Chapter 23
Dakota
Shutting off the headlights, I carefully pulled over two houses down from mine, parking where the street lamps couldn’t reveal my arrival. Upon leaving my car, I made quick strides along the neighbor’s hedges, stalking through the shadows until I reached the side of my house.
Before rounding the corner into the backyard, I was slammed against the metal siding, a hand covering my mouth before I could speak, and a hard object pressing into my stomach.
“What are you doing?” Rhylan hissed, glancing over his shoulder and around the corner, making sure no one was around and had spotted us. “And why are you sneaking around the side of your house?”
Jerking my head to the side, I freed my face from his palm and bared my teeth with rage.
“It’s mine. Did you fucking follow me?” I snarled like a rabid possum protecting its young before peering down at what he’d held against me, my eyes flicking up to meet his with a look of confusion. “Is that a baseball bat?”
“Yes and… yes.”
“What were you planning to do with that? Attempt to score a home run on me after already striking out?” Not the time for sarcasm, but I couldn’t help myself.
Startled by the sound of breaking glass, followed by a hard thud and a whimpered cry, I strong-armed the bat from Rhylan’s hands, shoving him aside with the barrel before proceeding toward the back porch.
“What are you going to do with that, Wildcat?” His tone carried a gentle warning, but at this point, there wasn’t anything he could say that would stop me. My decision was made, and I’d been waiting a long fucking time for this.
“Go home, Rhy.” I snapped over my shoulder, twirling the handle of the bat with my wrist to warm it up.
You don’t want to see what I’m about to do… And that was the last thing I wanted. For Rhylan to know just how fucked up I’d become over the years, what happens to a woman’s morals when they’ve been tested to their fullest extent. To bear witness to my madness in action.
“Dakota!” Rhylan growled just as I’d stepped inside, the shattered pieces of glass crunching beneath my shoes with every step.
Reaching the living room, I froze after spotting Tiffany on the floor, cowering between the couch and coffee table; trembling, terrified, as a man I remembered all too well stood over her with a fist raised in the air. My vision went red.
“Jaiden, you motherfucker.” Adjusting my grip on the bat, I took a few steps forward. “Get the fuck away from her, you’ve done enough damage—”
“D, don’t, he’s got a—”
Jaiden lowered his arm as he turned to face me, my eyes catching the Glock tucked into the waistband of his jeans.
“Dakota. It’s been a while, babe. Glad you could stop in for the reunion.”
“Fuck off, I’m not your, babe, you piece of shit. Never was and never have been.” His nickname for me, knotting my stomach all over again.
“You say that now, but if I remember correctly, you used to enjoy our late-night rendezvous.” Vitriolic thoughts started creeping through my mind; of all the nights he came to visit—stayed with Tiffany—only to sneak into my room after she’d fallen asleep.
My grip tightened, shoulders tensing as flashbacks pulled me back into the void he left behind; the tortured soul he’d created from the secrets I was forced to hide in an effort to protect my sister.
“Shut up, Jaiden. Just—shut the fuck up!” I threw everything I had into my first swing, aiming for his head. All the anger and aggression I’d bottled up over the years, fueling my drive for vengeance.
With a loud grunt, Jaiden just barely dodged the bat, and I quickly pulled back, going in with one shot after another, wailing on him like a fucking pinata until I split skin.
“D!”
“Run, Tiff.” I ground out through a labored exhale. “Get the hell out of here, now!” I didn’t want her to see this, any of it. She didn’t need to witness the murder of a man she’d once planned on marrying before he was hauled off to jail.
I hit him again, this time across the temple, droplets of blood spattering across the hardwood. Tiffany shook her head in response, unable to speak and unwilling to leave me behind, knowing what he was capable of when provoked to an extreme.
“Tiff!” I hissed one final time, begging my sister to flee, to protect herself.
Her eyes brimmed with tears as she picked herself up from the floor and took flight through the front door, forcing herself not to look back while I held our abuser’s attention.
“Still got that fearless spark I see.” Jaiden laughed like a goddamn psycho as he grabbed the barrel mid-swing and used it to pull me toward him, wrapping his hand around my throat when I was within reach.
Even beaten and bloody, he still acted as if I’d done nothing to injure him.
“You’re… pa-thetic…” I managed to wheeze, right before he lifted me off the floor, and threw me against the side of the staircase, my head smashing into the wall with a loud crack.
I didn’t get a chance to catch my breath before he was on me again, this time dragging my body up the wall by the neck, his palm squeezing a little tighter.
“You cost me everything, Dakota. I had it all until you ratted me out.” The malice that dripped from his voice had my heart racing as his rage sank into me through his icy touch.
“You took… too much.” My fingers dug into his forearm as I fought for air, my only weapon landing clear across the room after he’d thrown me.
I was defenseless; weak compared to him, even in his compromised state, crimson trailing down the side of his face from the open cut on his forehead.
“I took what I deserved, you and your sister.” His words churned my stomach, bile climbing its way toward my throat, burning me from the inside. “I would’ve been so good to both of you. Spoiling my girls like no man ever could.”
His girls. His fucking girls.
“You… ruined… me…”
“I made you mine.”
No sound was more bloodcurdling to hear than the word ‘mine’ in such a guttural tone. The unwelcome possessiveness, the feeling of being nothing more than his property, when I never asked for it. It made me realize that there was only one person in the world that I’d allow to stake such a claim.
“Get your hands off my Wildcat before I fucking break them.” …Rhylan.
“And who the fuck are you?”
I violently squirmed, kicking my feet out when Jaiden’s grip tightened and he stared Rhylan down like a merciless predator.
“I’m the guy that’s going to beat your ass to a bloody pulp if you don’t let go of my girl. So I suggest you listen like a good boy… Or don’t. Honestly, I really don’t give a fuck what you do, I’m gonna kill you anyway just for touching her.”
Jaiden barked a sickening laugh, completely unfazed by Rhylan’s threat as he pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed it in his direction.
“Highly unlikely, my friend. I believe I have you outmatched, gun versus… nothing. And, for the record, Dakota was mine before she ever crossed paths with the likes of you. You have no claim here; this isn’t a game of finder’s keepers.”
Rhylan didn’t bat an eye at Jaiden’s bold statement, just slid his hands into his pockets and casually paced over to lean against the archway that divided the living room from the kitchen.
He had no gun, no weapon in sight, and was so… unbothered…
My eyes darted around the room, falling to where the bat had landed, at least, where I thought I’d spotted it. Where the fuck…
“Look, I’m all about fairness in love and war.
But I don’t think you’re understanding just who the fuck you’re dealin’ with.
Now, I’ve already given you a fair warning and far more chances than the last fucker who crossed me, but I’ll be a nice guy for a change and give you one more. Let. Dakota. Go.”
I couldn’t tell if it was the lack of oxygen from Jaiden’s palm wrapped around my throat or Rhylan’s white knight speech that had me falling weak, melting into the wall.
“Empty fucking threats, I’ll put a bullet in you and then fuck her right beside your dying corpse. How’s that for a fair fucking warning?” Jaiden glanced at me with a wink, and I knew exactly what was coming next. “Blow your boy a kiss, babe, it’ll be his last.”
“Rhy!—” Bang!
As Jaiden pulled the trigger, I shut my eyes, a sharp whimper escaping my chest as it tightened from the sound; a shockwave running through my nervous system like an electromagnetic charge.
He released his hold on me, and I sank toward the ground, burying my face in my knees to avoid witnessing the death of a man I’d just fallen for.
“You dirty motherfucker—”
“Fight like a man instead of a pussy next time.” The sound of Rhylan’s mocking voice had my head snapping up, the hairs standing at the back of my neck as I watched him split Jaiden’s skull with one forceful swing, his body collapsing to the floor, motionless, blood rapidly pooling around his head—
“Marry me, Dakota.” I uhh, excuse me? Just how hard did I hit my fucking head?
Rhylan was standing at my feet with a hand extended, and I stared blankly at it in shock, feeling as though I’d been catapulted into an alternate reality from the gunshot.
“Are you insane?” My eyes darted from the deceased body to his, brows creasing with confusion.
“Evidently. What gave me away, Wildcat?” Rhylan raised the bat, its barrel soaked with blood, and rested it against his shoulder, completely unperturbed by our slightly problematic situation.
“You—you killed him…” Still in shock, clearly, seeing as that’s pretty fucking obvious.
“You were planning on doing the same, weren’t you? Hence, why you stormed in here with my bat—by the way, good to know you understood its purpose.”
“Yes, but—but… what?” What the fuck is happening right now?
“Marry me, and this all goes away, as if it never happened. As if he never set foot through your front door.”
“H-How? What about Tiff?” How was I going to explain this to her? Could I even?
“I can’t tell you anything unless you say yes. Marry me, darlin’. Let me protect you.”
Sirens of emergency vehicles could be heard in the distance as I focused on the warm eyes of my knight in blood-covered armor, filled with passion and devotion.
I had to be out of my goddamn mind…
“Yes.”