Read Yours: A Forever After Novella for Free Online

to say this once, so listen fucking closely, precious. You’ve got a choice to make. If you keep your mouth shut, keep what happened here today between us, and find a way to get the fuck out of town within the next six months, I won’t kill your boyfriend. But…” he smiles, drawing out the word, “if you decide to tell my bud that I fucked that pretty little cunt of yours raw, I’ll torture your boyfriend in front of you before I end him, and then I’ll put a bullet between your eyes for good measure.”
     
    Not giving me a second to breathe, let alone think, Spike snarls,
    “Now choose.”
     
    Needless to say, I did what he said and chose. I chose Lyric’s life over my own sanity. I chose my husband’s life over my own, because as of the moment Spike walked out of the clubhouse kitchen to join his brothers, the last ounce of hope and redemption I had been holding onto died.
     
    *****
     
    “Baby,” Lyric murmurs, far closer now than he was before I got lost in my nightmares. “Jesus, you’re fucking shaking. Tell me what’s wrong, Harleigh,” he says, his voice becoming a demand, no longer a suggestion.
     
    “I can’t,” I whisper, for once telling him the truth.
     
    “You can’t or you won’t?”
     
    “I can’t,” I repeat.
     
    “Bullshit,” Lyric spits angrily. “You fucking can, you just don’t want to. There’s a big fucking difference, baby.”
     
    He doesn’t get it, I think, shaking my head sadly. If he did, Lyric would understand that in this case, they are one and the same.
    “I know, but that doesn’t change my answer. If you ever trusted me, please believe that if I could tell you, I would.”
     
    “I’ve always trusted you, Harleigh. There has never been a day I haven’t,” he admits, breaking my heart all over again because I can’t say the same.
     
    As if he’s been struck by lightning, Lyric’s eyes widen, his eyebrows draw together harshly, and he clenches his jaw.
    “Fucking hell,” he hisses. “That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t trust me. For whatever bullshit reason you’ve come up with, you don’t trust me.”
     
    That’s when I snap.
     
    Year of holding in secrets and pain that’s been eating me alive, consuming every shred of goodness left inside me explodes in an instant, and all that’s left in its wake is anger. Soul crushing, bone-deep anger.
     
    “Fuck. You!” I shout. “You wouldn’t know the first thing about how I feel because you weren’t there.”
     
    At this moment, the ramifications of what I’m saying is of no consequence to me. After this, there’s a good chance Lyric will be left as broken as I am, but I can’t find it in myself to care. Not now. Not when his accusation that my reasons behind my lack of trust in him are flippant and insignificant.
     
    “What the hell are you talking about? I’ve always been there for you,” Lyric fires back.
     
    “No. No, you haven’t,” I deny vehemently.
     
    “From the second I laid eyes on you, I’ve taken care of you, Harleigh, and nothing’s changed. I’ll take care of you until the day I die and beyond if I can find a way to make that happen.”
     
    The sincerity in his voice nearly overrides my anger at him. Nearly. But now that I’ve let it loose – let the rage that’s been building free – nothing can restrain it.
     
    “I beg to differ,” I argue. “You weren’t there to take care of me when I needed you most. If I remember correctly, you were at Hounds getting drunk with your brothers when your best friend was busy raping me.”
     
    I don’t give what I’ve said a chance to sink in before continuing. Now that I’ve started, I have to finish. For my own sake, I have to get it all out.
    “You weren’t there afterward when I was washing away the evidence of what he did to me either. When I cried myself to sleep every night for months, you slept through it. You were never there to hold me, tell me everything would be okay, or help me fight the