Chapter 30
While Seth takes his time to stare at me in the mirror, my voice finds itself, if only marginally.
“Wh-what are you doing in here?”
He smiles, but it’s not kindness pulling up his mouth; the inward corners of his lips are cruel. “Ooh,” he coos. “I’m sorry. Did I take a wrong turn and end up in the wrong room…?” His brow skirts up, and he tilts his head while squinting. “Or are you in the wrong place at the wrong motherfucking time?”
Fucking predator. Grant has to be right about Seth being a trafficker. A small piece of the terror falls away as I ignore my clammy skin and return his squint.
“I’m in the ladies’ room, right where I should be,” I say through gritted teeth. “And you need to leav–”
“Or what?”
He drops lower, almost to his knees before I can reply and brings his nose to my neck. Cold beads of sweat sprout across my brow, my gasp of fear loud and telltale. His lips brush my skin, and I flinch while angling my head away—a slightly unwise move as it exposes more skin, allowing Seth easier accessibility.
“What are you going to do, huh, Olivia? Look at you.” His hot breath sweeps over my skin again, and I start to tremble. “You’re already frozen, and I haven’t even touched you.” He chuckles, his shoulders shaking with the almost silent sound. “I’m guessing after April, Grant lost his flavor for opinionated women. Shame. I expected more of a figh—”
I’m barely aware of the actions my body takes—of how my spine twists to face Seth or how my nails curl. Those details are weak when stacked up against the impulse to protect myself. Something hot—skin, I think—shreds under my fingernails, and a loud howl from Seth breaks out.
I know from the well-padded room and the commotion outside these bathroom walls, that no one will hear the sound. No one’s attention will be drawn, and as Seth takes a split second to check out the new mark on his face, adrenaline drives me away from him and to my feet.
The stool I was sitting on, flies away, crashing against a wall. With one shoe on, I scurry for the bathroom door, blood roaring in my eardrums.
I only need to make it outside. I only need to make it outside. I only—
Hot pain shoots into the roots of my hair, and I scream. Instinctively, my hands grab onto Seth’s. His grip is strong. Strong enough that despite me fighting to break free by scratching at his knuckles, he drags my body backward and flings me away.
The oxygen in my body is forced out as my back hits the wall. The room spins, and no gasp I take fills my lungs with a sufficient supply. My knees buckle to the floor, and though it’s doubled, I see the door. I hunch over and crawl.
“Stupid bitch. Where you think you’re going?”
Seth’s grunting voice is muffled against the ringing in my ears. He pushes me with his shoe, easily toppling my body to the side. I groan at the throbbing in my scalp and the burn in my lungs.
I want to fight, but unable to catch my breath, I’m limp being forced to my feet. My arm raises to scratch, punch, anything, but I’m slammed straight to the wall, and pinned against it as Seth’s fingers grip around my neck.
There’s pressure. So much pressure, a balloon on the verge of popping could be filling my head. And the pain of my eyes bulging and threatening to rupture out of my eye sockets has panic swelling in my chest. It depletes what little oxygen I have left.
“Feeling a little less prone to getting away, bitch? If you’re ready to stop fighting and start being smart, I’ll stop strangling you.”
The gurgling sound sputtering from my throat must be a yes.
He relaxes his hold, the most sinister sneer on his face as I cough and sputter, my windpipe feeling crushed.
“Now, then,” he grunts. “We have to go; the truck is full and waiting.”
The sickness already burning through my stomach grows as he fixates on my mouth and licks his own.
“Before that, however, let's find out what Grant sees in you.” His mouth crashes onto mine, but this crash is so different from Grant’s.
Grant gives more than he takes, and he builds me up, making me feel beautiful and desperately needed and protected, all at once.
Seth's kiss is dirty, disgusting, stealing the purer parts of me, making bile rise into the back of my throat. Another second, and I'm bound to throw up, the fruity afternotes of my champagne tickling my taste buds. I squirm beneath him, something he seems to enjoy far too much as I feel the corners of his mouth lifting against mine in a smile.
At first I wish I could scream—the terror in me so thick my ears pulse with hollow thuds. Nothing can break it—until Seth’s forearm presses against my sternum and I feel the backing of my pendant indent in my skin.
Grant. The terror ebbs away when thinking of him. He’s out there waiting for me—he’s the man I need to get to and go home with, and I have to defend myself. I draw my leg back and thrust it forward. My heel connects with his shin, and he groans in agony against my mouth, but doesn’t break his connection. If anything, he kisses me harder.
And I have to make that happen. I can’t let another rotten person in my life take me away from everything I love. I’m preparing to bite his bottom lip.
I hope I draw blood. I hope his skin rips off and I’m left with a chunk of flesh in my mouth. I hope it’s the most painful thing he’s ever experienced in life thus far. I’m attempting to open my mouth wider and angle his head just right when—
“One wrong move, Seth. Those were my words. And walking in on this allows me to count all the ways you’re grossly fucking up at the moment.”
Seth’s lips break from mine, and I whimper at Grant’s dark voice.
As he steps closer to us, with a dark glow on his face, my heart beats hard for him. And for a flash, I think about how safe I am—fully protected. Especially, if he keeps his promise about feeding Seth his own intestines.
Why does that sound so wonderful?
I blink the thought away and notice Seth isn’t doing much to move. He’s stopped kissing me, but he doesn’t seem much affected to do anything else. He turns his head to stare at Grant and trails his finger down the side of my face while doing so.
“Some cocky bastard you are, Brexton, to assume I’m in here uninvited. I never did like you.” He presses his weight against me, moving his chest against my breasts.“How does it feel, Grant, never being able to hang on to the women you love?”
“No.” My mouth drops open in horror as I stare at Grant, fully realizing how Seth is trying to spin this. “That’s not—” The racing of my heart ceases at the easy, golden melody of Grant’s laughter.
He tilts his head back, and the sound spills out of his lungs, filling the room. “And that scratch on your face…? Was that part of the foreplay? If so, Olivia’s been lying about some of her preferences.” He stops his tracks in front of us, widening his stance. As the laughter dissolves into embers, what’s left is smolders of hatred flickering in his gaze. “Let her go and walk away.”
“And why would I? Fucking fool,” Seth spits through his gritted teeth. “Everyone steps aside and looks at you like they’re afraid, but do you think they’d do that if they knew you couldn’t even save your ex-girlfriend.”
Grant stands still, no evolving or altering emotion on his face. It’s unstrained, and dare I say, serene. Even my body sinks against the wall, feeling more at ease.
“It’s not about what we were, Seth, but what we’ve become. The people who look at me like they’re afraid do so because they are. And April made her choice. Absolutely, I could have done more, but in the end, I don’t think it would have mattered. She was offended, and how does the passage go? A friend offended is harder to be won than a strong city; and their fortifications are like the bars of a castle.”
“The Book of Proverbs, huh?” Seth’s brow skirts up. “I didn’t take you as a religious man.”
“Oh, I most certainly am not,” Grant says in a scathing way, his eyes hooding over. He lowers his frame and pushes his nose against Seth’s. “Which is why you need to be the one praying.”
Total silence courses thick in the air, with Seth saying nothing, and me, forgetting to blink while staring at Grant, awestruck.
Grant takes a step back, stands up tall and tugs at the hem of his jacket. “Now, you’ll kindly return my Olivia to me and allow us to leave without further harassment.”
“And if I don’t?” Seth sneers.