Shattered Legacy : A Dark Bully Romance (Gravestone Elite Book 1) by Caitlyn Dare (red seas under red skies TXT) 📕

"Nothin'," he spits, and this time when he lunges, I'm not as fast, and his knuckles connect with my jaw, snapping my head to the side as my face burns red hot and pain lances down my spine.

I barely get a chance to catch my breath before more fists rain down on me. Cade focuses on my face, because he's a twisted motherfucker and will want to be the one to claim the visible evidence of this night, while Ashton focuses on my torso, as if his main goal is to crack every single rib.

I give it everything I have, but the moment Ashton stepped up to the plate, I knew the odds weren't in my favor, and the second a massive cheer booms from the crowd, it’s clear my job just got a hell of a lot harder.

Glancing to my left, I find what I feared: Alex is out cold on the muddy, wet ground at my feet, while Brandon and Tim take a step back.

"One down, one to go," Cade taunts. "And it's five against one. How are you fairing your chances, Easton?"

"Fuck. You," I spit, spraying his face in blood and spittle.

The sick cunt doesn't even bother to wipe it away as he closes the space between us. He nods his chin over my shoulder, and I sense the others move behind me until I'm in the middle of their fucked-up circle.

Silence falls around me as the crowd watches, waiting to see what's going to happen next. Movement over Cade's shoulder catches my eye, and once I manage to focus, I find Mia.

All the breath rushes from my lungs at the devastated look on her face and the tear tracks down her cheeks as she stares at me.

Fuck. Even crying, she’s beautiful.

That's the last thought I manage to get in before someone's fist lands in my lower back and I fall forward onto my knees, right before Cade.

"Time to bow to your fucking king, asshole." Cade's foot lands in the center of my chest, putting enough force behind it that I have no choice but to crash to the ground, my shoulder smarting as I land on it.

"I'm not cowering to you, Kingsley." I jump back up and fly at him, my fist connecting with his nose with a loud crunch. That one sound momentarily makes the pain searing through my body worth it.

Blood pours down his face and into his mouth. He spits a load out, shaking his head at me. "Cunt," he roars before both he and Ashton strike again.

Hit after hit rains down on every inch of my body they can reach. The crowd goes wild, but after a while, all the noise and chaos surrounding me begins to quiet, probably my body's way of telling me this is coming to an end, and not in the way I hoped it would.

Two pairs of hands wrap around my upper arms, and I’m hauled back against two warm bodies, giving Cade and Ashton free shots without me fighting back.

I jolt against their hold, my quickly depleting energy is nothing compared to their strength. The darkness is starting to set in, and I know that soon, Cade is going to get exactly what he wants: me in a bloody pile on the ground at his feet.

Their fists continue as my knees start to buckle under my weight. Still I try to fight back, but it's futile.

I'd lost this fight long ago, and it's time I accept the inevitable.

The pain lessens, and I start to think it's over, but seconds later, a stronger punch snaps my head to the side. Stars flash in my vision as I rely even more on the two guys taking my weight.

Two more brutal punches land before Ashton's name being called rings through my ears. Seconds later, everything goes black.

The pain is the only thing I can focus on. It's like when I was seven and fell off my bike, breaking my leg in two places. Only this time, the pain isn't just in my leg. It's in every single inch of my body. I swear to fucking God that even my toenails hurt.

But that all seems to vanish when she touches me.

Her fingertips gently run down my cheek as she inspects me for wounds.

Mia

I want to say her name, but nothing works. I can't even part my lips.

I put everything I have into moving my arm to reach for her. To feel her warmth against my skin. To know that she's really here.

Tell me all of this is a nightmare, I want to beg.

This can't be real. I can't really be part of this fucked-up world that I know nothing about. I'm a Danforth. My dad is a Danforth, right?

But if this is real, and Marcus is my grandfather, then who is…

Something soft and warm presses against my bottom lip, and all thoughts fall from my head.

She's fixing me.

She's here.

It comes as some comfort, but the fact that I've got these wounds in the first place means that there's a chance it's real.

Fuck.

My head spins and my body remains motionless as I draw support from her tender touch. I wish she'd talk to me. That she’d explain what really happened tonight. Because the reality has to be different. It has to be.

I feel myself fading, and I try to claw to reality to keep me here with her. I don't want to succumb to the darkness where I'll be alone. Cold. Confused.

I want her to tell me that everything is okay, normal, and that my life as I know it isn't completely over.

That I'm not basically owned by Cade Kingsley and his asshole friends who chanted all that Latin at me earlier, watching as that fucker dragged a knife across my skin and forced me to drink out of a chalice.

It can't be real.

I awake with a start, ripping my eyes open to find that I'm shrouded in darkness and that the pain I thought I’d dreamed about