Chapter 4
Bunny
“ Nooooooooooo!!!! ” I scream at the top of my lungs in revulsion.
Refusal.
Pain.
“Why do you do this to me, sweet pea?” Brad exhaustedly huffs at the same time he adjusts his harsh hold on my ankles. “Why do you insist on making things so difficult?”
Why do I insist on fighting for my life?!
For a future?!
For my unborn child’s life?!
Future?!
How would he like that separated on the spreadsheet?
Chronologically?
Alphabetically?
Importance?!
“ Nooooooooooo!!!! ” leaves me again as broken branches and shrubbery carve their presence into my stretched-out arms. “ Nooooooooo! ”
“You know I love you.”
No.
This is not love.
This is obsession.
“You know I can’t wait to get you back home.”
This is a delusion.
“Mother is so upset over how much I’ve missed you.”
A never-ending fucking nightmare.
“ But… she is quite excited for our child.”
Our child?!
What the fuck does he mean our child?!
It’s not our child!
We haven’t been together in years!
Or least…I don’t remember being together.
God only knows what happened when he managed to find me.
Get into my apartment undetected.
Get out undocumented.
I don’t like to think about it.
And right now…I don’t have time to fucking care about it.
“She wants to name him after me, of course.”
I’d rather remove my own uterus with a rusty pipe wrench than ever bare a McAdams.
My jaw lowers to say exactly that when additional stirred up dirt from being dragged through the terrain overwhelms my senses stifling my ability to speak.
Breathe.
Small coughs have my torso callously colliding with rocks and roots and rooting foliage, creating new discomfort I know will only be the beginning if I don’t do something.
And I can do something.
I have to.
“She’s even started picking out paint samples for his nursey.”
More loose ground simultaneously invades my mouth and bruises my body; however, the constant crashes carve a much-needed idea into the front of my mind.
Clawing at the soil underneath me, I collect what I can over and over and over again, until each of my hands is filled to the brim.
At that point, I hastily twist to the left, to toss the fistful, not surprised when much doesn’t hit his face, but the second he opens his mouth to talk, I throw the other, successfully landing enough in the hole to get him gagging.
Coughing.
Uncomfortable enough that he loosens his grip.
Snatching one leg out of his hold leads to me lowering it to his shin where I propel it backwards with all the force possible.
“ Fuck! ” he barks in agony, grasp on the other ankle thoughtlessly abandoned, due to his contorting.
Freedom to move is instantly embraced by me scramble crawling a short distance away to grab a large rock from an old, abandoned campfire.
I’ve barely got my fingers around it when Brad bends down to reach for my leg again, yet I don’t let my questionable clutching stop me from whipping around, successfully bashing it into the side of his nose.
“ Fuckkk! ” bellows the man who cannot leave these woods alive.
War cries are attached to me smashing the stone into his face a second time.
And third.
And fourth.
By the fifth I’ve managed to balance the bobbing and weaving maneuver in order to continue striking until I can begin to see the bone breaking.
And that sight?
That sight builds confidence.
And strength.
And adrenaline.
“ Dieeeeeee! ” I screech, beginning to rise in tandem with him beginning to crumple despite his flailing attempts to block the shots. “ Dieeeeee! ”
Blood from the repeated injury splatters across my grime covered legs, incessantly adding to the filth and fury and reclaimed vigor.
He has to die.
Tonight.
Everyone’s life depends on it.
Especially the child I’m carrying.
While having made it to a standing position is incredible, the victory of being back on my feet is unfortunately short-lived.
On the next intended slam, Brad not only catches my wrist, he snaps it completely backwards, breaking or spraining something, which forces the weapon to fall from my hand.
Blood curdling screams unforgivingly flood the night air, growing in numbers and decimals, when he uses a fistful of my hair to throw me into the nearest tree trunk.
The impact alone is enough to sever the sound as it completely knocks the air out of my lungs; however, he heartlessly winds his crimson coated palm around my throat to secure my silence.
To pin me against the wood at a safe distance.
A safe but squeezable distance.
“ Don’t scream, sweet pea, ” he commands while clenching tighter. “ Our baby needs air. ”
I tenaciously fling my arms around hoping to break his hold or his focus.
Slap his forearm.
Land another kick to his leg.
Dick.
Somewhere.
Anywhere.
“ You don’t breathe… ” the tips of his fingers flex to the point I can feel him practically crushing my windpipe, “ he doesn’t breathe… ”
Tears begin lining the rims of my eyes as choked gasps shake my entire frame, echoing his claim.
Reiterating I have to make the choice.
That now is the only time I have to make a choice.
I can either surrender and live to have the baby or fight and kill us both.
I choose death.
Death over terror.
“ Kill, ” comes out in a gravelly whisper. “ Me. ”
“Not while we’re alive, Rabbit,” Mutt unexpectedly announces at the same time he wields a crowbar at Brad’s face.
Unsurprisingly, The Nightmare on Wallstreet manages to block the blow with his free hand.
Due to that choice, he has none left to protect himself from The Kid swinging bolt cutters into the side of his ribcage.
Brad hisses, releases my neck, and makes a move to retaliate, leaving me open to return to the fight.
The tip of my foot successfully nails him in the dick split seconds prior to Mutt executing an uppercut.
Fumbling headfirst to the ground transitions from being a possibility to guaranteed courtesy of my other boyfriend thrashing his tool directly into our assailant’s throat, likely splitting his vocal cords.
“Don’t scream, motherfucker,” Nolan growls as Brad looks up at us, clearly struggling to breathe.
“You might need that air,” taunts The Kid from the opposite side of his twitching body.
Each male stomping down on an arm to insure he stays immobile precedes Nolan shooting me a cheeky smirk. “You started without us, Rabbit. That’s fucked up.”
Relief that I can physically see that he’s alive and alive enough to call me the nickname I know I’d miss despite my initial resistance to it effortlessly pulls the corners of my lips up to the moonlit sky. “You’d be late to your own funeral, Mutt.”
“How about a thank you for being early to what could’ve been yours?”
“ Thank you ,” instantly and genuinely springs free, gaze swiveling between the two of them to indicate the message is for both.
“Better,” grumbles the man I wouldn’t want any other way.
“ Always, ” Kid bashfully murmurs, cheeks tinting on a bit of a blush, as though he can’t handle the praise.
Oh, when this is over, he’ll be getting so much praise.
We all will.
“And as for you…” my heel slams directly on top of his bent knee prompting him to twitch upward in additional agony, “I told you, you’d be leaving here in pieces.
” Repeating the action causes an audible crack to echo throughout the woods.
“ I meant it. ” I extend the palm of my non-injured wrist outward towards my older boyfriend. “Crowbar.”
Thankfully, the toss is easy to catch with my offhand and so is hammering down on the obviously fractured space.
This time there’s no screaming attached to my swinging.
No cathartic cries or howls.
Just slow and controlled and concentrated breathing as I alternate between severing strikes to whatever’s desperately trying to keep his bones together and driving the edge of the bar into the space to wedge the gap wider and wider.
Brad’s other leg wildly jerks in determination to reach me or free him or maybe even shake my boyfriends’ holds leaving me no choice but to abruptly stop my dissection to whack it in discouragement.
The strike lands right at thigh level resulting in additional pain being delivered to his crotch, a byproduct that prompts me into villainously grinning.
Relocating to the gap between his sprawled appendages.
Tossing Mutt back his tool and reaching my hand towards Kid. “Cutters.”
Curiosity crosses his face yet doesn’t delay him transferring the item to me.
I flash him a smile of gratitude and mischievously rub the round edge across Brad’s lap in search of my target.
“ Rabbit… ”
Locating my goal – or close enough to call it – I merely spread the handles of the tool on a toothier grin, wrist pain completely unregistering over the excitement.
“You’re not gonna-”
Our eyes lock and I begin forcefully squeezing, an action that rewrites the end of his statement.
“Apparently, you are.”
My gaze cuts over to Kid who casually informs, “You need to apply at least fifty pounds of pressure for it to pop.” When I quirk an eyebrow in surprise, he warmly beams. “You should put it on the ground and use your full weight to guarantee you see that checkered flag.”
God, I love him.
“Why do you know that?” Nolan grumbles, mirth notably in his tone. “Why the fuck do you know that, Kid?”
“Good shit to know.”
“Why is that good shit to know?!”
“For moments like this?”
“This is not a fuckin’ moment either of us were plannin’ on, so I’mma need a better goddamn answer.”
“Car shits heavy,” the younger man we both adore announces as I reposition the tool to follow through with his suggestion. “It’s good to know what could happen to your balls if something falls.”
Mutt grunts.
Nods.
Grunts again. “That tracks.” He uses the edge of the crowbar to crane Brad’s head upward to watch the impending annihilation. “I think you should give him an A on his physics examine.”
“ Biology, ” I correct, foot now on the handle.
“It’s energy and force,” argues the father of our child over the trapped screaming of our victim. “ That’s. Physics. ”
“It involves the human body and its functions.” One forceful foot press precedes me sassily stating. “ That’s. Biology. ”
Mangled shrieks rush to dart out of my dying stalker only to remain ensnared due to his mutilated throat.
“However, what we’re about to do you, Brad,” I vilely begin while repositioning the object to destroy his other ball, “is ethology. ” My foot once more replaces my fingers. “ Get ready to learn what happens when you threaten animals like us out in the wild… ”