name a small whisper on his cracked lips. Auro smiled at his brother, incisors flashing.
“You have plans for her, I assume?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of the door that held Talon. They dropped their arms. There was no need to physically touch when their sadistic intent was so close, so perfect, that they were actually one instead of two beings.
“Oh, yes,” he replied softly, his voice a hiss between his sharp teeth. Auro pushed the door open with a flourish, the approval in his eyes clear as Lyne stepped past him.
“Well, then. Why not test these plans on Talon while we wait?”
“Let’s.”
And together they stepped into the room.
The door closed with a soft whoosh.
Chapter 3
Jamie flinched as the door shut with a slam. She choked down the familiar tears and sagged, shoulders curling defensively. The fighting wasn’t new to her and neither was the pain it caused—both physically and mentally—but that didn’t mean it hurt any less every time.
Her hand curled around the sponge she held. She had been cleaning up the beer Chris had spilled, but it hadn’t been his fault. It had been hers. Everything was, just like Chris liked to yell at her. Her heart jerked, chest aching. Her legs were wobbly and her hands were numb.
Turning away from the bright window, the spilled beer, from everything, Jamie threw the sponge to the ground and ran to the bedroom, not even checking to see if his car was still in the driveway. Her heart pounded with pent up pain; it was almost too hard to keep from sobbing.
The door knob was cold under her hand. Just like the room inside. The plain bed sheets were spotless, everything in the room in order. There were no clothes on the floor, nothing to tell anyone that their relationship was a mess, nothing that led people to believe they were anything but a happy couple.
Chris made sure that people knew whom she belonged to. He bragged constantly about the beautiful trophy girlfriend he had, about where her family came from. She gagged, not even making it to the bed before she fell to her knees, arms wrapping around tightly her stomach. He told anyone and everyone who would listen that they were happy— she wondered what would happen if they actually knew what went on behind closed doors?
Jamie shuddered to think about it. Her father hadn’t been much better, but at least his grip hadn’t been as bruising as Chris’s was. She looked at her arms, the yellowing skin white in the glare of the lights. Large glass windows were the only thing protecting her from prying eyes—which wasn’t much. The heated pool outside reflected soft lights and hues into the room. Everything looked like a snowy wonderland—except for the fact that the place was in no way a “wonderland”.
She finally let the tears pooling in her eyes fall.
How long til Chris would be back? She hadn’t heard his truck leave the driveway, though he might’ve tried to walk.. He paced a lot when he was drunk; he liked to move around, to stomp and rage.
Jamie closed her eyes before standing up, trying to breathe calmly. Chris wouldn’t be back til later, so she had enough time. As panic welled fiercely in her heart, Jamie felt an urgency that she hadn’t felt in a long time. She ran to the closet, throwing open the doors.
There should have been a suitcase in there somewhere, under all of the boxes. When Chris had taken her cell phone from her, shutting it off and canceling any previous plans, he had thought that she would be intimidated enough to stay. He hadn’t considered that he should hide the suitcase.
Thankful for his forgetfulness, Jamie found the large black bag and pulled it out. Her shaking hands wrapped around the handle, dragging it to the bed. Setting it on the large, king-size mattress, she looked frantically over her shoulder to see if Chris might be standing there, his fist raised, coming at her.
She started trembling violently. On the other side of the room was another closet, full of their clothes. The expensive designer suits, the well-known brands and jewelry meant nothing to her. When Chris had first started courting her, she had been flattered, wearing them with pride.
Now, the pride was drained from her, the happiness derived from her life. Her mother had known, she thought as she slowly opened the shutter closet. Jamie feared that if she were too loud, Chris