Chapter 18
Scarlett had a lovely time at Rayna and Fury’s wedding. She danced her heart out, met many of the Lone Rangers- including Axel, who she absolutely adored- and as the evening wound down, she got to meet the woman Ox was obviously interested in as well.
Laura.
Scarlett and Laura had really hit it off. They were closer in age than her and her father were, but Laura was a really sweet woman who obviously had genuine intentions when it came to Ox. She hoped they’d grow closer the more time she spent in Bryson City.
Emily and Green ended up leaving around the same time Rayna and Fury called it a night, leaving many guests behind to still enjoy the drinks and food and music. The room was still packed by the time she’d decided to call it a night, too.
Even Limit, who’d been sweeter than she’d expected all evening, had enjoyed himself and she imagined it was hard for him to do so when he had so much weighing on his mind. He didn’t mention it to her, and he didn’t have to say much, but she knew that he was obviously still conflicted about something.
Which is why she’d opted for calling a cab to take her home instead of letting Limit take her back to the clubhouse. Even though they’d had an amazing evening and he’d held her tight enough to bruise (which she liked) Scarlett needed a little space to make heads or tails of her own wandering thoughts.
Her apartment complex was all but deserted as she climbed the stairs towards her and Emily’s apartment. She wasn’t quite drunk anymore, something that both irritated and pleased her. There was something less than enjoyable about falling asleep while the room was spinning, but being sober also meant that she had all the time in the world to ponder and worry about none other than Colton Graham.
Like, did he really like her?
He liked her enough to keep fucking her, but did that really form a strong enough connection?
She didn’t have much experience with sex to go on, but she was starting to think things shouldn’t be so damn complicated…
Should they?
Scarlett stumbled on her front step as she tumbled into the apartment, the door banging against the wall as she did so.
She thought about calling Ox to let him know she was home and safe, but her phone was buried in her purse somewhere and she didn’t want to waste time searching for it.
She swore under her breath as she yanked her keys none too gracefully from the keyhole and slowly closed the door behind her. As she searched against the wall for the light switch, she kicked off her heels and threw her purse onto the floor by the door, eager to get herself to bed.
Her feet were sore, her head was beginning to ache.
Maybe she’d even have a bite to eat-
As her fingers found the switch, she flicked it on, and blinked a few times to clear her vision.
That’s when she saw him.
“You look beautiful, Scarlett.”
Scott Worthington was sitting on her couch, a couch pillow in one hand and a shiny knife in the other.
Her entire body froze as her heart started to pound.
What…?
“Scott…what are you- why do you have a knife?,” She whispered fearfully.
Scott smiled sadistically before he shrugged and stood to his full height, the knife pointed in her direction.
“You know exactly what I’m doing here, Scarlett. I told you what I wanted in all those messages I left you.”
Scarlett had no idea what he was talking about, mostly because she’d never listened to the messages he’d left her. Why would she have? She didn’t think they had anything left to talk about, not after what he’d done.
“I didn’t get your messages, Scott. Why don’t you just put the knife down, and then you can tell me what you said in the messages?,” She asked softly.
Scarlett knew enough about Scott to know that she had to make him feel like he was in absolute control, or she’d never make it out of her living room alive.
His behavior was always unpredictable; anything could set off his legendary temper, but he’d never been physical with her before.
Scott hissed between his teeth as he lurched at her, causing her to slam backwards into the wall behind her. The window beside her rattled in its frame from the force of her body weight, but Scott didn’t seem to care.
His eyes were blazing with an anger she’d only seen from him a handful of times.
“You dirty little slut! You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing behind my back? Fucking around with that lowlife biker?!,” He screamed.
Scarlett clenched her eyes closed for a second when he waved the knife around wildly in the air.
“It’s complicated, Scott. We aren’t together! I can’t be fucking around on you if we aren’t a couple,” She argued.
Scott shook his head as he laughed, his eyes wide and unforgivable.
“Lies. Lies! I asked you to be my wife and you said yes! That makes you my property, Scarlett!”
His property?!
Her stomach roiled at his hateful words, but she knew now that she’d made the right decision to leave him.
“Scott, just put the knife down. We can talk about this civilly,” She murmured.
Scott stepped around the coffee table in the middle of her living room, and Scarlett didn’t think twice.
She ran.
Her bare feet hit the ground running as she ran towards the only room in the house she knew housed a weapon bigger than his, and that was her kitchen.
Limit had insisted on leaving a gun at her apartment no matter how hard she fought him on it, and now she couldn’t have been more grateful for that lowlife biker.
Just as she rounded the refrigerator, Scott caught her around the waist and brought her down to the ground with him.
He was a lot smaller than Limit, but still bigger than her, and his deadweight was all but immovable. She squirmed against him, fought against his tight hold until he slammed her wrists into the ground beside her head and screamed in her face. He was so close she could smell the vodka on his breath and practically feel the fine points of his canine teeth against her chin.
“You stupid, stupid, cunt. You think you can leave a man like me?”
Scarlett started to cry when she realized that there was no escape from him.
He had her right where he wanted her.
“You dumped me, remember? You cheated on me!,” She cried.
Scott shook his head angrily.
“You wouldn’t give it up to me, your future husband, but you’ll give it up to some leather wearing scum? Are you and your mother so much alike, then?,” Scott sneered.
Scarlett’s sobs tore through the kitchen when she felt his dick grow hard against the inside of her thigh. Scott was a lot of things, but patient he was not. His hot breath fanned against her cheek as he ran his nose along the underside of her chin.
“You’re mine, Scarlett Hunter. And after tonight, you’re going to stay mine.”
“And if I say no?,” She asked shakily.
Scott only moved to lift the knife he’d been holding and press it against her neck.
“Then I’ll kill you right here. My father’s an amazing lawyer, and we both know it. He’ll walk me through cleaning up the crime scene.”
Scarlett felt the blood drain from her face when she realized that he was right.
Scott’s father was a spectacular defense lawyer, and she couldn’t count on her fingers and toes the amount of times he’d gotten someone guilty of their crimes set free.
“My father and his men will kill you. Emily will know it was you, and she’ll tell them-”
Scott started to laugh as he said, “Then I’ll kill her too, Scarlett. Is that what you want?”
Scarlett shook her head as her tears stained her face with inky black trails.
“You’re going to give me what I want, right now.”
At first, she didn’t know what he meant, and then he used the blade of his knife to slice right through her velvet dress.
“NO!,” She screamed as she fought against him.
Scott only laughed, a high-pitched squeal that made her blood run even colder.
Scott Worthington, the man she’d once fancied herself in love with, was going to rape her right there on her kitchen floor.
He was going to rape her, or kill her, and Scarlett had no idea which was worse.
Even though she knew that she couldn’t get to the gun on top of the refrigerator, she knew she had to fight him however she could.
Immediately she began to struggle against him, knife be damned. She didn’t care if he sank the blade bone deep in that moment, all she cared about was making sure he didn’t work his way inside of her.
“Stop fighting me!,” He yelled.
Never.
“Help! Someone, HELP!,” She cried.
Scarlett managed to land a solid jab to the underside of his square jaw, throwing him sideways.
The blade of the knife sliced the tender skin of her forearm as she rolled from underneath him and made a run for the door.
Scarlett was panting as she sprinted into the living room, her injured arm slinging blood onto the beige carpet and white couch.
Her bare feet slid across the carpet, and she caught herself just in time before she fell to her knees.
“Get back here, bitch!”
His filthy words hung in the air behind her head as he kicked her feet out from under her.
Scarlett went flying right into the coffee table, flattening it beneath her weight.
The force of the fall knocked the wind right out of her, and she cried out from the pain.
Her eyes blurred for a second, but she could still make out Scott’s form as he kicked his Italian leather shoe directly into the soft skin of her belly.
“You’re making this too fun for me, Scarlett. You’re not the first woman I’ve made bleed, and I can promise you won’t be the last.”
His eyebrows wiggled as he said that, as if it were a joke- as if he were telling her something he found incredibly amusing instead of something she found incredibly disturbing.
Scarlett rolled away from him when he leaned towards her, but he caught her with a fist through her curly hair.
“Not. So. Fast.”
Before she could get her hands up to defend herself, Scott landed one open palmed slap to her cheek.
She gasped at the sting, but didn’t stop trying to get away.
“Help! HELP!,” Scarlett cried helplessly once more.
Scott flipped her over onto her back, right onto the wooden debris of her coffee table, before he yanked on the hem of her dress and continued to slice it open with the blade of the knife still covered in her blood.
Her injured arm was throbbing and stinging while still oozing blood, but it didn’t slow Scott down any.
“Please, let me go. Limit will kill you,” She sobbed.
Scott wasn’t even slowed down by her hands as she fought like hell to fend him off.
That’s when she heard it- the telltale rumble of a familiar bike-and started screaming.
“Help! Please, help!”
Scarlett wasn’t sure if it was her screaming or if he panicked, but suddenly that blade was buried hilt-deep in her side.
Scarlett gasped, tried to suck in a breath, but the pain was immeasurable.
Scott stared down at her wide-eyed in that moment, as if he too couldn’t believe that he’d actually done it.
He’d stabbed her.
And Scarlett had no idea whether or not she was going to bleed out right there on her living room floor.
“He-help-,” Her words came out garbled and wispy, but she knew that he understood it. She knew he understood exactly what she was saying.
Before he could say anything in response the door slammed open, shattering into a million pieces.
“Oh my God!,” Emily’s voice filled the room, and the sight of Green’s boots filled her vision.
Scott was lifted right off the ground by his neck as Green tossed him into the air and slammed him right back down.
His gun was drawn in an instant while Emily worked quickly to stop the bleeding.
“Scarlett? Can you hear me? Scarlett, hold on!”
Scarlett gripped Emily’s arm as she tried to keep herself conscious.
“Call Laura and Ox. I know-they’re tog-together,” She whispered shakily.
Emily nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket immediately.
“Don’t close your eyes, Scar. Keep them open!”
Scarlett’s gaze fell on Green who was screaming something at Scott, who was cowering.
The sight made her happy.
Gleeful.
Green was saying something, something angry, because the slightest hint of his Irish brogue was coming out of the woodwork.
Scarlett sucked in a deep breath when Emily tossed her phone aside and gently probed the wound in her side.
“Laura and Ox are on their way. They’ll be here as soon as they can.”
Scarlett just nodded, but her eyes filled with tears because she hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell Limit she loved him.
“Limit-”
“He’s coming, too.”
Emily smiled down at her as her eyes filled with tears.
Scarlett held onto her hand as tightly as she could, and she tried as hard as she could not to concentrate on the blood soaking the carpet.
Emily soothed her by saying sweet things to her, by telling her that she was being so brave and so strong- but she didn’t feel like she’d been brave.
She’d let Scott get the best of her.
Scarlett figured she should have seen this coming.
She should have known.
Scarlett’s eyes fluttered closed as Emily’s voice became especially loud.
“Scarlett? Scarlett!”
Scarlett’s eyes flew open when she felt hands wrap around the handle of the knife.
Evergreen eyes and blonde hair met her sight when Laura leaned in close to her.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. Just relax for me.”
Scarlett began to reach for her, but her hand was intercepted by someone else’s.
Grey eyes met hers and for the first time since she’d met him, Limit wasn’t just Limit.
His nostrils flared as he eyed the hole in her side while Emily worked to stabilize her. There was a lot of cursing, yelling, a lot of murmuring as they watched one another.
Scarlett was staring directly into the vulnerable, frightened eyes of Colton Graham; the man beneath the cut, beneath the uniform, the man behind the scope.
Scarlett was staring into the eyes of the man she loved, and he was staring right back.