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“I can’t!”
“That’s not my fucking problem!”
I shifted to the window, heart racing, and peered in through the small bit of space between the curtains. Jared looked absolutely feral—wild eyes, greasy hair, overgrown beard. His hands were in fists beside his hips, his body leaned forward toward her.
“You’ve ruined me,” he hissed. “Your fucking husband has ruined me. You owe me, Charlotte. My father doesn’t trust me anymore because of what I did, what I did for you, do you know that? I’ve been exiled. Any hope of a future is gone if you’re not in it.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” Lottie said, taking a step back. He only pressed forward.
“You owe me everything!” he choked. “You wouldn’t be where you are now without me. You wouldn’t have a husband without me. None of this, none of the life you now have would have been possible without me!”
“Please leave,” Lottie said again, taking another step back, her body curling in on itself. I glanced back at the dirt road, hoping for red and blue lights, but came up empty.
“Your father would still be alive if you hadn’t married him,” Jared scolded, taking an unprovoked step toward her. Acid burned the back of my throat, anger boiling my blood. I was going to fucking kill him. Damn the consequences. “Probably dropped dead at the sight of you giving your life to some fuckwit who doesn’t give two shits about you?—”
I saw red.
Time seemed to stop between me standing at the window and my fist colliding with his face. I didn’t remember it, didn’t recall if either of them had reacted, tried to stop me. The door hung loose on its hinges, dangling just inches from Jared’s bloody face.
“You should have fucking left when she asked you to,” I growled, spittle flying into his face.
Surprisingly, Jared could pack a punch.
Something hard collided with my jaw, knocking my head back enough for him to crawl out from under me.
Lottie shrieked, her hands flying toward me, but Jared stepped between us and kicked me down as my head still spun from the crack of it. “You weren’t a part of this conversation,” Jared hissed.
I scrambled to my feet at the same moment the sirens reached my ears. My fingers wrapped tightly around his throat, shoving him back into the wall and knocking his skull against it. Everything in my body told me to squeeze my fingers, to take any oxygen he had away. “You have done nothing but damage her. That makes me a part of this.”
The blood from his nose pooled between his lips, coating his teeth. “Like you’re any better,” he laughed.
“Hunter, stop,” Lottie pleaded, her hands gripping onto my jacket and pulling. “Please. He’s not worth this.”
In the half a second it took for me to look at her, Jared’s hand whipped out, his nails scratching along my cheek. Pain bloomed immediately, warmth tainting my skin and dripping down. Asshole.
“Ay, ay, ay! Let him go!”
I dropped my hand the moment two police officers walked through the front door, their guns raised and pointed at the two of us. They stepped toward me and I raised my palms, backing up, but Lottie stepped in front of me. “It’s not him,” she panted, blinking rapidly as she looked between them. “He’s the one who called. He’s my husband.”
They turned their guns to Jared instead, his blood-covered grin tempting me to beat it off his face.
My breaths were coming fast and heavy. My jaw ached, my cheek burned, and Lottie stayed firm in front of me, my arm around her, her back against my chest. I should have stepped in sooner, before he could get in those words about her dad. I should have beaten him harder. I should have broken his fucking skull.
I pulled Lottie closer. He deserved every hit and more. He had to pay for every bit of pain he’d caused her, had to offer that in blood. I wanted to do it again. Wanted to do it better.
For her.
Always for her.
Chapter 38
Lottie
“You can’t just do that,” I sighed, dapping the washcloth across Hunter’s dried blood on the side of his cheek. “You could’ve accidentally killed him.”
“He was seconds away from hurting you,” he muttered, sucking in a breath as I dragged it over the cut. “Physically, I mean.”
“That doesn’t give you a free pass to start beating the shit out of him,” I said. The words came out breathy, almost in a chuckle. In truth, it was sweet what he’d done. I only wished he wouldn’t have had to.
