And I didn’t feel one ounce of shame over it, either.
I smiled at him, feeling proud of myself for telling him. I knew Hunter would be ecstatic about it, too. This was what he wanted—demanded—and I didn’t have to understand why that was. It mattered to Hunter, therefore it mattered to me.
Mom buried her face into her hands, looking exhausted as Kurt continued to stare at me like he wanted to either shout at me or strangle me. His hands balled into fists, and he looked so menacing sitting there, broad chested, muscled, his huge frame dominating us girls, and he knew it, too, had used his frame to intimidate us on numerous occasions.
Kurt was a big bully.
And I had to stop focusing on the soft sides to him because it made me unreasonably empathetic to him.
“You’re going to end up in a fucking body bag,” he whispered to me suddenly, his voice solemn and harsh. “Just you wait, Skye, for that moment to come when you’re staring into the eyes of death and thinking back to the countless times you could have chosen a different path.”
Mom’s shoulders shook as she wept.
I sat there, unflinching, staring back at him, unwilling to let him see me splinter from his words.
“And that savage,” he continued, smirking darkly now, “I’m going to take great pleasure when I hear he’s bit the fucking dust, and I don’t think that’s going to be long from now, baby girl. You just fucking wait.”
My heart dropped.
Emotion flooded my eyes.
I had reached my limit.
I couldn’t be here another second.
I jumped to my feet. “Fuck you, Kurt!”
“See how she speaks to us now?” he ranted to Mom with that smirk. “Like one ofthem. Where did our girl go, Maddie?”
“I’m right here!” I shrieked back, face burning as I pointed at him. “But you’re so obsessed with who I used to be, you never wanted to know me in the now!”
He stood up, glowering at me as he spat, “You enjoy fucking two men? We didn’t raise a fucking whore, Skye—”
Tears slid down my cheeks. “How fucking dare you call me that!”
“Didn’t you know?” His face looked thunderous, the rage unlike anything I’d ever seen in him before. “That’s howeveryonesees you, Skye!”
My heart hurt so bad.
Fuck him.
Fuck him.
“I’m never coming back here!” I cried out, trembling everywhere. “I’m DONE with you, Kurt!”
I raced to get out of there and he followed, hot on my heels, screaming at me to stop. “You don’t need him! You don’t need to go back there, Skye! Stop, fucking STOP!”
Mom’s wails mingled with his screaming and my panting breaths as I slid into my shoes, feeling his hand at my arm. I brushed his hand away, but he held tighter, forcing me to turn to look up at him. His eyes bore into mine, his face twisted with emotion and desperation as he continued. “You go and you die, Skye! Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next fucking month—but it’s going to fucking happen! Please, Skye—”
“Let me go!” I hollered, feeling his fingers digging deep into my skin. “Kurt, let go!”
He shook me, looking wild, spitting saliva as he roared, “STAY!”
The door opened just then, and Jesse stood on the threshold, looking about ready to kill Kurt. “Hey fuckface, let her go!”
Kurt’s fingers loosened and I managed to wriggle out of his grip as I hurried past Jesse and down the porch steps. Jesse didn’t immediately follow. He was somewhere behind me, maybe still in the house, I didn’t know. I didn’t have it in me to look back and see them or know how Kurt was reacting to his presence. I was shaking badly. My adrenaline was through the roof as I hurried down the trail, my legs moving on their own. I wasn’t thinking straight. I knew I should have returned to the truck, but I wound up on the Dawes porch, ringing the doorbell like a madwoman as tears streamed down my face.
When Hunter’s mom opened the door, I practically fell into her arms.