Chapter Thirteen
ALFIE
What have I done?
It’s my fault that Piper’s in a dangerous situation with a deranged lunatic. How could I be so blind that I believed he wouldn’t do routine maintenance on his home to ensure it was bug-free? My keen desire to be Piper’s guardian angel has overridden any sense of logical thought.
I tell myself that I had to know she was safe, and the only way to do it was by having eyes on her home. Her dad’s hit her already, and I am not going to allow it to become a regular occurrence.
I keep my phone on my lap as I drive back to Piper’s home, watching the horrifying scene unfolding from her bedroom camera. Her fear sends me over the edge. Saul Beckett is nothing more than a bully, too afraid to fight men so he takes his anger out on the women of the house.
Today he’s going to learn a very hard lesson. One I’ll ensure he doesn’t forget for the rest of his life.
By the time I reach their street, Piper’s dad is hauling her out of her bedroom and into the hallway. The utter fear I see in her eyes before she dips through the doorway makes me sick to my stomach.
I bring my car to a stop in front of their gate and scale the fence. My blood’s boiling, and I’m clearly not thinking straight, having left my Beretta in the glove box. But there’s no time to turn around and get it.
For all I know, I’m already too late.
I get to the front door, and a well-placed kick against the handle has the door swinging open.
“No, please, stop,” I hear Piper’s voice screaming. I breathe a sigh of relief. At least she’s not dead.
“What the fuck is that?” her dad says.
“Piper,” I call her name and breach her house. She’s on her knees amid the wreckage of the table. Her hands are pinned together in front of her in a prayer pose, as if she is begging her father to stop his onslaught.
She looks unhurt. Good. I’d have killed him if it were any other way.
“Who the hell ar—”
I don’t give Saul time to finish the sentence before I charge toward him with a furious yell. He lifts his hands in front of his face, turtling himself in a protective shell of his thick, husky frame.
Good thing I’m not going for the face. I drive my shoulder into his gut and tackle him to the floor.
Before we hit the ground, I feel his strong right fist strike my stomach.
His strike knocks the wind from my lungs, but adrenaline keeps me moving.
I crawl on top of him, straddling his waist, and deliver blow after savage blow to wherever they’ll connect.
Saul raises his arms over his face, blocking as best he can, but any time his hands sink, even a moment, he’s met by a fist to the exposed skin.
Piper shuffles away from us. She gets to her feet and starts to run. I’m pleased. The further she gets away from this, the better.
She doesn’t make it as far as I’d like her to, before Martha steps into the room. At the sight of me pummeling her husband, she lets out a blood-curdling screech. In a foolish moment of fright at her noise, I let my guard down, and Saul acts on it.
He bucks his hips, throwing me off balance, and presses himself upward. He throws his head forward and it connects with the bridge of my nose. I see stars, and in my moment of weakness, he shimmies out from under me and starts crawling away.
“Get back here.” I grab the leg of his tracksuit pants and pull him backward.
Saul continues moving away, letting me pull his pants down in a tactical retreat. It’s almost funny enough to laugh, but I don’t.
“You the son of a bitch?” he shouts, getting to his feet. Blood’s streaming from his nose thanks to a few of my well-placed strikes. “You the prick who set up cameras in my house?”
I get to my feet and look at Piper. She’s huddling with Martha in the corner of the room.
I don’t answer, though I know I’ll have to confess it to her later.
Once more I lunge toward her father. This time, he doesn’t fight my attempt to get him to the ground. We shuffle and roll on the ground, swinging wildly at one another.
“You made a big mistake coming here, pretty boy,” Saul says, between grunting breaths.
“I’ll take your fucking head off for hurting—” It’s Saul’s turn to cut me off.
I should’ve seen something coming with how calm he was after getting away the first time. If I was a wiser man, perhaps I’d have assumed he had a gun on him. But I find myself on top of him again, pinning one of his arms beneath my knee, while I send vicious fists into the side of his head.
But Saul doesn’t make an attempt to block. He takes it on the chin, with a sickening sneer on his face. It’s all because Saul had his plan worked out.
“Alfie, watch out,” Piper screams, but it’s too late.
With the free hand he should be using to block me, he lifts one of the shards of wood from the coffee table. With one hard thrust, it pierces my gut and Saul starts to laugh. The maniacal cackling of a madman who believes he’s left me for dead.
“You thought you were so big, huh?” Saul says. “Big man with the big plan.”
The world suddenly starts to move in slow motion. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. There’s no pain, although I can see the spike sticking into my skin. It was a flimsy table made from cheap materials, and though it penetrated the skin, it doesn’t seem as if I’ve suffered much damage.
Christ, I hope that’s the case. It could just be my adrenaline playing down the fact that I’m a few feet away from knocking on Heaven’s door.
I wrap a hand around Saul’s throat, and his laughter stops. I drive heavy, precise punches into his face. One after another, I don’t let up on my onslaught. Strike after strike until my knuckles are bleeding and swollen.
“You don’t fucking hit another woman ever again, you hear me?” I snarl. “Filthy piece of shit.”
His panicked struggles do nothing to stop me. I’m seeing red, in more ways than one, and I’m enacting my vengeance for Piper.
“Alfie,” she says my name after his body goes limp in my hand.
It’s only then that the rage begins to fade. She breaks away from her mother and comes to me.
“Did he hurt you?” I ask.
“No more than he hurt you,” she says, extending her hands towards me. I take them and get off the bloody mess of her father on the floor. He’s sputtering, so I know he’s not dead.
If Piper hadn’t intervened, he would’ve been.
Piper wraps herself under my arm, helping me away from the scene and out of the house. She puts me into the passenger side seat of my car and starts to drive. My world is spinning and my vision is blurry, but I’m alive. And I’m with her.
Pain burns through my body, but none of it matters. Piper is safe.