CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE #3
He didn’t even acknowledge me, his gaze fixed on Zach. “No one can double-cross me and get away with it. Get it? No one. You’re going to pay for it. And you’re going to pay for coming close to my daughter.”
He delivered three more blows—another in Zach’s stomach and two in his face. Blood gushed out of his nose and lip.
I flinched, nausea building up in me. “Don’t hurt him! Let him go.”
“Did you really think you could pull what you did without consequences?” He struck his jaw. “Did you really think you were something?” He struck him again. “What did you even plan to do with Blair? Get her for yourself? Or did you want to get more money?”
Zach sneered at him. “Get fucked.”
Dad’s expression turned thunderous. “We’ll see who’s going to get fucked.” He punched him two more times then pulled a lighter out of his pocket.
My heart stopped. No.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Dad grabbed the side of Zach’s face, ignoring me. “You think you can mess with me? Think again. I’m going to burn the rest of your face, you little shithead.” He lit the lighter. “I wonder if you’ll scream this time. I heard you screamed like a bitch when Blair messed you up.”
Zach’s eyes widened with terror as my heart rate went through the roof. No, this couldn’t be happening.
“Dad, don’t!”
Zach yanked against the guards, his arms bulging with the strain. “You’re so done for,” he hissed, even with the fear still present in his gaze.
“Meaningless words. Just like your whole existence.” He arched an irritated brow at the guards. “Try to keep him steady. I don’t want him to lose more than just a face . . . yet.”
The guards grabbed his head with their free hands, keeping it in place as Dad stepped forward.
“I’m so going to enjoy this.” He raised the lighter.
No!
I stomped on the third guard’s foot. His grip on my arms relaxed enough for me to act, and I drove my elbow into his junk.
He roared, releasing me.
I rushed over to Dad, but before I could reach him, he twisted around, grabbed me by my hair, and slammed my head against William’s desk.
Pain exploded in me, and darkness stole my vision. When I opened my eyes, I was on the floor, pain splitting my head in half.
Only from a distance did I hear Zach screaming, and when I raised my gaze, he was fighting the guards like a feral animal.
He headbutted one of the guards in his face, getting him to release him, then punched the other one in the stomach.
The guy stumbled, but Zach didn’t stop there, kicking him in the groin.
The guard dropped down with a sharp cry.
The other guard swung his fist at him, but Zach ducked and slammed his fist in his jaw, knocking him down.
He turned only for Dad to step in his way.
“You little shit,” Dad said through his teeth, pouncing on him with his fist raised.
“Zach!” I cried out.
In a swift move, Zach dodged Dad and kicked him with his elbow in his side, making him drop the lighter.
Dad rounded and threw a punch at him, but Zach dodged that too and struck him in the stomach, sending him crashing over a coffee table with a stone lamp.
He dropped to the floor, the lamp landing down with him.
Zach swiveled around and rushed over to me, coming to his knees. He reached for the back of my head with his hand, panic twisting his expression. “What do you feel? Talk to me.”
“It hurts.” I raised my hand to his cheek, grimacing when I thought about what Dad had wanted to do to him. “How are you?”
“Fuck, Blair,” he hissed. “How can you ask that when you—” He tugged his hand through his hair, and his gaze filled with something that cut deep through me. Something that, if I didn’t know better, I’d call love.
But before I could even begin to unravel that, Dad appeared over Zach’s shoulder with the lamp raised over his head.
“Watch out,” I screamed.
Zach ducked in the last possible moment, shielding me with his body in the process. Dad missed, and the momentum of the lamp made him stagger. But he didn’t stop, the murderous intent in his eyes telling us exactly what was going to happen if he swung the lamp at Zach again.
“You won’t be that lucky this time,” Dad roared, but before he could raise the lamp, three police officers rushed inside, their guns drawn and aimed at Dad.
“The police! Hands in the air!”
Dad stopped short. He turned to face them, dropping the lamp. “It’s good that you showed up. Arrest this fucker.”
“Sir, hands in the air.”
Dad scowled. “What are you doing? He’s the one you should be dealing with.” He pointed at Zach.
“Officers, that guy entered my property without permission and attacked me and my associate,” William said, stepping forward. “He’s the only one you should be concerned with.”
“He’s innocent! He was just trying to save me.” I tried to push myself up off the floor, but pain flared in my head. I cried out.
“Shit. Don’t move,” Zach told me. “We need a doctor here,” he said to the police officers. “She’s hurt.”
The officers shared a look, noting our injuries, before one of them spoke into his radio, calling for the ambulance.
“What are you waiting for?” William hissed. “Arrest him.”
“No,” I croaked out. “He and my dad are the ones who should get arrested, along with these guys.” I motioned to William’s security.
“I assume that you got the call for a sexual assault, as witnessed by the people watching my TikTok LIVE. William assaulted me earlier, and when Zach defended me, Dad showed up and hurt Zach while William’s guards held Zach in place.
He even wanted to use that lighter to burn the rest of his face,” I said in a rush, motioning at the lighter on the floor.
I didn’t miss how one of the officers winced when he looked at Zach and spotted his burn scar, proof of just how diabolical Dad’s idea was.
“I rushed to help Zach before that happened, but it was then that Dad grabbed me and smashed my head against the desk. And there’s more. ”
“Yes, of course there’s more,” Dad spat out. “He hit me! He’s dangerous.”
“It was in self-defense, after you pounced on him! And don’t get me started on that lamp.
” I waved my hand at the lamp that was now on the floor by his feet.
“You’re the one who’s dangerous here, with everything you’ve done.
In case you don’t believe me”—I turned toward the officers—“I have proof right there.” I pointed at my mask on William’s desk.
“What do you mean you have proof?” Dad demanded.
“I hid a camera in my mask just in case. You’re going down, and not just for tonight but also for every shady deal you made. I’m going to make sure of it.”
Dad’s face went slack with shock, and so did William’s. Zach’s expression shifted into one of awe, but I couldn’t be sure because when I tried to stand to get my mask, my world tilted, getting dark at the edges.
“Blair!” Zach shouted.
I crashed back into something solid, and I raised my head, meeting Zach’s gaze as he held me against him.
“I told you not to move.” His voice wavered, matching the emotion in his eyes.
I blinked once, twice. It was hard for me to reconcile this Zach with the version of him I knew so well.
The officers moved farther in, heading for Dad and William.
“You’re under arrest,” they said to them, turning them around to put handcuffs on them.
“What? You can’t be doing this. I’m the wronged party here!” William said.
“You have the right to remain silent,” he said while the other officer handcuffed Dad.
“You’re making a big mistake here,” Dad said. “Don’t you know who I am?”
“I don’t give a damn,” the officer told him. “Take it up with the judge.”
Dad tried to jerk away, shaking his head. “I won’t let you do this.”
“Don’t make this more difficult for yourself, sir.”
“You can’t arrest me—”
The officer yanked him by his arms and started dragging him out of the room, following the other officer who was leading William out.
“This isn’t over yet,” Dad hissed at Zach over his shoulder.
Zach curled his lip, the hatred in his eyes resembling what I felt as I turned my head to watch Dad. This felt like long-awaited justice for all the pain Dad had caused me. Yet it didn’t feel like nearly enough.
“You three are coming with us,” the third officer said to William’s security guards.
“We were just doing our jobs.”
“Holding people against their will so your boss’s acquaintance could hurt one of them is in the description of your job?” I said.
The guards exchanged glances.
“You’re coming with us,” the officer repeated to them, and they moved reluctantly. He collected my phone and mask, then turned to Zach and me. “We’ll ask you to come with us to the station to give your statements.”
Zach nodded, wiping the blood off his face with the sleeve of his jacket. “We’ll be there as soon as she gets checked.”
The ambulance sirens sounded from the distance just then, and Zach’s expression shifted with relief. “Finally.”
The study cleared save for Zach and me, and I released a long breath. It was finally over. I moved over and picked up my purse, closing my eyes against my swaying vision. As I turned around to head for the door, Zach wound his arm around me, supporting my weight.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll help you walk,” he said, his gaze never leaving mine.
My chest tightened with conflicting feelings, but now that the adrenaline was ebbing away and replaced by exhaustion, I didn’t have it in me to object. We headed toward the stairs, but my mind took me back to the study, the images of William swarming me.
The evil glint in his eyes as he shoved me to the floor.
The painful grip in my hair as he forced me to stay on my knees.
The feeling of suffocating as he thrust himself into my mouth—
“Hey,” Zach said, and I looked at him, finding him watching me. His eyes were intense and utterly dark. “You’re okay,” he whispered. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
I stared at him, struggling to believe there was such care in his eyes. He’d saved me from William and was acting so gentle with me now, and it all felt like one big illusion. Because he wasn’t my savior. He was my demise. So why was he acting like this?
But before I could ask him that, we reached the ambulance, and there was no chance to talk anymore.