Read Online Love Resisted (Entwined Hearts #2) by Maria Macdonald - Free Book Online Page A

while I was working out. Soon, I managed to find ways to do it at home. Sit ups in my room and runs early in the morning before anyone was awake, so they didn’t realise I was missing. I remember doing chin ups on the bunk beds that Ryan and I were made to sleep in. They were too short for me, but I bent my legs at the knees and made it work. Every chin up made the bed creak like fuck and I was sure it was going to collapse.”
    He smiles again. “I couldn’t stop. The best part was when another kid got a load of new equipment for Christmas one year, he gave me all his old weights. I had to sneak them in, but being able to train at the house made me feel free somehow.”
    His eyes change from the sparkle he had in them a moment ago to hard and flinty, almost savage.
    “As it turned out it proved a good job that I was at home more. One night while lying in my bed with Ryan snoring on the bottom bunk beneath me and Shelly out whoring herself, no doubt, I heard a noise. A kind of muffled screech, but it was so quiet. I’m surprised I didn’t miss it and I would have if it weren’t for the fact that sleeping was eluding me that night. I had no idea what was happening, just that it was Elizabeth. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. Jumping off my top bunk I ran to her room. Fuck knows how nobody heard me coming, I made enough noise. I couldn’t believe it when I flung the door open and saw Kurtis holding her face down on the bed while speaking into her ear. I pounced on him, grabbing him by his throat with my arm and wrenching him backward off her throwing him toward the wall. He spun around and punched me in the ribs. I straightened up and laughed. It was the first time I ever saw fear in his eyes. And I’ll tell you now, Soph, it was a fucking beautiful sight.”
    He stops talking for a moment and looks to me. “I sound like an animal,” he says coldly.
    “No, you fucking don’t. You sound like a hero,” I state firmly and grab his hand and squeeze.
    “I don’t know what he had planned for her that night. I don’t want to think about it. What I do know is that I beat the shit out of him. Ryan came in and pulled me off him, I’m not sure if I would have stopped if he hadn’t have intervened.” His eyes flicker with something I can’t read.
    “I didn’t even call an ambulance. I didn’t care if he lived or died. It was like my brain switched off.”
    “I’m pretty sure that’s normal in extreme circumstances. Don’t beat yourself up about it. He deserved everything he got as far as I can see.”
    He squeezes my hand. “I’ve never beat myself up about it,” he says in an almost feral way and I wonder what all the sides of Dane really are.
    “So what happened to Elizabeth?”
    “She withdrew from everything. It was like watching the most beautiful flower shrivel and die.”
    “Oh my God!” I interrupt him. “She didn’t…” I don’t want to ask the question on the tip of my tongue.
    Dane must sense what I was going to ask as he replies, “No! God no! Well, actually I don’t know. She was alive the last time I saw her…” he stops talking and a frown crosses his face.
    He obviously hadn’t thought about the possibility that Elizabeth might be dead.
    Well done, Soph. You complete twat face! Make him feel worse! Gah!
    “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that she might be dead. I’m sure she’s great. Somewhere nice and shiny, and fun, with happy people and unicorns?”
    What the fuck am I going on about?
    Dane chuckles. “Fuck, Tink, you do make me laugh. Even when I feel like shit.”
    Phew…good save, Soph!
    He composes himself and shakes his head, his face changing as his eyes narrow and his lips thin. “She just wasn’t vibrant and bubbly anymore and hardly spoke to anyone apart from me. I spent as much time with her as possible. I told Shelly to keep Kurtis away from her, to ease up on the work and to stop hitting the kids in his care. Making sure that she understood if he