Chapter 30
Lennox is fucking awesome. The kid knows all my stats and watches every move I make. We are talking about how the football team here needs help and that he thinks I’m going to be a great coach. God, the way he makes me feel is almost as addicting as my need for Julie.
With dinner down, the ice cream shop bought out, and our stomachs way too full, we head down to the bookstore.
“Lennox, you know your stuff about sports. Are you going out for any of the junior teams this year?”
“I don’t know. Mom is so busy; I don’t want to add to her stress.” He licks his last spoonful of ice cream, and it reminds me so much of myself. He doesn’t want to make his mom’s life harder. In the same way, I didn’t want to after mom lost it when Bryson left for the military.
“Don’t worry too much, Len. You are your mother’s world. It’s going to be alright.”
My phone rings, and I pick it up, “Hello?”
“You don’t get to go out with him and flaunt him in front of me, Julie. It’s just not nice.”
I know that voice. Fuck. The goddamn therapist that I beat the shit out of decided to visit Julie. Has he been stalking my girl? That’s my job. One I obviously need to take back up if I’m going to keep her safe.
“Lennox, we need to head toward the house.”
He sizes me up and must see the anger on my face to realize that now isn’t the time to be fucking around. “You got it.”
That’s all he says before he links our fingers together and moves with me.
“Don’t.” Julie’s voice is strained as she pleads with him. The bastard better not touch her.
“Oh, I’m going to be doing a lot more to you. You chose the wrong guy, you stupid cunt.”
My anger soars to new heights, and my vision goes black for a second. “Dad, you alright?”
Every time I hear him call me Dad, my heart scatters and rearranges itself. I want to relish the feeling of him being happy and me finally getting to be with him. But the words coming from my phone are going to drive me to do something I haven’t done in a long time. Kill.
I will kill that son of a bitch the second I see him. As I get to the shop that Kaylee told me to meet her at, I look around. She’s not due for another twenty minutes, but she’s already here. Thank God. I don’t think I could handle waiting on her.
“Is…” Kaylee blanches when she sees my face, and Bryson comes around the corner.
“No. Nothing is alright. Take Lennox back to your place. I’m going to get an Uber.”
Bryson comes over to me, places a hand on my shoulder, and looks me in the eyes. “Whatever it is, let me help.”
There’s no denying he’s going to fight me on this. If I don’t let him help, he will just follow me. “Alright, but brother, I want you…”
“Shut up. Get us an Uber so we can get this shit taken care of. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter as long as we get it done.”
There’s no doubt in his mind that whatever I am about to face is something he will willing to help me with. Gulping, I nod. “Got it.”
I click the application for Uber and see it’s going to take another forty minutes to get us there. That’s too long. “Fuck, it’s too long.”
Kaylee smiles. “Take the car, I’ll get Lennox home.”
Lennox smiles and hugs me. “Yeah Dad. Go get mom.”
How the hell he knows that’s the issue? I’ll never know, but I’m proud of him. “You know it.”
Bryson gets in the passenger seat and clicks his seatbelt shut.
“You drive like you did when I was trying to teach you, I’ll kill you myself.”
A laugh leaves me and I smile at him, grateful. “Thank you, Bry.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” He grumbles but doesn’t say anything else. The phone is still on, and I can hear her whimpering.
“Let me have the phone, Aaron. You focus on getting us to her house.”
My hands shake, but I keep one on the steering wheel and hand him the phone. As soon as he hears what’s going on, he growls. “Faster, Aaron.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. If he is doing what I think he’s doing, I’m going to be carving his cock off him. The mother fucker better not be trying to get in my Sugar Plum’s pants. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that’s exactly what he’s trying to do.
* * *
The house is eerilyquiet when we get there. I barely have the car in park before I jump out with Bryson limping right behind me. Before I can get in the door, he tugs on my shoulder.
“This could be a trap. I need you to follow protocol on how to go through a house.” He looks at me, a deadly look in his eyes. He’s in military mode, and I’m in awe of it.
“Alright. What do we do?” My heart is hammering its way out of my chest, and I realize now that when I was younger, stalking Julie, she must have felt like this. Scared. Fuck, I have so much to make up for.
“We are going to go around back. Just be quiet and follow my steps.”
There’s no way I would deny I would follow him to the ends of the earth if it meant I could have Julie back in my arms. As we walk around the house, my stomach starts to flip, and I shiver with fear that something bad has happened.
The windows are locked until we come to the back of the living room area and see the window has been shattered.
“Don’t Aaron,” Bryson tells me before I try to dive head-first into the window.
“Everything is going to be alright. We don’t want to go in that way. Go to the door, check, and see if it’s unlocked.”
Dammit, if Ju-Ju left her doors unlocked, I’m going to have a damn coronary. Taking a deep breath, I try the door, and it opens up. My eyes blackout for a moment, and Bryson has to hold onto my shoulder. “You can punish her later for being a bad girl. Right now, you have to save her.”
The fact he just said that makes me realize that he understands me a hell of a lot more than I thought he did. He steps through the door, and there’s blood on the floor. I hold it together and keep going, ignoring the sinking feeling I have in my bones.
“Stay away from the glass and the blood trail. Just follow it. I’m going to make my way the opposite way to see if there are any other trails.”
“Got it,” I grit out. Killing this bastard isn’t good enough. I’m going to make him suffer. He’s going to know pain before the last light dims out of his eyes.
Moving along the line of splatters, it leads to the bathroom downstairs. Pushing the door open, I find Josh, the therapist, on his back, bleeding from a wound on his side. He can hardly move his head but looks at me and grunts.
“That bitch is crazy. She fucking stabbed me in the side with a knitting needle.” I chuckle.
“Good for her. You deserved it, you son of a bitch. Where is she?”
He looks at me with a sickening smile. “I left her ass in the kitchen. She’ll be lucky if she lives.”
Bryson yells for me and I grab Josh’s hair, dragging him along with me. I don’t want to leave the bastard alone. No. There’s no way I’m giving him a chance to leave or get away with this.
“You fucker, let me go.” He howls as I purposefully move so that the knitting needle digs deeper into his side.
“Nah. You’re lucky your ass is still alive. Today will be your last day breathing, of course, but not until I see my Sugar Plum.”
Walking into the kitchen, I see Julie bent over, blood running along her arms. “Ju-Ju.”
She pops her head up and starts crying. “Bryson, watch this fucker for me.”
“With pleasure.”