I’d been surviving for ten years, and I was tired. Second by second, my body grew limp, hands and feet losing strength, limbs going listless. The broken organ in my chest was ready to give up. I didn’t have any fight left. Only acceptance. I’d never get out of this hell. The days would continue, erasing any remnant of my brother, only to be permanently replaced by this brutal impostor driven by alcohol, obsession, and the most dangerous of all—jealousy. The will to fight abandoned me.

As he slashed and fucked, his thrusts slow and erratic, I closed my eyes and gave up.

“Mmm, this is gonna be my favorite way to fuck you. You’re so sexy, vulnerable, with my name carved in your skin.” He bent down, and the wet slide of his tongue lapped at where he’d sliced. “You’re mine to brand. Shit, baby. I should’ve taken you years ago. No one’s standing in our way now.” Sliding up my body, his stomach smeared the blood I knew tainted my belly, and he pushed his cock deeper.

I gave in to the blank place in my mind where I didn’t exist. The small cubbyhole where I could hibernate for the rest of my life. But something wouldn’t let me go. Hope licked the edges of my consciousness, demanding more.

I don’t have anything left to give.

Fight, dammit! Find a way to escape.

Can’t.

Rafe is still alive.

My heart skipped. He doesn’t want me.

Zach lied to you. Of course he wants you. He would never turn his back.

I hurt him too much. He couldn’t forgive me.

You need to forgive yourself first. After you get the hell out of here.

I tried! Zach will never let me go.

Try harder.

Shut up, shut up, shut up! I mentally screamed as laughter rumbled in my chest. God, I was losing my mind. But I didn’t need the crazy phantom in my head giving me false hope. Rafe wasn’t coming. I wasn’t worth it.

You don’t know that.

Shut up!

I was on my own, and I couldn’t even blame Rafe. He’d had to deal with eight years of imprisonment. Just because his incarceration had been at the hands of the system didn’t make it any less horrific than what I suffered now. He’d been raped, just like me.

Zach grunted, pulling me from the turmoil of my mind, and his cock stilled in my bruised cunt. He let out a frustrated growl. The alcohol flooding his system messed with his libido, making it difficult for him to come. I preferred when he stuck it in and got it over with. But he’d wanted to unleash his anger, and I was his favorite plaything. His hands moved to my burning wrists.