Breaker's Point Bad Boy Billionaires Boxset (26 page)

T
he evening dragged
. The sound of Marcus’ braying laughter and the sideways glances from the other men he’d invited left Holly feeling as though she’d been covered in a fine layer of dirt.

The only thing that kept her hanging on was the fact that Riley stood no more than a few feet from her.

It gave her the chance to study him, to watch him up close and in person. It was something she hadn’t been able to do in a long time.

The strong line of his jaw, the way his hair fell into his eyes when he tipped his head forward. The crinkling of his eyes as he laughed…

She found herself focusing in on his lips, and her mind instantly transported her back to the kiss they’d shared in this room.

The feel of his hands on her body as he’d held her close, the way his lips crushed against hers, demanding her complete and utter surrender. And she had given it to him; she would always surrender to him. It hurt to think about it but Holly knew deep down she was meant to love Riley. Her body had been created to pleasure—and be pleasured by—him.

Heat flooded her cheeks and she dipped her head as she realised Riley had caught her staring at him.

Chancing a glance back up in his direction, the secretive smile that curved that demanding mouth of his almost made her believe that he could read her mind.

And if he could, she couldn’t help but wonder if he enjoyed her recollections of her time spent in his arms.

“You’re having a party and you didn’t invite me?”

Holly’s heart sank as the familiar sound of her father’s slurred voice in the hall caught her attention. Hurrying from the room, she almost ran into Victor’s broad frame as he manhandled Niall McCombe back from the door.

“Victor, please don’t hurt him,” she pleaded, reaching around to place her hand over his on her father’s shirt collar.

“I won’t, I’m going to help him back to his room, that’s all.” Victor’s eyes were dark and hungry as he stared unabashed down the front of her dress.

She jerked her hand away from him as though he’d burned her. His expression made her more than a little uncomfortable and a hell of a lot afraid of him. He’d always been careful to mask his feelings when he was around her, allowing only traces of his true intentions to leak out, until now.

Something had obviously changed and Holly had no idea what it was.

“You should go back to the party or Marcus is going to be upset,” he said as Niall struggled in his grip once more.

“Dad, please don’t fight it. You’re not missing anything at the party and I’ll come up and see you as soon as I can.” It hurt to watch him get locked away in his own house. But the alternative was far worse and if Marcus caught him out of his room he’d only lock him back in the garage or something else equally monstrous.

Her father stopped struggling against Victor’s hold, his glassy, bloodshot eyes focusing in on Holly’s face.

Holly took a stumbling step backwards as he spat at her. It hit her face and her hand automatically went to her cheek.

Her face burned as though she’d been slapped and the hollow pit that had opened up in her gut seemed to widen. How long would it be before the empty feeling spread and swallowed her whole?

“Dirty whore, you’re no daughter of mine. Any bitch that gives herself to that monster is just as bad as he is…”

“I’m doing this for you. Do you really think I want anything to do with him? Do you really think I relish the thought of shackling myself to a man I despise?”

But she knew from the look on her father’s face that none of her words meant anything to him. The alcohol had helped make his mind up for him about what she was doing and Holly knew there was no point in arguing with a man who was so drunk he probably couldn’t remember how to spell his own name.

She let Victor drag him away and watched as he slumped down into his arms, the look in his eyes one of someone who had lost everything.

And he had lost everything. But her father’s addiction had a funny way of twisting the truth to make it everyone else’s fault but his own.

Just run.

It would be so easy to just run. Walk away from the house, the situation, the marriage to Marcus. After all, everyone else in her life had checked out.

Her father had buried himself in alcohol, leaving her to struggle on against Marcus alone. Her mother had walked out on her father years before, when his issues had first began.

The more she thought about it, the more she started to believe she came from a long line of quitters anyway, so why not join them?

But the thought of leaving her father and her mother to the whims of a monster like Marcus filled her with guilt. She couldn’t leave them. If she did that then she’d be no better than the monster she was trying to save them from.

R
iley and Anderson
along with a few other stragglers were one of the last groups to leave. Watching him as he walked out the door filled Holly with a sense of loss and it was a struggle to remain standing in the centre of the room and not race out the door after him.

Her thoughts from earlier resurfaced once more.
Just run, chase after the man you love and let everyone else fend for themselves.
But she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Holly didn’t wait for Marcus to give her permission to go upstairs, he was far too engrossed in Nessie and his celebrating whatever success he thought he’d achieved from the evening’s events to care.

As she made her way up the stairs, the house was quiet. The only sounds that met her ears were the giggles coming from Nessie and Marcus’ low rumbling voice.

Pausing at the top of the hall, Holly stared down in the direction of her father’s room. She could check in on him, do as she’d promised and spend some time with him. But, really, what was the point? He’d made himself clear earlier in the evening and Holly knew from experience that his continued drinking wouldn’t endear her to him.

Reaching the bedroom, she pushed the door open and stepped inside, the darkness wrapping around her like a familiar blanket. She let the door slide shut behind her and quickly flipped the key in the lock as she flipped on the light.

Holly froze. Her gaze locked onto Victor’s dark and hungry one.

He pounced, his normally ambling gait gone as he closed the gap between them and crushed her against the wall, one hand covering her mouth, squashing the scream she felt bubbling inside.

The press of his body against hers made it impossible to breathe and Holly’s senses were overrun with panic and fear as she looked up into his face.

She watched as he lifted his free hand to his lips and made a shushing motion.

“I’m going to lift my hand and you’re not going to make a sound. I’ll snap your neck before you even have the chance if you so much as try to scream.”

She didn’t doubt him, she could feel the power in his hand against her face and Holly knew he could easily break her in half if he wanted.

He lifted his hand slowly and Holly bit down on her trembling lip. She wouldn’t look weak, she wouldn’t cry. She was strong and she would figure a way out of all of this. She repeated the words over and over in her mind like a mantra but it was one she struggled to believe fully.

Her eyes darted to the side and she spotted the baseball bat she’d been sleeping with poking out from beneath the corner of the bed. The only problem was, she was pressed against the wall on the far side of the room, with a mountain of a man between her and it.

“What are you doing, Victor? If Marcus catches you…”

Victor rolled his eyes and let his oversized hand slide down Holly’s face. She cringed away from him but he didn’t seem to care.

She pressed her hand flat against the wall, her fingers creeping out, searching for the edge of the lock and the key she had turned just moments before.

“Marcus is a fool. I don’t care if he catches me, not anymore. George has promised me a real place, a position of power, and there’s nothing Marcus can do about it.”

“Why are you doing this?” she said, her voice low as she continued to search for the elusive key.

“Because I know you want it, because a real man takes what’s his and I’ve wanted you from the moment I set eyes on you…” He dipped his head and crushed his mouth over hers and Holly gagged.

His breath was fetid as he forced her mouth open wide with his tongue. She gagged again as his hand slid down over her body and found the hem of the tight dress she wore. He jerked it upwards, the violent movement causing the fabric to shred and Holly whimpered as the force of friction burned against her body.

Panic flooded every cell in her body as he forced his knee between her legs, driving them apart as he continued to slobber and bite at her mouth.

Her hand closed over the key and she tugged it free of the lock and brought her hand up in an arc, slashing down against the side of his face and across his eye.

He roared, staggering away from her, clutching at his face.

Holly didn’t hesitate. Diving across the room, she scrambled on her knees under the bed, her hands closing around the base of the bat.

But Victor was there, his hands wrapping around her waist as he jerked her up from the floor. He threw her face down on the bed. She brought the bat with her and struggled to crawl away from him, but his rage made him vicious.

“You crazy bitch!”

She swung the bat blindly behind her, hoping to catch him as he moved over her but Victor saw it coming. He caught her arm, jerking it up behind her back, twisting it until her fingers loosened on the bat and she let it fall from her grip.

Holly screamed, pain helping her to empty her lungs as he kicked her legs apart and the sound of his zipper opening filled her ears.

“We were going to have such a nice time but now I’m going to make you pay for the key and then I’m going to go downstairs and kill that idiot just like George asked.”

Victor’s hand closed in on her hair, forcing her head down onto the mattress, muffling her cries.

The sound of wood splintering filled the air as the door collapsed in on itself.

“You should have killed me when you had the element of surprise, Victor.”

Victor’s weight disappeared from Holly’s back and she scrambled across the bed in time to watch him turn and face Marcus.

She watched as Marcus levelled the gun at Victor’s head, his finger twitching on the trigger.

The world seemed to slow, all the sound in the room sucked into the vacuum created by the crack of the gunshot.

Victor’s head jerked backwards with the force, blood and heavier bits spraying across the bed as his knees buckled and he dropped like a lead weight towards the floor.

Holly smothered her sobs against her hand as Marcus stepped farther into the room, the gun in his hand trained on the prone body of Victor on the floor.

“Stop crying. You’re doing my head in,” Marcus said, his voice cold and dispassionate.

Holly fought to control the panic and fear that still coursed through her veins, her mind frozen over the image of Victor’s death.

“Did he fuck you?”

Marcus’ words were coarse and his voice harsh as he stepped aside and two other guards moved into the room.

Holly stared at them, her mind refusing to cooperate as they lifted Victor from the floor and carried him from the room.

“Jesus Christ, you women are all the same—nothing more than pathetic victims.”

She heard his words and anger bubbled up inside her, but Holly just couldn’t find the strength to fight.

Marcus crossed the room and crouched down in front of her. Holly’s eyes followed him as he moved but it was like watching him from the bottom of a dark well.

He grabbed her chin and tilted her face up towards his, the pain momentarily clearing the fog and shock that filled her head.

“Can you hear me?” he said, slowly enunciating each word as though speaking to a child.

“Yea— Yes…” Holly said, wrapping her arms around her body in an attempt to hold herself together. It was a stupid and pointless thought, since hugging her arms around herself wouldn’t really do anything for her but it did seem to bring a small measure of comfort and Holly was willing to take any and all forms of comfort.

“Good. Now did he rape you?” Marcus said, still using a slow and deliberate voice.

Rape was such an ugly word, an ugly word for an even uglier act. It made it sound like something terribly violent, as though the person who had named the act had wanted to capture the very essence of the violence involved.

“Holly!” Marcus lay his hand on her shoulder and shook her hard enough to draw her once more out of her reverie.

“No, he didn’t rape me… You saved me before he could.” Her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears, alien even. What was odder still was the fact that Marcus had saved her.

It didn’t fit with who he was, the monster she knew him to be.

“Thank you…” The words stuck in the back of her throat but she pushed them out regardless.

“Don’t thank me, Holly. I didn’t do it for you. I did it because the bastard was going to kill me. I did it because if he’d gotten you pregnant it would have screwed up all of my plans.

“I can’t very well marry a bitch that’s carrying another man’s bastard. It’s not fitting with the respectable reputation I’m trying to create.”

His words were like a bucket of ice water over Holly’s head.

She recoiled away from him as he grinned at her and pushed onto his feet.

“Get this place cleaned up in here, dump the blankets and sheets. I’ll have one of the other guards burn them. I’ll call one of the cleaning crews to scrub this place over in the morning, to make sure there’s no evidence left behind.”

He headed for the hall and started to pull what was left of the mangled wooden door out after him.

“By the way, I don’t ever want to see this door locked again. I’m going to be your husband soon and if I catch you locking your bedroom door I’ll make you move into my room with me.”

He disappeared out of sight and Holly scrambled to her feet, her legs carrying her as fast as she was able to the en-suite bathroom. She collapsed in front of the toilet just as the first wave of heaving rolled over her and she emptied the contents of her stomach into the bowl.