Page 26 of Nuts

A bright flash of light followed, and I fell to the floor.

“What in the fuck do you think you’re going to do?” he growled. “Call the fucking cops? In my house?”

The punch knocked me senseless. The side of my face was throbbing, and my left eye was swelling closed with each passing second. He’d hit me in the past, but never like that. When I came to my senses, I realized I no longer had my phone, and frantically began to search the room for where it went.

His eyes found it before I did.

“Looking for this?”

He took a quick step forward, raised his foot, and stomped the heel of his boot down on my phone.

Crap.

I couldn’t decide whether to stand or to stay on the floor. With calling the police no longer an option, I decided the floor would be the least threatening position to him. It was there that I cowered in fear.

I soon found out that it wasn’t a good decision.

The toe of his boot swung into my stomach. The air shot from my lungs. I heaved to breathe, gasping to catch my breath. Now certain that he wasn’t going to stop until I was either crippled or dead, I somehow managed to rise to my feet.

He cackled a drunken laugh. “Oh, you want to fight me?”

I realized I was instinctively standing in a defensive posture.

I lowered my arms. “Please--”

“Don’t beg. You’re even uglier when you do.”

His hand landed against my swollen eye. The punch knocked me from my feet. I stumbled halfway across the room.

I tried to get up, but couldn’t. I wanted to run, somehow sneak past him, or jump out the window and run the Percy’s house. I was too weak to stand, and even if I could, I hadn’t heard his motorcycle come home yet.

There was nothing I could do.

Tears streamed down my face. I was done. Done sharing a home with him, done trying to reason with him, and done fighting him. He’d finally managed to break me.

“I’ll be…I’ll be gone,” I murmured.

“What’s that?” He chuckled. “Did you say something?”

“I’ll be gone.”

He cleared his throat. “By your birthday.”

“I’ll be gone by my…” I muttered. “I’ll be gone on my birthday.”

“Better be.”

The door closed behind him. I collapsed on the floor, covered my face with my hands. and sobbed.

Chapter Ten

P-Nut

On my way home from the clubhouse after a late-night meeting, I rolled to a stop at the traffic light. While I tapped my fingers to a tune that no one else could hear, an SUV pulled alongside me on the left.

Then, another on my right.

I glanced at one, and then the other. They were identical in color, appearance, and stance.