Worth It

“Shiv,” Reese offered helpfully.



“Right.” Mason nodded. “So Jeremy swung his shiv at Knox and caught him right here, in the ribcage.” When he cradled his own side, I sucked in a breath, cradling mine as well and remembering how I’d seen that scar on Knox.



Reese wrapped her arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into her, needing all the support I could get.



“Knox was fighting him off barehanded, until the other guy caught him from behind and stuck him in the thigh with his own shiv.”



I covered my mouth with both hands, and Reese began to rock me back and forth.



“After they pulled the blade out, they kicked him right where they’d stabbed him, until he went down on one knee. He kept swinging at them, though. But they caught him by the hair and dragged him across the floor until they had him sprawled on his stomach.”



“He still had hair then?” No idea why I focused on that. I guess it was just safer than thinking about the worst of what I was hearing.



Mason nodded. “It was quite a bit longer. I don’t blame him for shaving it off after that. I would’ve too.” With a shudder, he kept talking. “While two of them struggled to hold him down, punching on his arms and head and the bloody gash on his leg, the third guy—the leader—ripped down his pants.”



“And then he...he...he just raped him,” Reese said. “I mean, just like that. Not that I expected foreplay or anything, but one second Knox was struggling on the floor with that monster kneeling behind him, and we were cheering for him, almost expecting him to break free, fight back, and kick all their asses. Then the next second, that asshole yanked down the back of Knox’s pants, pulled himself from his own, spit in his palm to lube himself, and just...rammed it in.”



I flinched and slapped my knees together as I wrapped my arms around myself.



“Sorry.” Reese winced and rubbed my arms. “But that’s where I stopped watching.”



“The other two just keep beating the shit out of him,” Mason murmured. “When Knox started to scream for help, the one—not Jeremy—kicked him in the throat. Man...” He closed his eyes and touched his own neck. “I thought it crushed his windpipe, because he started struggling less and choking more. For a minute, I thought he died, while that asshole leader just kept...going to town.”



I wiped at my wet cheeks. But they only got wetter. Soon I couldn’t even see through the tears. Reese cried with me as she swayed us back and forth.



“I don’t know if he just passed out for a minute or what, but suddenly he had this burst of energy. It had to have been pure adrenaline, because I don’t know how he could still function after the way they wailed on him. But he turned his head to the side, launched his face at the guy who wasn’t Jeremy and freaking bit him, right in the calf. It must’ve been hard too, because the dude screamed like a girl.”



“Good.” I fisted my hands and clenched my teeth, everything in me cheering Knox on.



“So the guy jammed his shank right into the back of Knox’s shoulder blade. And I mean deep, like it probably stuck out the other side.”



Nausea rose as my stomach churned. Mason was right, the blade had gone all the way through, because I’d seen the scar from the front. “Oh God,” I moaned, squeezing my eyes shut.



I didn’t think I could hear any more, and I almost told Mason to stop, but next he said, “And then he did the most badass thing I have ever seen. It was like something straight from a Chuck Norris movie. He reached behind him and freaking pulled the blade out...of his own body.”



My mouth fell open as Reese whispered, “Holy shit. But...how...how is that even possible? How could he reach back there, much less—”



“I have no idea, but I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”



“Damn.”



I couldn’t speak. My own throat had closed over as I listened to how Knox swung the blade around and caught the unknown minion in the gut. It shocked the other two enough that the leader pulled out of him and Jeremy skipped away, leaving Knox free. But he’d left his only form of defense in the other man’s belly. So Jeremy slashed at his face, which had created the scar he now had there.



Knox managed to wrestle the blade from Jeremy and stabbed him with a kill shot in the chest. Then he stabbed the leader in the throat when the idiot charged at him. Knox’s rapist and Jeremy both died almost immediately, but the third guy started to crawl away, so Knox let him go. Realizing he didn’t have to fight anyone else, he dropped the bloody shiv and fell to his knees, then he collapsed face-first on the concrete floor.