Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I have to fight to keep my head tilted up towards him. Everything in me is screaming to submit and screaming to run from this room just to get away from him. However, Drake seems unfazed by him, st upidly, probably because he has liquid courage running through his veins and an ego to back it. Drake likes to pretend he is untouchable because his father is a cop. Little does Drake know, Ethan does not fear cops either. His family owns them. I’d be shocked if his father tried to bail him out of this mess, and knowing his father, he wouldn’t be willing to lay down his life for his embarrassment of a son.

“Why is her lip bleeding and her face swollen?” he asks, his voice cold and detached, yet his eyes are trained on Drake.

I flinch at the coldness in his voice. I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. It feels like so long ago that he was warm to me. Those warm feelings have now hardened into something else, and it’s all my fault. He’s never going to forgive me and I know that even as I want to beg him for his forgiveness. I won’t, but that doesn’t make the feeling go away.

“The boyfriend,” the security officer explains, holding up a tablet with the surveillance footage. It’s paused, but I can see Drake and me clearly. “I’ve got the whole thing recorded if you want to hand it over to the police,” the security guard states. Drake snorts a laugh, and everyone’s attention is drawn to him. “Please, by all means, call the police,” Drake snickers. Drake is playing with fire.

“Drake, shut it,” I warn him. He scoffs at me and rolls his eyes.

“Police won’t touch me, Rose. You know that,” Drake sneers at me.

“Are you sure about that now your father has disowned you?” I add, remembering the last time that his father bailed me out but left his son to rot, calling him an embarrassment. It took me three days to come up with the money to bail Drake out. He refused to tell me where my suppressants were hidden unless I did, and going into heat in the city we live in would have been a disaster.

Drake quiets down, instead sitting back further in his chair and scooting down it slightly, almost as if he is bored. Ethan doesn’t even spare him a glance. Instead, he is too focused on the screen the security guard is showing him. “Does it have

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volume?” Ethan asks. The man nods.

“Rewind it. I want to hear what they’re talking about,” Ethan tells him.

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The security guard fiddles with the touch screen and then presses the play button, and I look away. I don’t want to see it, I’ve already lived it, and I don’t want to see Ethan’s face when he sees how Drake has treated me, how I let Drake treat me. Go back to my teenage years, and I wouldn’t have put up with someone like Drake, knowing Ethan and his brother had my back. How things have changed, and the things desperation will drive you to, what you’d endure just to survive.

Usually, I wouldn’t care what people think of mine and Drake’s relationship, but for some reason, with Ethan’s scrutinizing gaze, I feel ashamed about what has become of me.

As the footage plays, I hear my own voice pleading with Drake, and shame floods through me. “I don’t want to do this, Drake. Something feels off. It’s too easy.”

He dismisses me with a sneer. “You’re just being paranoid. Now get moving.”

Ethan’s eyes flick to me briefly, then back to the screen, and I drop my gaze to the floor as he watches the footage, his expression unreadable, but I can feel his anger growing stronger by the second. My face grows hot with embarrassment as the scene plays out, revealing the moment Drake punched me and forced me through the fence.

“To be fair, it looks like he forced her through the fence,” the officer comments. “See, she tried to leave.”

As the video continues, the sound of Drake’s blow and his vicious words fill the air. I can’t help but feel exposed, my most vulnerable moments playing out for everyone to see. Not just everyone, but the person who hates me most. The person who once upon a time, I loved, even though he didn’t love me back. My face feels so hot.

It’s more than I can take, and I wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole, just so that I could get away from him.

Ethan turns off the tablet and hands it over to the guard. The blood loss from my leg wound makes my head swim, and I struggle to stay conscious. Yet, fear somehow manages to keep me awake as my eyes move between Ethan and the security officers.

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Unfortunately, my fear peaks when Drake regains his bravado and starts mouthing off. “If you let us go, she’ll suck your dic ks,” he says with a smirk. “She’s a f ucking pro at it.”

The officers exchange disgusted looks, and Ethan raises an eyebrow. Crossing his arms over his broad chest as his lips tilt slightly. He looks over at me and I wish that I could tell Drake to shut up. He doesn’t know who he is speaking to and if he did. I doubt it would make much difference.

“Will she now?” His words are spoken slowly, and I can almost hear the humor there. There’s a darkness to his question, and my heart beats faster as Ethan looks

over at me.

Drake, relentless in his cruelty, turns to me. “Tell him, Rose. You’ll suck his d ick.” He looks back to Ethan. “You can f uck her a ss for all I care. S hit, run a train on her if you want. The b itch deserves it for not keeping her mouth shut. She doesn’t listen very well, and I’ll be sure to take care of her when we get home.”