𝐕𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐃 ❷

𝟓𝟒. ✭ 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 ✭

"Torey?" I say his name one, two, three more times but the way he's staring directly behind me, clutching his abdomen, tells me Torey isn't here right now. No, Torey is somewhere in his mind, dealing with some internal struggle.

Fuck. I've pushed him too far.

"Come on, man." I cautiously walk up to him and place a hand on either one of his shoulders which has him automatically jerking away from me. "I'm sorry," I say gently and add, "come back to me."

He shakes his head slowly two times before seeming to blink back to reality. Being in the marines, experiencing this kind of behavior first hand, had me feeling a whole boat-load of shitty. I'd triggered him. His breathing slows and there's a look of resolve that washes over his features. Torey tears his hand away from his abdomen, looking down at it in disgust before bringing his intense lapis gaze back to mine.

"Tell me," his voice is calmer than I'd been expecting. It's the calm before the storm.

"Tell you what?"

"Stop playing stupid and just tell me."

"I don't know what you're—"

"JUST FUCKING TELL ME!"

I flinch away from his roar with a shake of the head, "there's nothing to tell." At least there's nothing I want to tell him yet, especially with his state of mind right now. His breathing starts picking up again, chest visibly inflating and deflating. "Torey, you need to calm down."

"Do not tell me to fucking calm down, you lying piece of shit."

"Torey!"

"No, you want to treat me like I'm some horrible degenerate? Then fine. I have no problem reverting back to that, it's become my default setting. You say I treat you and my family with no level of respect, the same disrespect I've shown my hostages? You know exactly what I had to do to those people and it was a lot fucking worse than being a blunt dick. If I'm being too straight-to-the-point it's because I know the people who are supposed to be loyal to me are lying to me. You are lying to me." The animalistic way he'd said those last words, that casual way he slinked closer, as if his body was moving on brute instinct toward prey, has all of my senses on high alert. Torey is in predator mode. "There's only one thing that I can think of that you could've walked in on him talking to his brother about that you would try and hide from me." I take a step backward, steeling my features as to not give anything away. He rubs his chin with his thumb and forefinger, looking me up and down. "She was with him, wasn't she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You're good, you really are, but you're not better than me at this game." Those bright blues are sparkling fiercely, a sick, sinister type of satisfaction smeared all over his face. "They fucked. Dani and my replacement." I feel my mouth go dry but I don't show anything. "And it's the fact that you don't look surprised at my words that tells me I'm right."

Shit.

"Torey, they didn't—"

"No, no, let me continue." His voice is light, sounding almost amused and it is terrifying me considering the subject matter. "All this trying to distract me with talk about pregnancy and fathers and—" his mouth snaps shut and a look of absolute enragement captures his features just before he lashes out, wrapping his hand around my throat and slamming me into my car

"Torey stop," I'm just able to grit out. His grip tightens, stealing whatever breath I had left out of my lungs. I grab ahold of his arm with both of my hands and try to choke out his name again to no avail.