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The room we’re in is dark, with only the light of the moon through the window. So when I pull away and take her hands with mine, I can barely make out her perfect blue eyes.
“Then leave with me,” I plead. “Let’s go right now, Briar.”
“I can’t,” she cries.
I press my lips to hers. “Yes, you can. You don’t belong to him.”
“Who do I belong to, Caleb? You?” she cries.
“No, Briar. You belong to you. This is your choice. Your call. Even if you don’t come with me, don’t stay with him. He doesn’t appreciate how beautiful and how smart you are. You deserve so much more than him.”
She hiccups on a sob and buries her face in my chest again. “Why would you wait for me?”
Suddenly, that stupid ultimatum I thought I could give her floats away on a breeze. I could never force her to choose. I love her too much.
“I’ll wait forever, Briar,” I mumble against her hair.
“I don’t deserve you,” she whispers.
Pulling her face back in my hands, I stare into her eyes through the darkness. “You deserve more than me. You deserve everything, and if you came with me, I’d spend the rest of our lives making you as happy as I possibly can.”
Sliding her hand through the hair at the back of my head, she pulls me in for a kiss, mumbling against my mouth, “I love you.”
I try to mutter my reply, but our kiss grows too heated, too fast. I wrap my arms around her waist, holding her against me. Hope courses through my veins. She loves me. Everything is going to work out.
Lifting her off the floor, her legs wrap around me as I carry her to the bed. When I lay her on the mattress, she hums into my mouth.
In the back of my mind, I realize I should have locked the door. I was too focused on her to care. I thought I was invincible.
But when the door flies open, and the room is bathed in light from the hallway, I know the dream I had in my hand was too fleeting to hold on to.
“I fucking knew it!” Sean bellows as he marches angrily into the room. His hand latches around the back of my shirt and hauls me off the bed. I stare in shock at Briar, concerned only for her, when a fist pummels against my chin.
I stumble backward, hitting a wall as pain radiates through my skull.
“Sean!” she screams, and I open my eyes to see her reaching for his arm to hold it back from swinging again. Then everything happens in slow motion when he turns and slaps her so hard across the face that she flies to the floor.
Burning hot rage courses through my veins. My ears begin to buzz as my vision goes blurry.
Lunging from the wall, I fly toward him. I lose focus as I close my hands around his throat and slam him against the wall. My fist flies, connecting with his face. I don’t feel the pain in my hand. At the moment, I don’t feel anything.
There’s a commotion down the hallway, and a foreboding feeling of dread settles in my stomach. I’m fucked.
A crowd of guys burst into the room, finding me holding Sean against the wall. His face is bleeding. My hand is bleeding, and Briar is crying.
They won’t give me an ounce of mercy, and I don’t expect them to.
Hands close around my arms as someone places me in a choke hold, forcing me to the floor.
“Take him outside. I don’t want to get blood on the carpet,” Sean mutters from above me.
“Stop!” Briar screams.
When I hear her voice, I try to fight them off, but it’s useless. There are too many of them, and with alcohol coursing through their veins, they have no restraint. To them, I’m the enemy—thehome-wrecker. It’s not just that I’ve broken some code or done something wrong, but these guys have seen me as different since I got here.
And now I’ll be punished for it.
I’m manhandled by at least six guys as they drag me out of the house and into the yard.
