Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,52

on his cheek bone.

His scream was driven into a grunt as I lit into him again and again. One side and then the other, until Kyle pulled me away, holding my upper arms back in a vice grip.

“You probably shouldn’t kill him, Parker,” Kyle drawled loud enough so that I could hear him above my jagged breath and Landry could start to fear what the end result of all of this was going to be.

Shrugging him off, I straightened my shirt, never taking my eyes off Landry. I’d made a mess of his face, a cracked lip and cheek, and I knew that the crazed smile on my face must’ve been a sight to behold. But I’d been carefully walking the line between normal and psychopath for years. It felt good to step over that line every once in a while.

“Is this all still a game to you? Are you still thinking about her underwear now, you sick fucker?” I dragged in a lungful of air, not expecting more than the moan he returned. “We’re going to do this a bit longer. And then maybe I’ll let you walk out the door. But so help me…” I lunged forward to grab him again and shook him so hard that his neck snapped backwards. “If you so much as think her name again, I will fucking end you.”

Landry huffed out a breath, sputtering through his blood-tinged spit. “You don’t deserve her…”

I smiled and crouched down in front of him. The hanging lamp swaying above my head painted the basement in a macabre light. I was sure Landry was shitting himself. “I don’t care that I don’t deserve her. She’s mine. And this…this is me protecting what’s mine. Now let’s get started so I can get on with my life and get back my girl.”

The look of hate and jealously he threw me let me know that he still hadn’t gotten the message.

I laid a few more punches to his face for fun, and then I took a knife out of my pocket and held it right above his groin.

“What-what are you doing?” he stammered, a lisp to his words, thanks to the teeth that were missing.

“Giving you a reminder of what would be the first to go if you ever get close to Everly again.” With those words, I sliced right above his dick, deep enough to scar, ensuring that he would be reminded of me and my warning for the rest of his life. I savored the screams filling the air.

I must have gone a bit too far, because he passed out from the pain, slumping over in his chair.

I straightened up and wiped my knife off on his pant leg. I glanced over at my teammates, and they looked a little bit scared of me.

Good. They’d make sure to stay away from Everly as well.

“You guys can get this cleaned up?” I asked, and all of them nodded quickly. “See you at weights tomorrow.”

I left the room, and I was struck by just how gone I was.

There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Everly James. My fate lay in her hands. I wanted to sink into her drowning softness and never recover. She was pure and good and everything I needed to be happy.

It was time to get back to Everly and put the next phase of my plan into action.

17

Everly

Lane had just dropped off my phone, and there were a million messages and voicemails waiting for me, which was rare because usually the only person to ever use my number was Lane…or my mother when she got particularly drunk and needed money from me. I’d spent the last hour trying to decide if I should go back to my dorm or not, but finally I’d given up and just decided to go through my phone.

I cringed when I saw that there were ten texts and five voicemails Landry had dared to leave me after what he did. I deleted them all without listening to them, knowing that I should probably keep them for evidence or something, but just wanting to remove everything about him from my life so I didn’t have to think about it.

The next message I saw was from Caiden. I didn’t know how he’d gotten my new number, but I’d never forget Caiden’s number.

Want to get breakfast?

A sick feeling bubbled up inside of me. I didn’t want to get breakfast with him, but did I owe him breakfast? Were we even now, or was I