Niall stormed forward, shoving her into the wall of hanging coats. When she lost her grip on the door handle, he kicked it shut, the deafening crash echoing through the loft.
Loud noises were nothing new on the farm. Heavy gates slammed, hooves pounded against stable doors. Bangs were just sounds swallowed by the noise of everyday life.
Niall’s face dipped to hers. “You and I need to have a chat, Shannon. You need to learn some fucking respect.”
A muscle in his cheek twitched, and dread churned in her belly.
“You’re nothing but a cokehead, waste of space,” she snapped, her voice filled with contempt. “Your dad will see it soon enough. One day, you’ll slip up, Niall, and I’ll be there, watching. I’ll be clapping and cheering the day he cuts off your money. Now, get the hellout!”
His head tipped back, and a low mocking laugh vibrated from deep within him.
“I’m his legacy, Shan. All this will be mine one day. We both know you can’t afford to live anywhere else. You’ll still be here, even then. And I’ll own the fucking ground you walk on.”
His eyes narrowed as he tapped her cheek. “Haven’t I told you already, Shannon? You’re a nobody. You don’t own a thing—not even this loft. What have you got going for you?”
Her hands balled into fists, and she shoved him backward.
“I only regret two things in my life, Niall,” she shot back. “The first was agreeing to be your girlfriend back then. The second was tolerating your pathetic excuse for sex. You couldn’t even satisfy a week-old corpse.”
The room darkened with his rage, and for a brief, terrifying moment, panic gripped her chest. Before her next breath, he dropped to his haunches, his fury explosive as he snatched the whip propped at their feet.
Niall’s grip was white-knuckled around the handle, his muscles bulging with effort as he raised it high, his eyes burning with something darker than she’d ever seen.
Sucking in, she tried to dart sideways as the first crack of the whip landed across her shoulder with brutal force, searing through the flimsy fabric of her top.
A second strike followed without a pause, blazing fire lashing through her.
Shannon screamed, a choked sound scraping from her throat as she threw herself at him with fistsand years of pent-up anger. Desperation fuelled her fight as she wrestled to win the whip from his hand.
But Niall wouldn’t let go. His other hand shot out, wound through her hair, and yanked her head. With the harshness of it mixed with the burning pain across her scalp, she struggled to keep her balance.
Before she could recover, his knee crashed into her ribs, the impact like a head on collision that sent her crashing to the floor.
“I’ll fucking show you, Shan…”
Out of instinct, she curled into a defensive ball, the wind knocked out of her lungs and the whip still lashing down.
Fiery pain blistered through her muscles, leaving her breathless.
The pain crashed into her like a tidal wave, sucking every ounce of strength from her body, rendering her powerless to escape.
Her lungs screamed in raw agony, each breath a jagged, burning intake.
She tucked in her limbs, pressing her body into a tight ball, surrendering one side to the full brunt of his brutal assault.
Even through her clothes, each strike of the whip was molten metal searing into her flesh. The slaps exploded into searing flames, each one igniting her skin as he unleashed his fury on her defenceless, curled form.
The last crack seemed to reverberate through her body like the hundredth. Niall held it high above hishead, his shallow breaths and low growl the only sounds in the room.
The whip hung in the air, its threat still lingering as a dangerous silence fell.
“You say a word about this to anyone, and I’ll ruin you. And that precious fucking horse of yours,” he sneered. “I’ll visit her in the dead of night, tear her apart until she’s fit for nothing but dog food. You think I’m joking? Take a good look at yourself right now.”
The whip sped through the air again, the lash biting into her lower back. Her body shuddered, a visceral jolt of pain radiating from her core.
“And keep that asshole McGrath away from Meadow Dawn. Stay the fuck away from him or things will get messy.”
When he let go of the whip, it dropped to the floor with a light patter. The door opened and a blast of icy air licked at her wounds.