CHAPTER 45
Sutton
My entire body erupted in furious tingles.
“You’re not going to touch him.”
She swung at me again but I swung my arm up to protect my face and then surprised her by letting out a wild scream and launching myself at her.
I didn’t know what I was doing but I just knew she wasn’t going anywhere near Ollie.
I grabbed at her face, doing everything I could to crush it in my hands but really just scratching her and smashing her into the ground.
She pushed at me but I was heavier than her and had the upper hand.
It didn’t stop her from yanking my hair, though, or from digging her nails into my neck. I drew my hand back and punched her as hard as I could. She screamed and managed to toss me off. Instead of running for Ollie, though, she jumped on top of me and wrapped her hands around my throat.
“You fucking stupid bitch. I’m taking him and he’s going to be the perfect little bargaining chip.” Her grip was fierce and I couldn’t breathe. “Killing his current whore is just going to be a plus.”
A flash of my self-defense instructor filled my brain and I let my body take over.
I jammed my fingers into her eyes and then punched her in the chest when she reached up to grab at her eyes.
She wheezed out a breath and glared at me with red eyes but I didn’t give her time to recover.
I swung my arm from across my body to hit her in the side of the head with the hard bone in my wrist.
She fell off me and I rolled with her, kneeing her in the side multiple times when I did.
When she was on the ground, coughing and trying to get her breath back, I stumbled to my feet and grabbed a whiffle bat the kids had been playing with days earlier.
I’d forgotten it outside and I’d never been more grateful when I turned with it in my hands and found her on her knees.
She looked like she had more to say but I didn’t care. I swung the little plastic bat with all my strength and hit her in the face. The crack of her nose was sickening but worth it when her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell backwards.
I dropped the bat and sank to my knees beside her limp body.
I’d read enough to know that she most likely wouldn’t be out for that long.
I yanked her tennis shoes off and ripped the strings from them.
Tossing the shoes away I rolled the woman onto her stomach and did my best at tying her wrists in enough knots that I didn’t think she’d be able to free herself.
I’d sank back on my heels and sucked in a much needed breath of air when metal rattled next to my head. I jumped and spun around but it was just Charlie. Well. Charlie holding a pair of handcuffs, a roll of tape, and a ball of what I thought were socks.
“Charlie?”
She rolled her eyes and tugged one end of a shoelace just for it to immediately unbind and let the woman’s arms flop free.
“You did good fighting her but you clearly need help with this part, Sullie.”
I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t too busy trying to catch my breath.
“This is nuts.”
“Here. Handcuff her. I’ll put the socks in her mouth. I stole them from Uncle Leon’s bedroom. They stink so bad.” She watched as I handcuffed the lady and even critiqued the way I did it. “Tighter. Now make sure they’re locked.”
“Where did you get handcuffs from?!”
She motioned for me to roll the woman over and I watched in horror as she stuffed the dirty socks in the woman’s mouth and then handed me the tape. “Go on. Tape it around her mouth and head.”
I found myself going along with her instructions. I wound the duct tape around the woman’s stupidly perfect hair and face a dozen times before ripping the tape and patting the end down. I made sure her nose was clear and then turned on Charlie.
“Where are Ollie and Lee?”
“They’re fine. I locked them in Uncle Dom’s office with their tablets.” She held up a key and grinned. “Now, come on. We shouldn’t leave her out here like this.”
And that was how I found myself dragging a bound woman across a billionaire’s perfect grass with a child encouraging me. I was going to need to process things later but Charlie seemed so much calmer and put together than I felt so I was listening like a good little criminal.
“What’d this lady do, anyway?”
I dropped her feet and put my hands on my hips.
“You helped me handcuff and tape up a woman and you didn’t even know if she’d done anything wrong? What if I was just having a bad day and attacked her for no reason?”
“Yeah, right, Sullie. You’re too nice.” She motioned to the woman. “Now, come on. It’ll be easier to drag her while she’s still knocked out.”
My mouth flapped open and closed a few times before I grunted an agreement and continued dragging her. With Charlie supervising I got her into the bathroom of the pool house and then stood with my back against the door, breathing hard.
“You did good, Sullie. Theo’s going to be proud when he sees what you did.” Charlie bounced in place and then pointed to the door handle. “Now you need to find a way to tie the handle of that door to something out here so she can’t open it and escape if she manages to get out of the handcuffs.”
I let my head thump against the door and blew out a deep breath.
“We’re going to talk about how much you know about this when things settle down.”
“Sure, sure. Now, come on. I’m hungry. Can we watch a movie? We need to get some food for Killer, too.”
I scoffed.
“I’m not a killer. I just knocked her out for a bit.”
Charlie giggled and rolled her eyes.
“Not you, Sullie! The dog! We named him Killer.”
I threw my hands up and searched the pool house for something to tie the door shut but ended up using the rest of the roll of duct tape to tie the doorhandle to the handle of the door on the opposite side of the hall. “There. Good enough, Young Godfather?”
“It’ll do.”