Deep (Heavy Hearts Book 2) by Sarah Duncan (reading tree txt) 📕

me, the fact that I put him in a situation which he’d been working so hard to free himself from, rips my heart in two. Our beautiful happy love bubble burst the moment that thug, Muz, forced us into his car, which led to Ayden snorting drugs and a gun being pointed at my head. That has to take the mother fucking cake!

That gun! I want that gun so I can shove it in Muz’s open mouth and pull the trigger for no other reason than the fact that he hurt my Ayden.

Wait! No!

Not my Ayden. He made that clear when he kicked me out.

Like I said, I am angry as fuck, and I can’t seem to simmer down my rage.

When my arms become heavy from lashing out my fury on anything and everything in my path, I let the pain in my heart take over and crumble to the floor, crying. What I really want to do is set this house on fire and watch it burn to the ground, ideally with Mike still inside. I think of his death daily now, of ways I can inflict pain on him. A quick death won’t be satisfying enough. I think I need to torture him first. Strip away his pride and humiliate him until he’s begging me to stop. Then, maybe I could happily finish the job and rid him from this earth.

Images flash through my head. Some are of Mike’s face and the way he looked almost euphoric as he laid his disgusting, hateful hands on me. Some are images of my hand reaching up and slicing his throat open with a blade. Yes, I like those images. They are my favourite.

“Lexi?”

I jump up instinctively at the sound of my name, the bat in my hand, ready to swing. The room has darkened considerably, and I can only see a man’s silhouette standing in the doorway. The only sound I can hear is the rushing of my blood and the pounding of my heart, my body ready for a fight.

Light suddenly fills the room, and I notice more than one body is standing before me. Instinctively, I take a step back, bat still in the air at the ready.

“Stay back!”

“Lexi. It’s just us.”

“Stay back!” I scream, wishing my eyes would function properly so I can see who’s in front of me.

“Guys, back out of the room. Give her some space.”

I know that voice. I know I know it, so why can’t I make the connection?

The bodies slowly step backwards out of the room, all except one.

“Lexi,” the voice is low and cautious, “it’s okay. It’s just us idiots. You remember us, right? You remember me? We have a Fortnite battle to play.”

My eyes glass over with hot angry tears, while my chest heaves, attempting to gain control of my breathing. I swipe at my eyes with one hand, briefly letting go of my death grip on the bat.

“Lex, its Jar. You know me.”

I blink my eyes, and the red rage fuelled by my anger starts to fade, and in its place is Jared, the boy I grew up with.

My bottom lip quivers, and the fight leaves my body.

“Jared?” A shaky whisper leaves my lips.

“Yeah, Lex, it’s me.” Jared’s face clears in my vision, and I can see his familiar kind blue eyes.

I let the bat fall from my hand and go to step towards my old friend.

“Wait!” Jared holds his hand up. “Don’t move, Lex. I’ll come to you.”

Confused, I follow his eyes to the floor at my feet and the shards of glass and splinters of wood covering every inch of carpet. My bare feet are bleeding, and scratches cover my legs and arms, some freshly bleeding while others are crusted over.

What the fuck have I done?

The crunching of broken glass under foot gains my attention, and I watch Jared take the few steps across the room to where I stand.

“Lex, I’m gonna pick you up and carry you out of here, okay?”

I look up to Jared’s towering height. He’s the tallest of the boys, and just as manly as Ayden, even though there’s a year between them in age. Jared gets a lot of attention from the girls at school, and if he weren’t my close friend, I would probably deem him boyfriend material.

I nod up at him, letting more tears fall from my eyes. I’m so confused. I feel like a fucking freak! I don’t know how I let myself get so out of control. Jesus, how long was I like that? I must have been in Mike’s room for hours since the boys are here now, yet it feels like it was only minutes.

Perhaps I belong in the same hospital as my mum.

Jared wipes the tears from my wet cheeks and then reaches down to lift me in his arms. I curl into him as I’m cradled to his chest, and then he carries me out, stepping over the debris that used to make up Mike’s bedroom.

CHAPTER THREE

Gentle hands make quick work of cleaning up my scrapes, Jared’s face deep in concentration as he glides a warm washcloth over my skin. He is kneeled before me on the beige tiles of my mum’s bathroom floor. I barely notice the chill of the bench-top that Jared placed me on after carrying me downstairs from the destruction I inflicted on Mike’s room because my mind is too consumed with shame.

“That should do it.” Jared declares before tossing the washer in the sink, his blue eyes filled with concerned.

“Thanks,” I whisper, feeling embarrassed at being caught in the rage that saw me trash Mike’s bedroom.

With sympathy etched across his face, Jared gives me a small smile, “It’s okay, Six. Don’t worry about what happened.”

Six is my secret code name from when we were kids. We had turned our names backwards and used the first three letters, thinking we were so cool back then. Alexis turned into Six, Abbey turned into Yeb, Jared