Brandon stood frozen, his gut twisting with a sick sense of foreboding
His hand trembled as he took the package from the delivery guy. The moment the box was in his hands, a sharp metallic scent hit his nose–iron and blood.
His spine went cold.
His fingers shook as he lifted the lid.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
A beat later, Madison let out a high–pitched scream, her hands flying to her mouth. “No… no way…. this can’t be real!”
The box slipped from Brandon’s hands and hit the floor with a heavy thud. Something rolled out, dark red and wet, staining his shoes in thick blood.
Everyone went silent.
Brandon’s gaze dropped to the back of the box, where a sentence had been scrawled in jagged red
letters:
“This is the price of your million–dollar bet.”
His face drained of color. Panic flickered in his eyes as he fumbled for his phone and dialed Rachel’s
number.
No signal.
Blocked.
“She knows,” he muttered under his breath, voice shaking,
She knows everything.”
His eyes went bloodshot as he turned and grabbed Carter by the collar.
“What the hell did
you do to her last night?!
Carter paled. “W–Wait, why are you asking me? Shouldn’t you be asking Madison? She’s the one who said that stuff was some new drug from overseas. She swore she’d forget everything by morning.”
He pointed a shaking finger at Madison.
“And besides, wasn’t this whole party your idea? You and Madison planned the whole damn thing!”
Chapter 5
Madison flinched, clearly caught off guard. Her hand darted out to clutch Brandon’s sleeve.
“1-1 didn’t know the drug would fail! It’s really common abroad–I didn’t think it’d. I just brough it. I didn’t do anything else. Carter and the others… they’re the ones who went too far. It wasn’t
me!”
Just like that, she shoved all the blame back at Carter.
Carter shot her a venomous glare and muttered a curse under his breath. Then he turned to
Brandon and sneered.
“Seriously, man? You never even liked Rachel. Now that Madison’s back and the baby’s gone, this is your golden opportunity. Just kick her out. Hell, the rest of us already had our fun–she’s old news now anyway.”
He barely finished the sentence before Brandon’s fist came down hard across his jaw.
“Shut your goddamn mouth! Rachel is my wife. You don’t get to talk about her like that.”
The punch sent Carter flying. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and two of his teeth clattered to the floor, riding the stream of crimson.
He clutched his face and staggered back up, fury boiling in his eyes.
“You’re joking, right? Playing the loyal husband now?” Carter spat blood at the floor. “Don’t forget -you were the one who served her up to us in the first place. You put her in our beds. You wanted
this.”
Brandon’s eyes
“Shut up!”
blazed with fury.
He tackled Carter to the ground, fists flying.
One blow.
Another.
Then another.
Brandon pummeled him without mercy, his rage uncontrollable. No one dared stop him. The others just stood there, frozen, watching the madness unfold.
It wasn’t until sirens pierced,the air outside that anyone moved.
Red and blue lights flashed against the club windows.
Chapter 5
10.03
Two officers rushed in and tackled Brandon off Carter, pinning him to the ground.
“Brandon Whitmore, you’re under arrest for multiple charges, including assault and the sexual
abuse of your wife. You’ll need to come with us.”
