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“What are you doing?” I yanked back from him, my brow furrowing as I took a step backward. “Are you okay?”

“No, Father…I’m not okay,” Mark said. “You see, I have this problem. He’s about six foot, scrawny, gay, and he’s ruining my life!”

“I don’t even know you,” I reminded him as I turned away from him again. “I think you need to leave.”

The blow that struck my kidney drove me to my knees on the pavement, sending pain through my joints and across my back simultaneously.

Before I could recover enough to get back up, his fist slammed into my face, sending me sprawling to the ground, the skin on my hands shredding as they scraped across the gravel in my effort to keep from hitting my head on the pavement.

Another blow landed across my cheek, then another, and another with no time in between for me to scramble away from him or even consider defending myself.

“What’s the matter, fuckboy?” Mark asked, kicking my hip hard enough to send me to my side, rocks digging into my ribs. “Trevor got your tongue?”

I tried to sit up, but his foot raised and connected with my jaw, causing me to fall back down again. I rolled away from him, desperate to escape, but I was too beaten to move fast enough. His hulking shadow fell over me as he walked around my body and I raised my head to meet his gaze, unwilling to show him fear.

“You fucking ruined them!” Mark screamed, his boot driving into my stomach. “You ruined everything.” He crouched down in front of me, gripping my hair in his fist and pulling my face up to meet his gaze. One of my eyes had already swollen closed, but through the other I could see the hatred etched in the lines around his mouth. “Tell anyone and next time I’ll fucking kill you.”

He released me, getting to his feet and stalking away as I flopped onto my back on the pavement, blood, tears and snot rolling down my face, pain radiating over every inch of my body.

I knew I needed to get up, needed to get inside before Mark returned to finish what he started, but my body just didn’t want to cooperate. I closed my eyes and mentally ran through the pain, trying to decide if anything was broken. But as I took inventory, I realized that Mark was very good at what he did. There would be no lasting damage…not physically anyway.

Finally I was able to roll to my feet, wiping my face on my sleeve as I limped my way across the lot. I just needed to make it to my apartment. A few hundred yards. Then up the stairs. Hopefully without anyone seeing me like this.

The first two parts went great, but when I entered the hallway to my apartment, Trevor was sitting on the floor, leaning against my door waiting for me.

“What the hell happened to you?” Trevor asked when he saw me, jumping to his feet and stalking toward me.

I pushed past him to insert my key into the lock. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it? Andy, who the fuck did this to you?” he demanded, slamming his hand into the door as I tried to shut it and following me inside. “Look at me!”

I let out a soft sigh and turned to face him, watching the fear and horror bloom over his face as he raked his gaze over me.

“Please, just don’t,” I begged him, lowering my gaze and shaking my head, the motion causing my stomach to flip as pain flared through my neck and shoulders. “You should go home.”

“You’re seriously not going to tell me who did this?” he asked. “Was it…did you ask for this?”

I glared up at him, not sure how menacing it was with only one working eye. But it seemed to hit because his expression softened immediately.

“Talk to me,” he whispered.

“It’s nothing,” I lied. “I’m fine, really. You need to go.”

He reached up and ran his finger over my lower lip before pressing his thumb hard against the split in it, causing it to reopen and blood to flow into my mouth.

I jerked my head away from him and rolled my eye, unable to hold back the hiss of pain.

“Yeah, you look fine,” he snapped. He turned around and walked out and I let out a soft sigh that turned into a groan when he returned a moment later with his backpack in his hand.

“Trevor—”

“Shut up,” he said, tossing his bag into a chair and brushing past me to walk into the kitchen.

I watched as he opened the freezer, grabbed a towel and made an ice pack which he walked back to me and pressed against my eye, grabbing my hand and forcing me to hold it there. Then he stepped around me and walked down the hall, the water starting in the bathtub a minute later.

“Princess!” he called from the doorway. “Get your ass in here.”

I blew out a sigh but walked down the hall to find him drawing a bath for me, the water so hot it was billowing steam through the room.