Chapter 5
— Beckett —
I lay awake long after Mercedes fell asleep in my arms, wildly pissed about Landon laying his fucking hands on her in anger. That motherfucker messed with the wrong girl. And even though technically Mercedes hadn’t been my girl from the moment I sent her that Dear John letter, I couldn’t change the way I felt about her. Fuck knows I’d tried to forget her, to let her be free to find a path that didn’t involve me, but look where that got her. Beat up. Scared. Paranoid. And nothing but a shade of her former confident self.
My baby had been broken, and I was a) gonna make Landon pay one way or another, and b) fix Mercedes in any way I could.
My chest ached for what she’d been through. I’d seen and done shit in prison that I’d take to my grave. I’d drawn blood, had my own bled, beat a brother up, and held others down during attacks, but what Landon did to Merce turned my gut a thousand times over. I’d make him pay at the first opportunity I got.
The angel in my arms meant more to me than anyone and anything else in the world. I sure as fuck wouldn’t make the mistake of not fighting hard enough for her a second time.
My arms tightened around Mercedes and my worries turned into regrets over forcing her into that situation. If I’d just been selfish and not pushed her away, maybe it would have been different. Maybe she would have ended up happy with a guy worthy of her time instead of a deadbeat like Landon.
Predatory arousal began to gather. I’d tried to keep it suppressed—I didn’t come here just for a fuck—but the more my hands slowly traced over Mercedes’s sleeping body, the harder my dick ached to claim her.
As a tortured groan knotted in my throat, I rolled her onto her back and hovered above her, caging her with my body. A sleepy mumble came from her mouth while her hands grazed down my bare ribcage. I hadn’t been touched by a woman in so long, and the slightest brush of her fingernails across my skin had me hissing a curse and hankering for her pussy.
“Let me take you, Merce,” I whispered against her neck while peppering kisses.
While inhaling the sweet scent of her skin, the devil inside me sang her praises when her legs shifted and opened wide for me.
“I haven’t had pussy in almost ten years, Merce. I ain’t gonna last long.” I was already precariously close to nutting prematurely.
Her warm hands cupped my face and guided my mouth to hers. “It’s okay,” she whispered sleepily.
My arms trembled as I awkwardly shoved down my underwear. Anticipation had me panting as I sat back on my haunches to remove Mercedes's sleep shorts.
I brought them to my nose and inhaled, groaning in bliss while breathing in her sweet, musky scent.
“Fuck I’ve missed this.” I shoved her knees wide and dived forward, running my nose up her slit and following it up with a long, hard lick.
“Jesus fuck,” I hissed, cock ready to blow. “Do you have a condom, babe?”
“In the bathroom drawer,” she breathed out.
I climbed off her while pressing a hand to her chest. “Stay put. I’ll be back in a second.”
Rushing to the bathroom, I yanked open the top drawer in desperation, plucked out a foil square, and tore the top off. I rolled the rubber on as I returned to Mercedes’s room.
At the doorway, something caught my hearing. I stopped dead and cocked my head, listening hard.
“What?” Mercedes hissed through the shadows.
“Shh, I thought I heard something.” Hearing alert and jaw slack, I listened until I was satisfied it was nothing.
“What was it?” Mercedes whispered as I climbed back on top of her.
“Dunno, babe. Probably a racoon.”
Her fingers wrapped around my cock and slowly smoothed up and down the shaft.
As good as it felt, I stilled her after three strokes. “No more touching, Merce. I’m really fucking close already.”
Glints of light caught the whites of her eyes when she widened them. “Are you serious?”
“As a shower block gangbang.”
My hand explored her body in the dark, finding her torso bare and exposed. I palmed her breast and ducked to suck her nipple. While nipping and licking the pebbled peak, I drifted a hand lower and smoothed two fingers through her cunt. Warm arousal coated my fingers and knuckles as I dipped into her.
“You like that, Merce?”
“Yeah.” Her knees widened. “Fuck me, Beckett.”
I chuckled grittily. “Sure thing, baby.”
Balanced on one elbow, I lined myself up with her entrance and nudged in. A hoarse groan rose in my throat as her warmth sheathed my cock.
“Shit,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “I definitely ain’t gonna last long.”
Mercedes’s nails dug into my ass, coaxing me to move. I claimed her lips quickly before rearing back. My first thrust made her gasp. The second made her groan, and as the last of my restraint broke, she cried out when my movements became frantic and unhinged.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” I chanted as my orgasm gathered so fast the release sent me crashing onto her.
Her hands rhythmically ran up and down my back as I fought to regain my senses. I had my mouth on hers, kissing her sweetly in contrast to taking her rough, when a noise outside the house had me stilling.
This time I wasn’t tripping; I fucking heard something for sure. I carefully pressed my hand over Mercedes’s mouth and cocked my head to listen. A loud screech running along the window had us both jolting with fright.
Mercedes screamed under my palm—the sound muffled yet chilling.
“Shh, Merce,” I commanded in an urgent whisper. “I’mma need you to stay calm while I deal with it, okay?”
Her frantic nod moved my hand up and down as a whimper escaped.
“I’m gonna get off you now, but— Fuck!”
Another screeching noise across the window sent a fresh ripple of goosebumps down my spine. I’d heard of kids running wet polystyrene along windows to scare people in their homes at night, so I figured this was something similar.
Mercedes’s entire body trembled under mine, and her rapid breathing punched in and out of her nostrils.
“I know it sounds fucking terrifying, babe, but I need you to be really quiet once I uncover your mouth, okay?”
After another frantic nod came from beneath my hand, I slowly peeled myself off her and climbed off the bed.
“Stay there and stay quiet,” I breathed out while tying off the condom.
As I dropped it to the floor, Mercedes reached out and snagged my arm. “Where are you going?” she whispered in a terrified, high-pitched tone.
I detached her hand and kissed her knuckles. “To take out the trash, baby. Stay. Here.” I reiterated with no room for argument.
When the haunting screech made Mercedes whimper again, I bent both edges of her pillow up to cover her ears and squeezed. “Keep it like this, Mercedes.”
Her hands replaced mine to hold the pillow in place, then I tugged on my jeans and picked my way through her bedroom, keeping to the shadows as I made my way into the hallway.
The old floorboards creaked with each step toward the back door, and as I reached it, I heard footsteps crossing the deck outside.
The door handle jostled, but the lock held firm. As if someone trying to get into the cottage didn’t enrage me enough, the telltale jingle of instruments entering the old lock to try to pick it had me seeing red.
I assumed it was Landon, and I knew exactly why a motherfucker like him would be breaking into a woman’s house at three in the morning.
Anger gathered and fed the monsters in my soul. They rose from the depths and shook off their slumber, happy to be awoken from a long period of inactivity.
Just like murderers were categorized in jail and welcomed with a ritual that had scars burned into my innermost being, women-beaters, rapists, and pedophiles were treated the way they deserved. Most of them didn’t last a month. Especially the pedophiles. All it took was a complacent guard and an opportune second to land a shank to the throat. Or a gang rape to remind those motherfuckers what it was like to have a cock enter your body without permission.
As the intruder worked the lockpick from the outside, I slowly slid the chain off and turned the deadbolt. I waited like a kid in a candy store for the asshole to be stupid enough to enter.
He didn’t disappoint either. I became one with the shadows as the door inched open, and as soon as a face peeked around the door, I grabbed the motherfucker by the throat.
A low-toned strangled gasp confirmed it was a guy, and my fist flew within a second, connecting with his face with a wicked crunch. Then again. And again. Over and over until his hands desperately yet futilely fought off my attack.
Having dazed him enough to pull him completely into the cottage, I flicked the nearest light switch and growled when Landon squinted against the sudden brightness.
“I’ve been waiting for you, asshole,” I sneered, pinning him to the wall with my hand around his throat. My monsters silently willed him to say the wrong thing, to put one step out of line and give me yet another reason to land a fist.
“You fucking put your hands on my girl and now you’ll pay the price,” I seethed.
“B-Beckett,” he rasped out. “You’re back.”
“Yeah, motherfucker, I’m back. Glad to see me?”
“Fuck you!” he spat, complete with a wad of spit landing between my eyes.
The insult had me and my demons unable to see through rage. Noting his left hand wrapped in bandages, I punched that and crowed when he cried out in pain.
“Feel that?” I sneered. “That’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you, bitch. Now get on the motherfucking floor!”
When he didn’t drop to my feet as commanded, I punched him in the gut until his knees gave out.
“There’s a good little bitch,” I praised wickedly, taking his head and forcing it into the floorboards and hearing a satisfying crunch. “Now, you owe my girl two teeth. Fair’s fair, right?”
I stood on the back of his head, stamping until blood pooled under his face.
“Fight back, you pussy,” I yelled, just as scuffing footsteps brought Mercedes into view.
She stood frozen in the doorway, hand pressed to her mouth, horrified by the scene.
Grabbing a handful of Landon’s hair, I forced him to rear back and look at Mercedes.
“See her, you cunt? This is the last time you set eyes on her. Touch her? You fucking die. Glance at her? You’re dead. So much as think about breathing within a hundred-mile radius from where she’s at? I’ll fucking hunt you down and throw you to the wolves I shared cells with. They’ll fuck you so hard that the rest of your teeth will rattle from your jaw. Now, what do you say to my girl, Landon?”
His eyes flicked up to mine. “Fuck you, cunt,” he spat through a bloody mouth.
“Wrong answer.” My fist collided with his eye socket, making him woozy and off balance. “Try again, asshole. And make it believable or you’ll get another punch.”
Landon panted heavily and struggled to think through the daze. “I-I’m sorry.”
“For,” I coaxed.
“Foooor…”
Irritated by his fucking dithering, I leaned down and hissed in his ear, “For being a bitch and beating up a woman. Say it. For. Being. A. Bitch…”
“For being a bitch,” he stammered.
“And beating up a woman.”
“And beating up a woman.”
“Good boy,” I praised crudely, slapping his face hard in time with my words and making his jaw jolt together. “That wasn’t hard, was it?”
My attention shifted from the dog at my feet to Mercedes. “You wanna piss on him, baby?”
Her voice pitched. “What?”
“Piss on him. Now’s your chance. It’s how we treat dogs like him.”
“No Beckett, I don’t want to piss on him!” she exclaimed in disbelief.
I nodded. “Okay. Anything else you want me to do to him? Just say the word.” There was literally nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
Mercedes shook her head as her wide eyes held mine. “Just take out the trash, Beckett.”
My upper lip curled into a sinister grin. “As you wish, babe.”
Hoisting Landon’s floppy body over my shoulder, I picked my way down the deck steps and crossed the backyard in bare feet. Reaching the rear fence, I tossed Landon over into the adjoining reserve, spat on him, and issued a final warning.
“Come around my girl again, and it’ll be the last time you walk this world. See you in hell, asshole.”
With that, I strolled back into the cottage as if I’d discarded nothing but a dead mouse for my angel.
I found Mercedes on her hands and knees scrubbing at Landon’s blood with a towel. I bobbed down and halted her movements by gently capturing her wrist.
“Go clean yourself up, Merce. I’ll deal with this.”
She nodded and hurried away without argument, and as I scrubbed, I prayed to a God I didn’t believe in that I hadn’t fucked up my most important second chance of all.