Page 139 of Firefly
His face when he saw the bruises on my body will haunt me forever.
Pure fucking devastation.
Like somebody reached into his chest and ripped his heart out barehanded.
Now he’s on his knees in the middle of the warehouse floor while Brayden’s men circle him like animals. And they’re destroying him.
Blood pours from Hayden’s mouth every time another fist slams into his face. One of his ribs cracked twenty minutes ago. I heard it. Heard the wet choking sound he made trying to breathe afterward.
Still… he keeps getting back up.
Every fucking time.
“Stay down!" I scream through sobs. “Please, Hayden!”
Because Hayden Marks was born mean—violent and too stubborn to die quietly.
One man kicks him hard enough to send him crashing sideways across the concrete.
“STOP!” I scream, but nobody listens.
Brayden crouches beside me while Hayden coughs blood onto the floor, trying to push himself upright again.
“Why don’t you untie her,” Hayden growls hoarsely. “And fight me yourself like a fucking man.”
Brayden laughs.
“You still think you matter here,” he states, then looks at me with nothing but malice in his eyes.
“You really do inspire devotion,” Brayden muses calmly. “It’s almost romantic,” he says, and I spit directly in his face.
Wrong move.
He backhands me so hard my chair nearly tips sideways.
Pain explodes across my already bruised cheek while tears instantly fill my eyes.
“You don’t get to give me attitude anymore, sweetheart,” he spits.
Hayden sees it happen and loses his mind.
The sound that rips from his chest doesn’t even sound human.
Pure rage and murder.
He lunges toward Brayden despite barely being able to stand. Two men grab him instantly while another drives a baton violently into Hayden’s stomach hard enough to make him collapse again while another smashes the butt of a gun across the back of his skull.
Blood splatters across the concrete.
I think I stop breathing.
“No! No! No! No—” I scream hysterically. “Please stop hurting him,” I beg as Hayden spits blood onto the concrete, glaring at Brayden like he’s already imagining his death.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” Hayden growls hoarsely, causing Brayden to laugh.
“You know what’s funny?” he says, standing slowly before walking towards Hayden with terrifying calmness. “You still think she belongs to you.”
Hayden tries standing again, but another punch drops him immediately, then Brayden crouches in front of him.
