Chapter 149: When All Hope Is Lost
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘❦✾❦∘∙⊱⋅•-
"Look at you," he breathed out with that awful grin, his eyes bright with cruel delight. "Trying so hard."
He didn’t give me another second.
His knee slammed into my stomach—sharp, brutal, knocking the breath out of me as if he’d punched a hole straight through my lungs. Pain exploded across my torso, hot and blinding, and I folded over with a strangled cry. My knees hit the floor first, then my palms, and I curled instinctively, clutching my stomach as nausea surged up my throat.
"Fuck—" The word barely managed to escape me.
Jace ripped the pipe from my hands, victorious now that my strength had finally faltered. I lifted my head just in time to see him arc it back like a baseball bat, his expression gleaming with something feral.
"Don’t worry," he murmured. "This part won’t take long."
The pipe cracked across my back. "AHHH!"
A thunderbolt of agony tore through my spine, knocking stars into my vision. My body hit the concrete, my cheek smashing against the cold floor as a thin cry slipped out of me. For a second, just a second, I thought I would black out again. The edges of my vision blurred, darkened, then sharpened back into focus with a sickening lurch.
"Got the little fucker?" Liam’s voice came from somewhere behind me, shaky but trying to sound unaffected.
Liam stumbled into view next, his forehead smeared with blood where I’d hit him earlier. His expression was twisted with both irritation and distorted amusement. "He hit me so damn hard," he said, pressing a hand to the side of his head. "Little bitch actually got me."
"Quit whining," Jace snapped, kicking my leg lightly as if testing whether I could move. "Get him on the mattress. We don’t have time for this."