Fighting Silence (24 page)

Jesus, she was so close though. I pushed to my feet with her in my arms.

“Don’t stop,” she cried. “Please.”

“Shhh . . .” I soothed as I leaned her shoulders against the wall. “Hold on, baby.” She clung to me as I drilled inside her. With every thrust her muscles contracted, fueling me forward.

“Harder,” she pleaded. However, if I fucked her much harder, we were going to be rebuilding a wall in her apartment.

I carried her over to the small dinning room table before releasing her legs and pulling out.

“What are you doing?” she objected on a whine.

I didn’t say a word as I spun her around in my arms and folded her face down over the table. Poising myself at her entrance, I whispered, “You need deeper. Not harder.” Then I slammed myself to the hilt inside her.

She released a strangled cry, but it quickly transformed into a breathy sigh. “Yes,” she hissed. My hands gripped her hips as I fucked her from behind, each thrust deeper than the last.

It took several strokes for me to perfect a rhythm. Only the sounds of her moans and clenching of her cunt guided me, but I finally figured her out.

“Oh God, Till!”

I bent down and raked my teeth over her shoulder, and it must have changed my angle because one thrust later—without the use of hands—I claimed Eliza Reynolds final first.

And every. Single. One. Of her lasts.

“HEY,” I SAID, PULLING THE door open.

“Wow. You look beautiful,” Derrick lied, leaning in to give me a hug.

I looked like hell. My lips were swollen, and there were bags under my eyes from staying up all night with Till. I smiled at the memory.

“Thanks.” I stepped away, allowing him space to come inside.

“You ready to go?”

“Umm . . .” I stalled.

Why the hell was I nervous? I had zero feelings for Derrick, but the butterflies still threatened to overtake me. I was so horrible at confrontation. I would have much rather just avoided Derrick than have this conversation with him, but I sure as hell didn’t want Till to do it.

“Can you give me a second?” I retreated to my bedroom.

I needed a little encouragement of the Till Page variety. I looked up at the ceiling and whispered his name. He didn’t respond, so I walked over to the wall and gently knocked.

“Hey,” I called out, but it wasn’t Till’s attention I gained.

“You okay?” Derrick asked as he rounded the corner to my room.

“Yeah. Sorry. I, um . . .” Again with the stalling.

“What’s going on, Eliza?” He stared at me with genuine concern.

I felt like an ass for making him worry. It wasn’t like I was breaking up with him. We had been on one date—two if the Chinese food from the night before counted. I wasn’t breaking his heart. I was simply informing him that I would no longer like to see him—in any capacity.

“I’m fine. Sorry. I’m just nervous. Look, some things have changed since last night, and I’m not going to be able to go out with you tonight . . . or, well, ever.” I gave him a tense smile and an apologetic shrug.

“Oh,” he said, snapping his head back in surprise. “Can you at least tell me what changed? You seemed pretty excited about going out last night.”

Clearly, I had been on a different date than Derrick had, because excited was not an adjective I would used to describe how I’d felt.

“Um . . . it’s just . . . Till came over, and we’ve decided to give a real relationship a try.”

I couldn’t be certain that he’d heard anything after I’d said Till’s name. His eyes had immediately grown dark.

“Page?” he growled. “Did you fuck him?”

I was shocked by his transformation, but not enough to keep my mouth shut. “I’m pretty sure that’s none of your damn business.”

“You did.” He nodded then laughed. “He fuck you on that bed?” He reached down and snatched the blanket off as if the sheets would reveal the proof.

I could have dealt with him acting like a dick, but there was something in his tone that prickled the hair on the back of my neck. Everything suddenly felt wrong, and my eyes flashed to the door for an escape.

“You need to leave.”

“So let me get this straight. You’re choosing that broke-ass wannabe over . . .
me?
” He pointed to his chest as he took a menacing step forward that forced me to back against the wall.

“Um, no. I just don’t think this is going to work out.” I inched toward the door.

“Bullshit!” he shouted, leaning close to my face and placing a hand next to my head against the wall. His proximity was intimidating, but it was the absence of emotion in his eyes that sent the red flags flying.

“Backup,” I said with a shaky voice.

“Yes. Let’s.” He laughed. “Let’s back up to when I asked you out, and maybe this time, you tell me the goddamn truth about your relationship with Till fucking Page.” He bit out his name like it burned on his tongue.

“I didn’t have a relationship with Till when you asked me out. We were just friends.”

“Liar!” he violently roared, spit flying from his mouth.

I glanced up at the ceiling. Yeah, maybe staying in my bedroom was a better course of action. At least Till could hear if things went sour.

“Please leave.” I tried to keep my voice steady, but I failed when a scary smile crept across his face.

He leaned in closer, inhaling deeply as he dragged his nose up my neck. “Where’s your boyfriend now?”

“Upstairs. He’s waiting on me. Let’s not make him come down here.” I played innocent, but Derrick knew that it was a threat. And it
absolutely
was
.

His body tightened, and he immediately stepped away. I released a relieved breath, but it was entirely premature, because not even a second later, his fist landed hard against my face. My head snapped to the side as I fell over and collapsed against my easel before crashing to the floor.

“You think I’m fucking afraid of him?”

I had but one response. “Till!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, banging my hands against the wall. They were stilled as another fist landed against my cheek. My mind lagged as I tried to remain conscious. I needed help, and I knew he was only one paper-thin wall away.

“Till! Help me!” I shouted again, but a boot under my chin silenced any further cries.

“Till! Wake up. Till!”

I felt Quarry shaking my shoulders, but I could barely make out his words. I opened my eyes and saw his mouth moving, but he sounded a million miles away.

“Get up. Something’s wrong with Eliza.” His voice began to drift into clarity.

“What?” I jumped to my feet at the very mention of her name.

“She was screaming for help, so Flint took off and went down there. He told me to wake you up.”

Without another word, I rushed from my room, and just before I hit the front door, I heard a crash in Eliza’s apartment.

“Stay here,” I ordered, taking off down the stairs.

When I rounded the corner, I saw Eliza’s door wide open and heard a commotion. At a dead sprint, I rushed inside without a single fear of what I would encounter. She was in there. That alone was enough to force me into the pits of hell.

“You Page boys really are fucking stupid! You think you can take me?” Bailey yelled from on top of Flint’s chest, raining punches over his face.

Flint’s hands were raised defensively, but they did little good.

I dived across the room, catching Derrick off guard and knocking him to the floor. I had been livid when I’d seen him hit Flint, but nothing in my rough life could have prepared me for the way I felt when I lifted my eyes to find Eliza beaten, bloody, and curled into a ball in the corner of the room. Her gaze met mine and the dam broke as tears rushed from her eyes. Her body bucked as a sob tore from her throat. It didn’t take long to piece together the situation in front of me.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, knowing exactly what I needed to hear.

As soon as the words cleared her lips, my mind checked out completely. Murder and rage quickly filled the empty space it had left behind.

Derrick was just rising to his feet when I threw the hardest punch of my life. It was packed with more than simple determination to win a fight. It was packed with raw and visceral fury.

My knuckles cracked as they landed on his face. I also felt his cheekbone shatter under the blow, and it fueled me forward. Not a word was spoken by anyone in the room as my left hook landed hard on his kidney. He doubled over right in time for my uppercut to snap his head back. His legs were at least smart, because they carried him away from me as they fought to stay underneath him.

I charged after him, nowhere near done yet.

“You fucking piece of shit,” I growled, dodging his half-assed attempt at a blow.

“Fuck you. Enjoy my sloppy seconds.” He laughed with false confidence before spitting blood onto the floor.

I cracked my neck. I knew he was lying; he’d never had her. But the poor bastard actually thought he had gotten something from her and, in turn, something from me. He might have briefly touched what was mine, but he’d never
had
even a tiny morsel of Eliza Reynolds.

I focused to keep my eyes off her, knowing that one more glance would ensure that Bailey ended the night in a morgue. I needed to get to her, but not until he paid.

“See, clearly, you got confused somewhere.” I stepped forward, slamming a fist into his mouth. “That woman you just put your hands on has been mine since she took her first breath of air on this Earth.”

I threw a right he surprisingly dodged, but I followed it up with a quick left, knocking him to his ass. Then I lowered myself over him, assuming the same position he’d had on Flint. Grabbing his throat, I cut off his airway. His arms began to wildly seek out contact, but they only ended up sailing through the empty air. His eyes were bulging as he turned red.

“And last night, I finally claimed her once and for all. That date you went on was
never
about you. It was always about
me.
All you got was an angry woman trying to make me hurt. But make no mistake—every single time she looked at you, touched you, or even spoke to you, it was always”—I leaned in as close as I could get—“
me!
”

With that last word, I finished it. Punch after punch, I gave him tenfold anything he could have ever dished out. My vision tunneled as he went limp under me. His head flopped back and forth with every slam. Blood poured from his eyes and mouth, but I was physically unable to stop.

“That’s enough, Till. Come on.” Flint wrapped his arms around my shoulders pulling me backwards, but I kept going.

I couldn’t hit Derrick hard enough to give myself any kind of satisfaction. Not after I’d seen her like that. My arms continued flailing as Flint dragged me to my feet.

“She was always mine!” I roared at Bailey’s unconscious body. “Mine!” I landed a kick to his shoulder and a stomp to his stomach before Flint hauled me out of range.

“Fucking stop! You’re going to kill him!” he yelled, struggling to get me under control. “Goddammit, Till. Chill out and go take care of Eliza.”

At the mention of her name, the blinding rage began to ebb from my system.
Eliza.

“Eliza?” I called when I didn’t see her in the corner anymore. “Doodle?” I yelled as Flint dropped his hands, finally convinced I wasn’t after that piece of shit, Bailey, anymore. “Eliza!”