Page 69 of Splintered Desire

The ground is a swamp, and I slip and slide as I try to get away, but I don’t make it far.

Fingers close around my ankle, dragging me back to a very angry, muddy, maskless Tank, and for a moment, I can’t comprehend what I’m seeing.

I’d taken that hit from Widow, but it hadn’t been that bad. Maybe a little swelling and a black eye.

I blink hard as I try to clear the vision before me, but still it remains.

This time, when his hand comes down around my neck, he takes my ability to breathe with it.

“I tried to be nice. I don’t want to do this, but I don’t have a choice! I won’t let them hurt the people I care about over a girl in the woods. Sorry, kid, but if it has to be you or me, I’m picking me.”

I can’t fight the tears this time as he uses his hold on my throat to drag me into the mud toward him.

Once upon a time, I’d been someone he cared about…

The air feels thick as I gasp and heave, and it has nothing to do with his hand and everything to do with the face staring down at me.

The familiar face that haunts my dreams. He once helped me fight my nightmares; now he’ll haunt those as well.

This time, he doesn’t hesitate to rip off my tiny shorts, leaving me exposed in the mud on the forest floor for him.

It’s funny how the mind works because I know I should be fighting him. I know I should be doing everything in my power, just like I was before, but I can’t bring myself to look away.

Had I known it was him, I’m not even sure I would have fought so hard, even before I was exhausted.

No, I know I wouldn’t have because in my mind, he was my hero, my first love, and if this is what he needed of me, I was happy to give it.

I owed him so much that I could never repay, and if this is what he wanted, what he needed… I could do this for him.

“Ozy…”

Thirty minutes feels like a lifetime as we wait, and for a moment, I worry Jace will get to her before Tank even has a chance.

“Time’s up,” Isaac says into the com a second before I could fold and tell him to forget the fucking time limit.

Not to mention how close she’s getting to the edge of the woods. I watch her little dot move on the map on one of the many monitors and grit my teeth. I’m not sure if she’s got some kind of knowledge of the area or just took a lucky fucking guess, but it’s just as well now that he’s on her trail.

Between the two of them, I’m sure she won’t get away.

On the off chance she does, I can always find a new way to break her and make her mine.

There’s always a way, and while I told her she would be free of us, it was a lie.

I’m not sure there’s anything she can do to be rid of us now.

“He found her.” I whip around at Isaac’s words, my eyes zeroing in on the monitor that shows the video feed from the camera on Tank’s mask.

I’ve never been more thankful for my brother’s big brain and his need to overthink every step than I am right now as I look at the night vision picture before me.

There’s no way in hell we would have been able to see anything with a regular camera. Isaac and I don’t want to miss a single second of this.

“Keep your hands off ‌her!” Jace shouts in the com I gave him, but it’s useless, seeing as only we can hear him.

I ignore him, unwilling to waste my breath on him again. I already told him this isn’t about what he wants; it’s about teaching her a lesson, even if that means breaking her.

“It’s nothing personal, but I have people I can’t let down even if that means I have to put my own morals aside,” Tank tells her, and I smirk. Helping him might have been one of the best things we’ve done; having him in our back pocket is very useful.

And soon we’ll have Vixen as well.