Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
It only amplified the fury.
The need to destroy.
I spun, swinging at the same time, slamming the asshole in the ribs.
A wail tore out of him, and the fucker bent in two.
I whirled back around, going for the second, only the first was back on his feet.
The two of them enclosed on my left and right.
As soon as they got close enough, I swung the bat, hitting the guy on my right in the shoulder.
At the same time, the one on the left got in a brutal hit to my side.
Another, then another.
Agony blasted through my bones.
I let loose.
Throwing fists.
Kicking.
Fighting with all I had.
I nailed the piece of shit on the left and sent him flying back before I spun and slammed two fists into the face of the fucker on the right.
Grunts and a barrage of curses filled the air.
I fought the three of them with all I had.
Blood poured as skin busted open.
Bones cracked.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit,” I roared, never backing down.
Because I was fighting for Tessa.
But I was losing hope that I was going to come out on top.
I had plenty of experience, but this?
It was a coordinated attack.
The men trained.
Hired.
Of that, I was sure.
Karl, that sleazy fuck, had taken his offense to the extreme.
The men took the blows, and they returned them as savagely as I gave them.
I doubted much they were anticipating the fight they were gonna get, though.
Surprised at what they stepped into.
They weren’t getting out of this unscathed, but I was losing footing.
Strength.
Each blow nearly dropping me to my knees.
A crack landed at the side of my head.
A flash of metal.
A strike inflicted with purpose.
Just hard enough for pain to go splitting through my brain and to drop me to the ground, but not hard enough to do me in.
I gasped for air, trying to get my bearings, to stand up and finish this.
But before I could get to my feet, one of the pricks ran up and kicked me in the gut.
I dropped to the pitted pavement, facedown, groaning in agony.
Two more strikes landed on my upper back.
Blackness clawed at the edges of my sight.
Consciousness faded in and out.
“Tell that asshole he’s a pussy for me, would you? Sending three of you,” I rasped, delirium setting in. I tried to stand again before I was dropped flat with an elbow to my temple. Then a mouth was at my ear, a low warning that tolled, cutting into the oblivion with a blade of wickedness.
“You didn’t think you were going to get off that easy, did you? Did you think he wouldn’t come to collect? And he will collect.”
Footsteps receded, and tires screeched as the SUV was thrown in reverse before it took off in the opposite direction as we’d come.
While I lay there in the middle of the pavement with harsh, agonized breaths wheezing through my throat.
As a true sort of terror took me hostage and dragged me under.
I staggered into the darkness of my cabin, groaning like a bitch and heading straight for the cabinet.
I pulled out a bottle of Jack, opened it, and chugged down three giant gulps, welcoming the fire that raced down my throat and landed in a pool of relief in my stomach.
Glass clattered on the countertop as I fumbled to set it down, and I clung to the neck of it while my head dropped forward.
I had my other hand pressed to my side like it could keep it all from hemorrhaging out.
“Motherfucker,” I rumbled, trying to catch my breath.
The pain didn’t have a thing on the rage that bristled and blew like a dark storm at the edges of my sight.
Uncertainty tugged me in every direction.
It couldn’t be.
It couldn’t.
I’d hunted that motherfucker for years.
He was dead.
Dead.
It had to be Karl taking things to the extreme, but it was the man’s parting words that kept repeating in my mind.
Torment twisted through my being, and it didn’t have a thing to do with the fact that I’d been beaten to shit.
Guilt laying siege.
My intentions skewed.
My reserves depleted.
It didn’t help that Tessa had my emotions all fucked up.
I chugged down more whiskey.
Delirium seemed like a mighty fine plan right then.
Every promise I had made screamed in my ear.
Always.
Always.
I stilled when I felt her approach from behind.
I almost laughed.
Of course, she’d come to me right then.
Taunting.
Tempting.
Tiny Tease.
I had no clue how to deal with her.
What to fucking say after the shit that had gone down tonight.
Wariness billowed through the air, and I could physically feel her hurt.
The hurt I’d inflicted.
But this was Tessa we were talking about, and rather than telling me to go fuck myself, there was something riding on the current that was kind.
Genuine.
Radiating all that sweet, sweet light that I didn’t deserve to feel.
The girl the sun rising on a darkened day.
God, I didn’t know if I wanted to weep and hold onto her with the little strength I had left or tell her to run. To get the fuck out of my house and never look back before it was too late.