Chapter 3 Invalid #2
“Drop the fucking knife, or I’ll put a bullet in the other leg,” Sloane warned, her voice deadly sharp and loud, despite the pounding boot steps thundering from down the hallway.
“Fuck you, bitch,” he gritted out. “This little whore has it coming.”
Katherine’s eyes widened with shock as she stepped farther away from him. “How dare you!” she shrieked at him.
“What the FUCK is going on?” came a booming voice behind us, causing me to flinch. The last goddamn voice I wanted to hear.
Sloane released me as we watched Darren, Daniel, and several other guards enter the room, guns drawn and tensions high.
“This man was attacking Ms. Katherine,” Sloane offered, her gun remaining pointed at the guard still clutching the knife.
“What?!” shouted Daniel as he moved toward Katherine, looking her over from head to toe. “Did he hurt you?”
“I-I’m okay,” she stammered, clutching herself tighter.
“Isn’t he one of yours?” Darren asked, nodding at the guard before turning his eyes to Daniel.
“Yes, kill him,” Daniel ordered without even looking at him.
“Hold on! She’s a damn tease!” the guard suddenly shouted, pointing my knife at Katherine. “She’s been throwing herself at me for years!”
My stomach immediately dropped to my feet.
Darren swiftly turned and punched the guard in the mouth, knocking him on his ass and quickly removed my knife from his grasp.
Katherine gasped, a look of horror on her face. “That’s a lie! I would never do that, Daniel!”
But Daniel’s face was already turning murderous as he looked down at his now shaking wife. She placed her hands on his face, her eyes pleading with him.
“You know that’s not true. You know I’m only loyal to you,” she implored.
Daniel took a single step away from her, his head slowly shaking back and forth like he didn’t know who to believe.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, Daniel!” I called out. “You’re really gonna believe this asshole over your wife? This piece of shit was trying to strangle her!”
“Jaden, shut your mouth,” Darren ordered sternly, making me grit my teeth in response. I couldn’t believe this bullshit.
“Daniel, please believe me,” Katherine pleaded softly.
“Why was he trying to hurt you, Katherine? Huh? What did you do to draw his attention?” Daniel asked Katherine, his voice thick with venom. “What the fuck are you even doing in this room?”
Quickly glancing around, I realized we were standing in some kind of spare office area with full bookshelves, office furniture, and a fireplace. Katherine took a step back, her shoulders hunching as she looked up at him with sheer desperation.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I swear,” she murmured.
“Bullshit!” he roared down at her, making her flinch. And then he quickly reached for her throat, yanking her to him. “You think I’m going to let you pull this kind of shit again!?”
Oh no.
“She’s a lying little whore! I have proof!” the guard shouted from the floor as blood coated his mouth.
The glare that grew on Daniel’s face had me genuinely concerned for Katherine’s safety.
“Take him to the shed,” Daniel ordered as he glared down at Katherine, her face becoming red from how tight he was clearly squeezing.
The guards immediately seized the man, hauling him up from the floor and dragging him toward the exit, his shouts and threats completely ignored.
Daniel’s hand remained on Katherine’s throat, even as her fingers gripped at his wrist, pleading for release.
“Daniel, I swear. I would never,” she begged.
But Daniel’s face twisted into something hideous.
“Liar,” he seethed. He then released her throat and backhanded her across the face, the force of the blow knocking her to the ground. He didn’t even give her a chance to get up before he started kicking her in the stomach.
I bolted for him.
“Daniel, stop!” I shouted. But just as I was about to reach him, a steel band snaked around my middle and hauled me off the ground, forcing my back into a wall of hard muscle.
“Let me go!” I shrieked as I fought against the hold.
I could still hear Katherine’s cries as I was pulled from the room, the door slamming shut behind us.
I quickly found myself shoved up against the wall of the hallway with a very angry Darren seething down at me. His hands were braced against the walls on either side of my head, caging me in, my nose inches from his chest.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing there?” he roared down at me, causing my body to stiffen in response. He towered over me like a dark menacing giant, and I was instantly reminded of just how fucking small I was compared to him, how pathetically insignificant.
But anger fueled my usual stupidity.
“Well, you know me,” I spat out bitterly as I scowled up at him.
Like I’d stand there and watch Daniel kick the shit out of his wife right in front of me. The anger reflected in his eyes matched mine, the tension between us thick with chaos.
“Yeah, I know just how much you love to put yourself in places you don’t belong.”
“Fuck you. A guard nearly murders your sister-in-law and the only thing you care about is what I did to help her.”
That earned me a quick slap to the face, the initial shock that he would still strike me while carrying his child suddenly dawning on me.
“Watch your mouth. Katherine is not as innocent as you think she is,” he growled down at my stunned form.
“It wouldn’t be the first time Daniel has caught her compromising her loyalty to her husband. ”
That made me pause only for a second. I couldn’t imagine with Katherine’s grooming that she would have made a mistake like that. But even if she did, it didn’t matter.
“I don’t care what she’s done,” I shot back. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to watch Daniel beat the shit out of her!”
“Then you should have left the room,” he snapped. “In fact, you shouldn’t have been there at all.” His dark eyes quickly glanced at Sloane in disappointment before returning to mine.
The doors behind us suddenly burst open, Daniel storming out into the hallway with a barely conscious and bruised Katherine hanging over his shoulder. Several guards followed them, reclaiming their posts throughout the house.
“Da—” I tried to shout at Daniel for being a piece of shit, but Darren’s hand slammed against my mouth, pressing the back of my head painfully into the wall.
“What Daniel does with his wife is none of my concern, which means it isn’t yours either,” he snarled. He then held up my throwing knife for me to see. “I am curious as to why you decided to give her assailant a weapon, though.”
I furrowed my brows until he finally removed his hand so I could speak.
“Someone stopped me before I could finish the job,” I growled.
Darren’s eyes narrowed at me, the glare on his face becoming more menacing by the second. “A job that wasn’t yours to begin with.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have a guard to torture somewhere?” I replied dismissively.
“This isn’t a fucking joke, Jaden!” Darren roared down at me, making me flinch again, my shoulders instinctively hunching in a protective stance.
“You’re pregnant now! Which means you have to start thinking about protecting our child instead of everyone else.
This is exactly why I’ve been so strict with you since we returned home, and still, you defy me!
You cannot put yourself in situations of conflict anymore! ”
“I’m not an invalid, Darren!” I shouted back, shoving against his chest and getting absolutely nowhere. It was like trying to move a brick wall. “I’m still just as capable—”
His hand returned to my mouth, his fingers pressing into my jaw and squeezing too hard.
“Absolutely not,” Darren growled. “This is not a debate. If you put yourself in conflict like that again, I will chain you to the bed for the rest of your pregnancy. I will not have you risking the safety of our child because of your pride. You have Sloane and Camaro for a reason. Let them do their jobs. Do you understand me?”
The dark warning in his eyes had my stomach clenching harder than I was used to, but it didn’t stop me from grabbing at his wrist with both hands and failing miserably to remove him.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Sloane stepping closer, concern etched across her face while Camaro whined at her side.
My muscles tensed under Darren’s threat. It didn’t come as a surprise, not in the slightest. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fucking bullshit. And the further along I got in my pregnancy, the stricter he would become. I’d be lucky to be able to walk outside by the time my third trimester hit.
“Jaden, I swear to God, if you defy me on this even once, you’ll be witnessing a lot more than just fantasy snuff films,” he warned, impatiently waiting for my submission.
My stomach immediately shriveled up, the dark bloody memories of what I had watched those women endure haunting my vision.
I’d managed to compartmentalize it all away, and my good girl behavior kept me from suffering it again.
But it seemed my unexpected change in hormones was affecting my mood and rationality.
“I understand,” I replied angrily even though his hand muffled my response.
Releasing his hold on my mouth, he exhaled a deep breath of satisfaction and ran his knuckles gently down the side of my glaring face. His jaw remained clenched, the hardness in his eyes reminding me that the man I was married to was not a man of compromise.
If I seriously had a choice, I’d rather he lock me away for the duration of my pregnancy than spend even five seconds listening to another condemned woman scream for mercy.
Without warning, his hand wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled me to him, his lips suddenly pressing down on mine in a deep kiss.
As much as I wanted to deny him, I relaxed my body instead, opening my mouth to allow his tongue to claim mine.
The less I fought him, the sooner he’d get what he wanted and leave me the fuck alone.
But the deeper he kissed me, the harder it was to ignore the heat growing at my core, my body conditioned to respond to his dominance.
“Now I have a guard to torture,” he emphasized, abruptly releasing me and storming down the hallway, leaving me there aroused and confused as shit.
“What the fuck,” I whispered under my breath, watching Darren disappear from my sight.
I looked back at Sloane who was standing down the hallway with Camaro, a blank expression on her face. She had even less of a clue than I did.
Turning on my heels, I marched my ass upstairs and stopped in the middle of the hallway, seething and clutching at the idea of looking for Katherine. I needed to know if she was alright. But I knew the damn answer to that already. She was probably still fucking unconscious.
“Don’t do it, Jaden. It’s not worth it,” Sloane said from the staircase.
My muscles tensed at her warning, my entire body stiff with anger, just juicing to end Daniel myself. I swore I’d see that motherfucker die before this child was born. My loyalty to Matt’s vendetta against him had suddenly increased tenfold.