in my soul that my wild and unyielding fiancé is going to rescue me.

I continue eyeballing Brendan. I refuse to give him the satisfaction of making me nod.

He regards me in return, a smile curling his lips.

“This is what I love about you, Lainey. You challenge me like no one else.”

Nuzzling my ear, his free hand closes around my breast. Vomit rises in my throat.

He knows how to get to me.

Letting go of my breast, he rips the last of the buttons off of my shirt with his free hand. It falls open, exposing my bra. Touching me again, Brendan tweaks my nipple until it goes hard, then he pinches it until I whimper.

“Nod if you get me, darling,” His voice is tender, loving.

A contradiction to his nasty touch.

I shake my head, not only at his request but also to clear the pain.

Killing me isn’t going to give him what he wants. I know that I just need to wait him out. I can take any pain he throws at me. I proved that last time.

Licking the inside of my ear, he sinks his teeth into my lobe with enough force to cause maximum pain without breaking the skin. I can't help myself as I scream as much as my closed-up throat will allow me.

“Nod if you understand,” he repeats after removing his teeth from my earlobe.

As the pain recedes, I regain my will to fight.

I pull against the hand around my throat, stomping on his foot with as much force as I can manage. He barely acknowledges my attack, except to slam me back against the wall when I try to knee him in the groin. My bare foot has little effect against his boot.

Slamming me against the wall twice more, not with his full strength but enough to hurt, I rethink my bravado. His body is shaking with rage.

I’m making him really mad.

Maybe I should nod, just to get him to let me go?

Black spots dance across my eyesight when he squeezes my throat once again, slamming me against the wall for the fourth time. My head bounces off the wall.

Brendan pushes up my skirt, wedging his thigh between mine. I squirm, trying to keep my legs shut, but he’s incessant, and manages to get his thigh not only between my legs but against my panties. I hoarsely scream at him to stop, head-butting him as hard as I can when he doesn’t.

All I achieve is hurting my own head because he doesn’t stop.

Not even for a second.

When I head-butt him again, he slaps me across the face. As I fall still from the impact, his hand slides to the apex of my thighs. Using the considerable weight of his body to pin me against the wall, he finally releases my throat. I draw much-needed gasps of air, hoping this is over.

Instead of letting me go as I'd expected, he rips my panties off of my body with one harsh tug, and throws them on the floor behind him.

My constant struggling achieves nothing as Brendan pins me with apparent ease against the wall. He strokes between my legs with surprising softness, rubbing his hand back and forth, from my clit to my ass. Continuing his circuit as my entire body shudders in disgust, my mind trying to shut down to block out his vile touch. He grins at my reaction.

I thought I could defy him, but I can’t go through this particular form of torture again.

I mentally admit defeat, my head sagging against him. I mouth against his shoulder that I get him, furiously nodding my head as tears stream down my face. He leans away from me and smiles down at me, gloating.

He knows he’s broken me and won this round.

“Too little, too late, my darling,” he admonishes, using two fingers to penetrate me with clinical precision. I scream in pain, fighting to get away as he pumps his fingers into me again.

CHAPTER TWO

LAINEY

Present Day

“Boss, we have a problem.”

Over Brendan’s shoulder, I witness a flustered Stu run into the room.

“The GPS on her mobile is active. It’s just been accessed. They know our location.”

“Bloody hell. How did you overlook that?” Brendan barks at him. “I paid good money for you to prevent this sort of fuckup.”

Removing his fingers from my trembling body, he lets me go. I slide to the floor. As soon as my feet touch the ground, I yank my skirt back into place and crawl away from him. He quirks an elegant eyebrow at me, smiling before he sucks on the fingers he forced into my body.

“You
still
taste like honey.”

I flinch at his statement and he laughs, knowing exactly what memory his words evoke.

Turning his attention to Stu, he demands with nastiness, “I asked you to check for any tracking, and you said it wasn’t enabled on her phone. Are you completely useless?”

“They had it hidden well,” Stu defends himself. “I could only see that it’d been activated once they accessed it.”

Worry and fear billow from Stu. The abrupt change in his demeanor is interesting.

Is he afraid of the MC or Brendan?

“Obviously, this is something
he
can access through his little motorcycle gang,” Brendan jeers at me.

I note that he still doesn’t like to say Mik’s name. His pettiness would make me laugh if the situation wasn’t so serious. Brendan stalks over to the telescope and peers through it.

“Goddamn it, he’s heading across the reserve right now. Your oversight has put a major kink in our plan.”

Brendan punches the wall near the window in anger, leaving a crack in the plastering. Blood wells on his injured knuckles. He shakes his hand in pain. I hope he's broken something. It would serve him right.

“Calm down, boss,” Stu tells Brendan. His eyes narrow and he stares intently into space. It's obvious—to me, at least—that he’s thinking on his feet. “He only knows where her phone is. If you can deal with her, I can get rid of him and the phone at the same time.”

Brendan outwardly agrees to Stu’s plan with a curt nod of his head. Deep within his eyes I can see his worry. It’s clear that he doesn’t have much faith in his henchman and I hope with every fibre in me that his concerns are warranted.

Mentally pushing aside what Brendan just did to me, I choose to focus on the fact that Mik now knows where I am. Smiling at the thought of their plans unravelling so quickly, I decide to taunt them.
If I can further shake Brendan’s confidence, maybe I can give Mik an edge?

“You’re absolutely screwed, you know that?” I state with as much conviction as I can. “Mik’s going to kill you both.”

My recently damaged spirit has risen from its temporary defeat. My lethal fiancé will tear both men limb from limb for touching me. And that’s before my father and the MC gets involved.

They’re in for a world of pain.

Stu’s head whips toward me in disbelief, but Brendan ignores my barbs, taking me by the arm and dragging me out of the room. I punch him in the chest, dropping to my knees and fighting him every step of the way to slow him down.

Mik is coming.
I want to be somewhere he can hear me.

“Don’t even think about it, Lainey. He’s getting nowhere near you ever again. I’m your man. Always have been.
Always will be.
Your first man and your only man. He won’t even breathe the same air as you again. If he does, you’re not going to like the consequences!” Brendan warns me as he grabs a handful of my hair to put a stop to my delaying tactics.

Gasping at the stinging radiating through my scalp, I try my best to let his crazy speech wash over me. He’s as delusional as ever about our previous relationship. He still thinks he can tell me how to feel and control me with nasty words and never-ending threats. I refuse to let him do it again. Brendan gives up trying to drag me by my hair, instead slapping me and then swinging me over his shoulder. He strides into his bedroom with me kicking and screaming and pummelling his back with my fists.

Throwing me on the bed, he kicks the door shut behind us. I curl into a ball, keeping my eyes on him, ignoring the jolts of pain rocketing through my body as the bed bounces from my inelegant landing.

Locking the door, Brendan pats his pocket when he slides the key into it. He smirks at me, knowing I won't willingly touch him to get the key. I want to slap the smugness right off his face.

Striding over to the window, he presses a button. A shiny silver electric shutter starts lowering down the outside of the window. I’m shocked to realize that it’s not quite dark outside. It feels like the middle of the night, not dusk. I’ve only been trapped here for a little over an hour.
It feels like a freaking eternity.
Regarding me with interest once the shutter has lowered, Brendan winks. His lewd intent is as clear as day. Knowing this look well, I struggle to sit up on the bed so I can stop him.

“Back off,” I tell him as he advances. “I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs if you touch me again. Someone will hear me.”

“Go ahead.” He smirks, stalking toward the bed despite my threat. “I had this room soundproofed just for you. We both know about your inability to keep quiet when you’re told. It was the cause of all my trouble last time.”

His reference to my screams bringing Mik and my twin Benji running into my bedroom to bring an end to our horrific last night together, brings the buried memories to the forefront of my mind. That night was the last time I’d seen him until this afternoon. His guilty plea spared me the ordeal of testifying against him, when his case finally made it to court, nearly two years after his final attack on me.

Try as I might, I can’t stop my mind returning to that horrible night—a night I try to never think about—and I shiver, my heart pounding as the awful memories overtake me.
I don’t want to be anywhere near Brendan again.
I’m much stronger than I was back then, but even the new me is going to find it hard to survive his twisted version of love.

I need to escape as soon as possible.

Brendan sits down next me. I scurry to the other side of the king-sized bed but he pulls me toward him by my ankle. Gently picking me up and placing me in his lap, he kisses me with tenderness.

Murmuring between kisses about how much he’s missed me.

Telling me that he still loves me.

Saying that he forgives me for sending him to hell.

Dragging my knees to my chest, I wrap my arms around them. Keeping my lips pressed together in futile resistance of the gentle onslaught of his tongue is the only defense I have. To be honest, I’m shocked at his sudden warmth.

It reminds me of the first time he kissed me, long before everything turned crazy.

CHAPTER THREE

LAINEY

Five Years Earlier

“I’m heading out now. Everything's tidied away. Can you watch Lachie for me?” I yell at my pseudo stepmother, Wendy, as I dry my hands.

I say pseudo simply because she’s been like a mother to me since my own mother died when I was ten, but she’s never been able to get my father to marry her. My mother, Alanah, was my father’s one true love. He’s happy to have a relationship of sorts with Wendy, but he isn't able to give her all of his heart because my mother took a fair chunk of it with her when she passed away. As I grow older, I’m stuck between sympathy for Wendy and pride at the depth of my parents love.

“Of course I can, Madelaine. Go and have fun with the rest of the kids...” Wendy scoffs at my question. Whatever else she was going to say is halted when she squeals in laughter, her delicate features lighting up as my dad walks past and slaps her ass. I roll my eyes at his antics. He's such an alpha.

Waving at Dad, I walk outside before he offers to escort me wherever I'm going. My small group of girlfriends are hanging around near the kitchen waiting for me to finish tidying up and watching my little brother.

I don’t need Dad’s overprotectiveness embarrassing me once again.

I live in a country town in Central Queensland, and tonight the entire district is ringing in the New Year at the town hall for the annual New Year’s Eve party. My family moved here six and a half years ago, after my mother died of cancer. We needed a fresh start after failing miserably in our efforts to function as a family without my mom. We’d spent half a year in a family home that had her stamped all over, failing to move past the tragedy. Moving here from Brisbane to a new house and a smaller town helped us heal as much as we could.

“I’ll meet you out front for the fireworks. I need to freshen up,” I tell my friends over my shoulder as I make a hasty exit. Dad’s looking my way again, a frown furrowing his brow as I walk off by myself.

I'm heading for the public restrooms when my twin brother Benji surprises me by throwing his arm over my shoulder.

“Why’re you wandering around in the bloody dark by yourself?” he questions. “You should be with one of us. It's not right for you to be out here alone.”

“For crying out loud, I'm going to the freaking bathroom.” I exclaim. Honestly, my brothers are becoming as bad as Dad. “I’m quite capable of doing that all by myself.”

Pushing his arm from my shoulders, I quicken my pace so I can put some space between us before I lose my temper. Jogging to catch up with me, he digs his fingers into my ribs from behind, tickling me. Squirming and trying not to laugh because I'm ridiculously ticklish, I'm forced to come to a stop when it becomes too much. Benji turns me to face him, equally red-faced with laughter.

“All right, I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone for now. You know I'm right, though.” He winks at me, seeking a truce. Rolling my eyes in response to his bossiness gives me a small bit of satisfaction, diluting my irritation with him to a manageable level.

“What do you want, Benji?”

“I wanted to see if you're coming to Kyle’s tonight. It's gonna be wicked.”

“I'll think about it.”