Glass Heart Hero: A Dark High School Romance by Lindsey Iler (free ebook reader for iphone .TXT) 📕

this. You seem like a girl who wants to be romanced.” When he faces me, his grin curdles my blood. There’s no doubt about the kind of evil aimed at me right now. My fear releases in a feral scream.

Music blares through the room, making the roar from my mouth useless, but I don’t stop.

“Someone’s coming out of it,” Declan purrs in my ear. His hands disappear between our bodies, and my dress is ripped. “I’m going to need you to feel this.” He cups my vagina, and my stomach recoils, but as it does, I feel it. The tingling in my body is gone. I’m no longer being held to the mattress by some invisible force.

Declan grabs my chin, forcing my face to his. His tongue slides up my jaw, tasting me in a way no one has. I clutch my stomach. If I don’t move too much, I’ll have enough energy to fight.

Declan shifts and wiggles until his dress pants are at his ankles. Once he frees himself, I know it’s done for. The second my underwear is ripped from my body, I’m certain this is it.

If you don’t move, Delaney, this will define you and every other moment you have yet to experience. Falling in love will never be easy. Walking alone, impossible. It’s time to fucking fight.

The tip of his penis flicks against me. As he’s too occupied and consumed with the realization he’s finally won, he doesn’t notice my hand stretching at an impossible angle. My fingers finally wrap around the metal base of a Victorian-style lamp. It’s cold and smooth in my grasp. Squeezing it tightly, I smash it into the side of his head. His body falls away from mine, loosening the vice he has on my chest.

“You bitch!” He stumbles to his feet. A slow drip of blood slides down his temple.

He lunges at me. A loud, wood-splintering sound echoes through the room, replaced seconds later with the sound of bone crushing bone.

“You’re back there, aren’t you?” Breaker says, jerking me to the present. “Living in the past will only give life to the ghosts we’d rather keep buried.”

“What we did. Who I became in that room, who I watched you become, that scares me more than anything.” Fighting my tears is useless. They come with a vengeance and a whole lot of nightmares. “I didn’t hate seeing the blood rushing from his body. I felt relieved.”

“I think that’s how you’re supposed to feel, baby.”

“No, it’s not. I don’t live in your world where rules don’t matter. You take care of things in a way I’ll never understand. That’s not who I am. I don’t follow the same code of conduct.”

“That night you did, though.”

“And I became a killer because of it. I reveled in watching the life fade from his eyes. What does that make me?”

“Delaney, if you’re looking for some sort of remorse from me for what I did, what we did, you will never find it. I don’t apologize for protecting the most precious things in my life, and you are one of them. What happened to Declan is a cumulation of really bad decisions by one man, and he found the end of a blade.”

“But . . .” I try to argue, but he holds up his hand.

“We do what we have to do, Delaney. Always. What I did, what we did, is what we had to do.”

“Did we, though?” A moral dilemma is what my mother calls it.

The night everything happened, knowing Declan could never lay his slimy hands on another girl gave me a sense of relief. Once the dust settled, I started questioning if killing him had been the only option. If he’d have gotten what he deserved at the hands of the law, our hands wouldn’t have been bloodied and bruised.

“I think we can both agree Declan Dumas got what he deserved.” Breaker’s clenched jaw proves he’s struggling to understand where I’m coming from.

“You’re okay with it, Breaker. You can walk through life like it doesn’t matter because that’s who you are. The ends justify the means in your world. I’m not programmed like you. Like any of you. We. Killed. A. Man.”

“A man who almost stole the one thing from you that is sacred and is yours to give away freely. A man who played a large part in almost ruining the most important people in our lives.”

“When you say it like that . . .” I shake my head, completely understanding the logic, yet fighting my own demons at the same time.

“How bad was it, Delaney, before I got into that room?” he asks. “All I know is everything after.”

“It was so dark. There was only enough light to see his face hovering over me. I remember closing my eyes, wishing it all away, hoping for the quiet. It only came with a loud clack of splintering wood. It came with you.” My chest aches with fear that no longer should be there, but remains, loudly reminding me of what I’ve endured.

“Hearing you”— he pauses, collecting himself before continuing—“hearing your experience that night. I knew it was bad. I’m far too aware of what happened, but those words you strung together painted a far more horrific picture than I remember experiencing. I’m sorry if I don’t feel guilty for what I did to Declan.”

“You were so focused on saving me, you couldn’t see it from my eyes.” I slide off the mattress and cross the room, putting a little distance between us. “I’m not asking for your guilt, but this is why I ran away. I don’t know if I’m made of strong enough skin and bones to handle your world.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that, Delaney?” He shuffles over to me, pressing his chest into mine until my spine hits the wall. “I’m fully in. You may as well have tattooed your name on my damn heart, baby, because no matter what happens, even when