36. Duke
DUKE
Matt is strung up between two trees by ropes under his shoulders and around his chest, his feet dangling below. He’s been crying for the last five minutes and begging for water.
He’s already pissed himself, his jeans soaked through with it. The stench of urine mixes with the cow manure.
I walk up beside him and lean down to whisper in his ear, “Hey, what was it that you told Dallas you would do to her if she didn’t clean up your messes?”
I grab his hand, separating out one of his fingers. “Oh, right, you told her you’d break her fingers.”
I slide the metal pliers out of my back pocket and clamp it over his index finger.
“No, no! Please, please don’t!”
I twist the pliers back, snapping his bone with a loud crunch. He roars in pain, screaming so loud that I have to take a step back.
“You better pray it’s not your neck next time. What else did you say? I think she told me that you liked to threaten to strangle her until she wasn’t breathing before you would bury her body in a field where no one would find it. Isn’t that what you said you would do?”
He spits near my boots, tears streaming down his face. “She’s a whore anyway. Enjoy my leftovers!”
“I also remember you telling her something about slamming her head into a wall. I don’t have one of those out here, but there is this tree.”
I loosen up his ropes just enough to slam his head into the trunk of the tree. Blood spurts from the point of impact. He roars in pain, his eyes widening in panic.
“Please, please, I’ll do anything you want. Anything!”
I grab my rope, ready to silence him forever so he can’t talk about her like that ever again. I wrap it around his head and pull it tight. I take the other end and tie it to the tree nearby.
I’m overheated with rage. When I feel a hand on my shoulder, I flinch. Holden squeezes it, tugging me back.
“Not tonight.”
I release a heavy exhale and turn around.
I bend down and whisper in Matt’s ear. “Don’t ever speak to her again. Leave the state. You don’t have an ex-wife or any kids. If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you on sight.”
I want him to think he’ll be worm food if he ever comes near her again.
That’s all a sick fuck like him is good for anyway.
After a long, steamy shower, my muscles ache from the events of the night. My knuckles are raw from punching bone.
I place a hand on the cold shower tiles and watch the dirt, mixed with dried blood, swirl down the drain.
What if Dallas doesn’t forgive me for this?
I want her to be free and clear of any chance of being affiliated with what I did to her ex-husband, so I’m not telling her what happened. She might break it off with me if she knew.
Who am I kidding? I know she would.
I told her I’d killed men in the past, and by the look on her face, I knew she was mortified.
I’m trying to come to grips with what I did to her ex and the fact that I’ve destroyed my chance at love and a happy relationship.
I had to threaten him to keep her safe, to protect her boys.
I couldn’t let them continue to be hurt. I couldn’t watch her live in constant fear and anxiety about whether or not they were safe and okay when they were with their sperm donor.
I slam my fist against the wall, groaning deeply.
I’m going to lose her for this.
“Duke?” A soft voice echoes through the bathroom.
I turn to face her. She must have woken up when I turned the light on in here.
“Hey, baby. Sorry if I woke you.”
She steps up to the shower glass, chewing her bottom lip. One of my cutoff T-shirts is falling off her shoulder, the faded Blue Moon logo on the front molded over her nipples.
“Are you coming to bed? I’m cold.” Her voice sounds small, like she’s worried I might say no.
I reach for the shower knob and twist it off. I step out onto the rug and grab a towel to dry off.
“Yes, darlin’, I’m coming to bed.”
When I finally look back up at her, she’s peering up at me with wide, worried eyes. A part of my heart splinters when I think about how I just potentially ruined this while attempting to save her.
I dry the rest of my body before hanging up the towel and pulling her into a tight hug. She sighs against my shoulder.
“I was worried,” she murmurs.
I have a feeling nothing gets past Dallas. Lying to her isn’t something I want to make a habit out of, but this feels necessary for her safety. The coming weeks aren’t going to be easy when her ex’s family realizes he’s missing.
“I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere.” I press a kiss to her temple.
“Come hold me. Please,” she begs.
“Gladly.”
Three days later, Dallas is working, which means I’m sitting at Lucky’s Pub at her bar, warding off any potential suitors. If they look like respectful heavy tippers, I let them slide.
Holden let Matt go. He said we scared him shitless, and after hanging for forty-eight hours from the ropes around his arms, he was dangerously close to suffocating and dying.
He still might not make it. If we’re lucky, he never woke up after my brother dumped him in the bed of his truck.
Or he’s at the police station right now. And I might be going to jail.
But I don’t think he’d tell the cops about what we did because if he did, he knows I’d tell them he was trying to meet up with a minor. So, hopefully, he keeps his mouth shut and does what I told him, which is to sign over his parental rights and never see or speak to Dallas again.
After a few hours, I’m nursing my second beer when the owner of the pub, Lucky, stands in front of the mic and taps on it. He has two long white braids hanging over his shoulders.
“Hey, y’all. We got a new promotion going tonight.
Our hurricane shot is usually fifty dollars, but we’re giving it away to one lucky winner.
Check the bracelet you got when you came in.
It should have a number on the side. If you have the number 1-7-8-3, you’re the lucky winner!
Go see the pretty blond bartender Dallas here in the center of the bar to collect your winnings.
And if you see how she does it and it looks like something your lonely ass would like to experience, let her or one of the other bartenders know pronto. ”
He grins with his tobacco-stained teeth and steps off the stage. I groan, checking my bracelet. A man with a beer belly comes barreling toward the bar.
“It’s me! I got the number! I win!”
He’s grinning from ear to ear, as if he just won the lottery.
I guess he fucking did.
I step up to him, and he stands an inch taller than me with at least fifty pounds on me.
“I think you have something of mine.”
He blinks at me, confused. “Huh?”
I smirk at him. “That bracelet. I think it’s mine.”
The unhinged side of me has lost all sense of boundaries when it comes to Dallas Hayes.
The man’s eyes darken. “The hell it is, boy. It’s yours if you can take it.”
“Deal.”
I clench my fist and plunge it into his chubby face. He rears back from the surprise of the impact, his body jolting back. My fist comes down on his face again as mayhem ensues around us.
A man, probably one of his friends, tries to hit me, but I dodge it. He ends up punching the guy behind me on accident.
The guy is enraged at the intrusion on his night from our bullshit.
There’s so much happening that I can’t keep up. All I know is, I’m hitting the winner of the contest as hard as I can repeatedly until he stops fighting back. I slide the switchblade out of my pocket and cut the bracelet with the winning number off of his wrist.
I step over his body and the unknown knocked-out man behind him. I step up to the bar where Dallas is waiting, her jaw hanging open.
She’s clutching a bottle of tequila in her left hand with a cup of water in her right.
I lift up the bracelet. “Hey there, darlin’. I think I won the contest. Can I get my prize?”
She blinks at me, looking around with wide eyes. The place is in complete chaos, so she rolls her eyes and shrugs.
“Congratulations.”
She sits up on the edge of the bar, curling her finger toward me. I step up between her thighs, my body heating.
I have no idea how to convince her I can’t take her doing this shot for any other man, not anymore.
I want her to quit this job and stay home with the boys so I can take care of her.
She can get another job if she wants, but I’m getting sick of having to sit up here for most of her shift to make sure no one messes with her.
But I know I can’t say that. It has to be her choice.
“You’re gonna get me fired,” she whispers.
I look down over her, the skimpy cropped top and Daisy Dukes making her look so unbelievably sexy that I wish I could take my shirt off and wrap it around her.
Mine, mine, mine.
“Damn. Sorry.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “You don’t seem very sorry.”
“I am. I really am.”
My stomach clenches when she grabs my upper thigh. The need for her approval, for her just to like me, is so strong that it overwhelms me. I’ve never cared about anyone like this. No woman has ever affected me this way.
I would’ve killed him for her.
I wanted to. My brother stopping me is the only reason I didn’t.
But even more so, I would embarrass myself and destroy my reputation for her.
Even after my brother stole my first girlfriend right from under me, I felt slighted, but I got over it within a few days.
She lifts the tequila bottle to her lips and fills her mouth with it. She sets it down on the counter and leans over, grabbing my jaw and spitting it between my lips. She gets closer this time than she did before.
Once it’s all out, she rears back, splashes me with the water, and slaps me hard across the cheek.
I whistle, shaking my head as I lean toward her. “You enjoyed that a lot, didn’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Taking out some frustration on me?”
“I … I guess I am, yes.” Her voice is quivering.
I slide my hand up her thigh, my fingers squeezing around her flesh when I get close to her hips.
“You go right ahead, darlin’. I can take it.
I want it all—all your darkness, all your rage, and the pent-up reactions you’ve always had to keep hidden.
I’m here to take the broken pieces of you and fuse them back together.
It might be painful and brutal and messy, but I’m in love with you.
I won’t give up until you’re whole again. ”