Chapter 35
Once we got to Lucky Spurs Ranch, Cecelia got permission from Mia to take Everly and Harper overnight to visit the hot springs. Mia was happy so long as the kids were as far from Carter as possible.
Cecelia set Mia a place at the kitchen island with her gourmet grilled cheese sandwich. My girl took bites through happy tears, finally understanding she’s been adopted into the family.
The joyous foursome of grandparents and grandchildren left with an overly exuberant send-off from those of us at the main house, and once they were out of sight, we got to business.
Liv, Izzy, and Delilah promise to keep Mia with them at all times and to evacuate if they get the signal from any of the men.
With plans set in motion, and Mia’s deliverance waiting for me across the ranch, it’s time to say goodbye to my fiancée.
“Mia, honey.” I stand beside her at the crackling fireplace in the family room. My eyes drift to the family’s lucky spurs and hope that luck extends to me tonight.
“I’m going to go handle this. I need to leave, okay?” I say as gently as I can.
She nods, silent tears highlighting her rosy cheeks.
“Everything’s going to be fine, I just need some time alone with him to talk man-to-man.
The guys are down there if I need backup, everyone’s got their phones and ranch radios on and ready to go.
I promise you’re safe here, Mia. I’d never leave you in an unsafe situation, the same way I’d never hurt you.
” I search for confirmation, but her features are dim and closed off.
“I love you more than my life, Mia. Let me do this for you.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “I love you so much, Greyson. Please be safe. I can’t do this life without you.”
I wrap her in my arms, energy and love flowing between us. Leaning back, I place the softest kiss to her forehead.
Now that I know Mia’s alright it’s time to get to work. Once I’m out of earshot of the main house, I hit the gas and prepare to teach Carter what it means to come for what’s mine.
I park at the farthest guest house built so far at Lucky Spurs Ranch. It’s not complete yet, so no guests have stayed here, and I’ll have plenty of time to clean up after myself and burn or bury any evidence.
Raised voices seep from the unfinished walls. Wasting no time, I enter the house like I own it and lock the door behind me.
“It’s about time,” James complains. “This one’s a needy little bitch. Crying for his mama already and we’ve barely touched him.”
Connor laughs, covering his mouth with his fist, but he can’t hide the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
I take a moment to size up the scene. Reid’s posted like a sentry at the back entrance. Connor’s sitting in an old dining chair facing the one Carter’s in, kicking the legs petulantly like a child. Fury bleeds across Carter’s face with every jolt but he bites his tongue now that I’m here.
“Has he even tried to leave?” I ask, circling him like prey, patting Connor proudly on the back on my way around.
“He tried to leave the law firm once he figured out he was about to get fucked, and Greyson, it was fucking beautiful. He swung my door open, and Reid and Connor were waiting on the other side, arms crossed all tough and shit and Reid growled ‘I don’t think so’ and then we bound his hands.
” James tells it like a story from summer camp.
“So he’s just been sitting here like a bitch in only a wrist binding?” I ask dumbfounded.
“Don’t forget the gag.” Reid points out from across the small cabin. “He wouldn’t shut the fuck up and I was tired of his snively entitled voice. Had to shove something in his mouth.”
Connor pulls up one pant leg with the brightest smile. “It’s my sock.”
I want to laugh so goddamn bad but now isn’t the time to fuck around. I tip my head signaling Connor to get out of his chair and standby elsewhere.
Taking his seat, I scoot the chair even closer to this sub-human waste of air. He’s fuming, veins bulging out of his forehead, his perfectly coiffed hair a mess.
“Alright Carter, sweetheart. I know who you’re here for and it ain’t happening.
They don’t belong to you. I also know you were hand-served with the divorce paperwork over a month ago and we’re well within our rights to file for default judgment.
And I’m close friends with the judge, so I’d wager it’d end pretty poorly for you. ”
Snot bubbles from his nose as he huffs and puffs as if he could blow this house down.
“Don’t worry, you’re going to get your opportunity to sign the paperwork, but I felt it was important to have some alone time with you first.” My intention is menacingly clear.
“Clear out. This won’t take long,” I order the guys out of the cabin.
“Seriously? We deliver this whiny bitch and put up with him, and we have to go stand in the cold and don’t even get to watch?” James whines, but Reid yanks him by a fistful of his dress shirt out the front door.
I think it’s time to hear what Carter Spencer Whitaker has to say for himself. I rip Connor’s rank sock from his mouth and toss it to the ground.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” he spits out at me, saliva and all. “Do you know who I am? Who my family is? We’ll bury you and this disgrace of a ranch.”
Jerking forward, he flinches back like a pussy before I kick his chair backwards several feet—it barely staying upright.
“I’m your worst nightmare, sweetheart. You laid hands on the wrong woman and you’re going to pay for it in flesh. I don’t give a fuck who your family thinks they are, because I’m the bogeyman they check under the bed for every night.”
“Who’s Mia to you? She’s my wife. She belongs to me. The kid belongs to me.” This fool has no idea how deep he’s digging his own grave.
“How wrong you are. Mia”—I emphasize, knowing only people who disrespected her refused to call her by her preferred name—“Is my future wife, she’s the mother of our children.”
“That bitch. I always knew she was a cheap whore. Jumping beds for her next meal.”
My fist crashes into his cheekbone as the last drop of poison comes from his mouth.
“Don’t you EVER talk about my woman like that unless you want to be six feet under.”
The prick has the audacity to laugh.
“All this effort over a stupid, useless cunt who can’t keep her legs closed?”
Aaaaand that’s when I decide this fucker’s going to die tonight.
Still seated, I stomp the heel of my cowboy boot down between his legs. Not sure if I ruptured a testicle or broke his limp dick, but either way, he deserved it. He has no right touching a woman ever again, let alone intimately.
He wails and moans like a rat stuck in a trap. The sound is music to my ears. Retribution.
I pull him out of his chair one handed, gripping the front of his shirt. He’s taller than me, so I force him to bow down to meet my wrath.
I hold him so close I could spit into his vile mouth if I wanted and let the darkness inside me out to play.
“You like hurting women? That it? You get off feeling bigger and badder than a kind, innocent woman who bent over backwards for your approval? How ‘bout I show you what it feels like to be hurt by someone stronger than you? I’m going to make you feel as helpless as you made Mia feel every time you insulted, threatened, berated, and abused her.”
I don’t bother to hear to his response. I might as well have put in earbuds and listened to classical music for as calm as I am paying Carter back for the pain, suffering, and trauma he inflicted on Mia.
A few well-placed hits are all it takes to subdue the worthless bastard, so I kick him over to lay on the sawdust-covered cabin floor. At least the shavings will absorb some of the blood.
“Are you right or left-handed, Carter?” I ask.
“What does it matter? Just let me go,” he whimpers into the unfinished wood floor.
My boot lands squarely in his gut. That’s all it takes for him to admit he’s right-handed.
I kneel down and hold his right wrist so tight his bones creak under the pressure and study his hand.
“So, this is the hand that tricked Mia into marrying you with soft touches and promises?” I wrench his pinky backwards, snapping it at the knuckle of his hand.
Carter’s pathetic scream incites me further, knowing all the times he hurt Mia and told her to stop crying.
“The same hand that slid on her wedding band and then hours later, held her down and brutally stole her virginity?” His ring finger goes this time.
His cries grow more pitiful, and I’m about done hearing it.
“Is this the hand that left countless bruises and scars on Mia’s body? That made her afraid to breathe wrong, barely hanging on for that little girl?” At the mention of Everly, his bloodshot eyes flick to me, filled with hatred.
I don’t give a single fuck. He never loved Everly.
That’s when I have to exert some effort for the first time tonight and break his thumb. His deformed hand is three dangling digits, and two contorted fingers hooked in agony like claws.
“Poor Carter. How ever will you sign the divorce papers without the use of your dominant hand? This is going to affect your bottom line at work if you can’t type,” I mock.
“F-fuck…you. You’re just like her, nothing but trash from the wrong side of the tracks, dirtying me with your filth. She’s lucky I gave her the time of day let alone marry her. She was never worth my time.”
“You’ve got, what, two fingers left on that hand? Broken fingers can be operated on and heal relatively well. You know what can’t be operated on, Carter?” He doesn’t answer, fear flooding his dead eyes.
“Missing fingers. Yep. Hard to reattach something that’s, I don’t know, been fed to the foxes up here.”
His pleas and crying start immediately and frankly, I don’t want to hear any of it. It stopped sounding like music a bit ago, and now it’s just fucking annoying. I reach over and grab Connor’s ripe sock, now covered in sawdust, and shove it back into Carter’s mouth.
“Much better,” I say more to myself than to him, standing and dusting off my jeans.
I pop my head out into the freezing night and find the guys relaxing in one of the trucks, music and heat on, comfortable as can be.
Spotting me, Reid rolls down the window and I holler, “Do you or Connor have your wire cutters on you?”
They’re always mending fence on the ranch, and I’d be shocked if there isn’t a pair around here somewhere.
“Right here.” Reid takes the tool from somewhere in the truck and holds it out the window for me to grab.
“Thanks. Be just another couple of minutes.” I saunter back into the house as if I’m not committing about a dozen crimes right now.
I kneel back down behind Carter’s heaving back.
“Alright, sweetheart. You’ve got two fingers left, and two hearts who have to live with the trauma you inflicted.” My meaning is clear, and his screaming has morphed into sobbing.
Payback’s a bitch, what can I say?
His hands are tightly bound behind him, so it’s easy enough to break his index and middle fingers before nipping the digits off with the wire cutters. His screams are so loud they draw the guys in from outside.
“Holy shit,” Connor says on a laugh. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
“Give me your other sock,” I say to Connor. He does without question, and I drop Carter’s useless fingers in, knot the top and hand it back to him.
“Fox food in the morning,” is all I say. Connor’s straight up giddy to be included.
Reid gives me and Connor that “disapproving dad” look, so I ask, “Would you have done more or less if it was Isabelle he’d hurt?”
I get my answer when he walks straight up to Carter’s limp form, hefts him to sit upright in the chair, and decks him square in the face. Blood pours from Carter’s nose, minorly adding to the mess we’ll have to clean up later. Reid wipes his blood speckled hands off on Carter’s overpriced shirt.
Carter fruitlessly wriggles in the chair trying to get loose, but each movement only binds the rope tighter.
“So…when you say you’ll kill me if I touch your sister, is this the kind of shit you have in mind?” James asks jokingly, but with a rattle of nerves behind the question.
“How ‘bout you don’t touch my fucking sister, and we won’t have to find out.”
We stand in silence, absorbing the severity of our crimes for barely three seconds.
“Delilah texted and said they’re making pot roast for dinner. She said it’s Mia’s favorite,” Connor says. At my surprised expression he adds, “Did you not know that?”
I didn’t know that, but to be fair, I’ve been trying to get Mia to take the reins and cook what she wants, not what I or the girls want. I don’t think she’s been put first a day in her life until she met me. So, knowing she told the girls her favorite dinner is a huge win.
“Good, I’m fucking starving,” James complains.
Reid elbows his older brother in the side. “You’re lucky you’re invited, so shut the hell up. Izzy has a chocolate silk pie waiting in the freezer and I’ll eat your piece if you piss me off.”
James mimes zipping his lips and throwing away the key.
“Could one of you drive back to the main house and bring Mia down? We need to get those papers signed and settle this once and for all,” I ask.
Reid nods once and takes off into the night to get my future wife.