his grey eyes pinning mine with warning.
Once he was satisfied that I would stay silent, he pulled his hand away and whispered, “Just watch.”
The first strike happened, a loud crack that slicked the air and made me jump in place.
My head snapped around to see Callan’s body tense, his voice so utterly silent as a red streak bloomed across his back.
I couldn’t see if the strike had broken the skin, there was no obvious blood, but then the whip struck him again and his body trembled for only a second.
Anger flooded me, my hands clenching into fists with each new strike against his body. After the fifth, blood seeped from his skin. Not a lot, but enough that I knew he was hurting.
Franklin must have sensed my rage because he stepped up behind me to grab my wrist and hold me in place.
Quietly, he whispered.
“We hate that he does this. Every one of us. But it’s the only thing that focuses him enough to fight. Every strike of that whip drives intense anger into him. It’s a demon he can’t escape. One that you caused.”
No. They could all fuck off. I didn’t do this.
Another few strikes and the asshole whipping Callan finally backed off,
Callan’s body was so eerily still before his biceps flexed and he pulled himself up on that bar. Over and over, every muscle in his body tense as blood seeped down his back.
What kind of strength did it take to be able to endure the whip only to use your body in such a way?
I knew that strength. I’d tasted it. And I’d also known the amount of restraint it had taken him to fuck me senseless while keeping himself from letting go entirely.
His arms shook as he continued the pull-ups, but eventually Jacob demanded he stop.
“That’s enough, Callan. We’re done here.”
Franklin dragged me from the gym before Callan stopped, his steps a clipped pace as he led me farther away.
“I didn’t cause that. Whatever the fuck that was. I didn’t do that to him.”
He grinned, but it was cruelty that bled from his lips.
“You didn’t know you caused that. You were too wrapped up in being a raging brat that you never noticed when he was injured. But it was your complaints that caused it. Your lies. This was the punishment your father demanded when Callan supposedly misbehaved. It started with a belt with he was seven. And when he was too big for that to affect him, it became a whip.”
Tears pricked at my eyes. My mind grasping onto the scars across his back while refusing to believe I was the reason they were there.
Hating the way my voice shook, I asked, “Why did you want me to see that? There’s nothing I can do to change the past.”
“No,” he snapped, “there’s not. But you can certainly stop what’s going on in the present. You’ll destroy him, Lisbeth. Just like you’ve always done.”
My fingernails were cutting into my palms from how hard I fisted my hands.
“Then let me go. Open the fucking doors, and I’ll run out of here.”
A shake of his head.
“I can’t do that, and you know it. So the only thing you can do is whatever it takes to make him push you away. Stop fucking him. Stop doing whatever it is you do to make him want you so much.”
Like I had any control of it. This entire family was insane.
“Let’s go,” he demanded before walking off.
“Where are we going?”
Turning back to me, he stared at me with pure hatred behind his grey eyes.
“To the family suites. That’s where Callan wanted you waiting before I interceded and had you brought here.”
Storming up to me, he stopped when we were nose to nose.
“And don’t you say a fucking word about what you saw. He fights tomorrow, and there’s nobody here who can stop him. One word from you and he’ll be thrown off. You need to understand that if he loses that fight, it’ll mean he’s dead. The pit isn’t a normal ring. Two men walk in and only one walks out again.”
My body stilled, shock tearing through me with cold fury.
“They fight to the death?”
Franklin nodded his head, his expression urgent and serious.
“Now you understand why he needs to be focused. If you do anything to throw him off, it’ll be the last anybody sees of him.”
He began to walk away again, but I refused to follow, a knot caught in my throat I couldn’t force down.
I didn’t want to be