Opening the front door, she called out immediately, pretending like she knew Lindsay was there, and Lindsay was expecting her. “Linds, I’m here, it’s Ashlyn,” she called out, and the angry voice she could hear immediately stopped.
Gathering every drop of courage she’d ever possessed, she continued down the hall and strolled into the family room like nothing was wrong. When she got there, she saw that three of the chairs from the kitchen table had been thrown and were lying in pieces on the floor, and the young man she knew only as Everett and had never met before, had Lindsay backed up against a wall.
Seeing the fear on Lindsay’s face and the red mark on her cheek that would soon blacken into a nasty bruise shifted her protective instincts into overdrive. Lindsay may hate her, but the teenager was part of Grant, and Ashlyn loved Grant, so by association she cared deeply about this girl, too, one day she hoped to love her.
“What's going on?” she demanded.
“Is that her?” Everett sneered. “The woman your dad’s dating? The one you wanted to get rid of?”
Get rid of?
Why did that sound a whole lot more ominous than just wanting to break them up when it came from the mouth of a teenage boy who’d just trashed the room and hit his girlfriend?
“It’s fine, she’s not so bad, my dad likes her,” Lindsay mumbled, shooting her an apologetic glance, and she wondered if the teenager and her boyfriend had really discussed doing something drastic to get rid of her permanently.
Regardless, Ashlyn had chosen her path, and she didn't want to see Lindsay hurt worse than she already was.
“You need to leave, now,” she told Everett. While she wanted him here to get arrested the second Grant or some cops showed up, her first priority was protecting Lindsay, and to do that, she needed the boyfriend out.
“Actually, Lindsay and I weren't finished chatting,” Everett drawled.
“You mean you weren't finished beating on her,” she corrected. “Lindsay, come over here. Now.”
If she could just get Lindsay out of the room, she could figure out her next move, but right now fear for the girl was making it hard to think of anything else. Everett had already struck Lindsay at least once. She didn't want it to happen again.
“Actually, I think Linds is going to stay right where she is,” Everett ordered when Lindsay went to move, and the teenager immediately froze.
When the young man pulled back his arm to hit Lindsay again, Ashlyn didn't think, she just acted.
Darting forward, she grabbed Everett’s wrist, preventing him from striking Lindsay.
“Don’t,” she warned. “Don’t do this, Everett. Don’t make things worse than they already are.”
Spinning around, he used her hold on his wrist to his advantage and reached his hand down to grab hold of her, breaking her hold and then throwing her against the table.
Ashlyn connected with it with a sickening crack, before sinking down to the floor, and pain spiraled through her body. She had no idea what damage he’d caused, but at least his attention was on her now and not on Lindsay.
“Run, Lindsay,” she yelled, well, croaked was probably a more accurate term.
“Stay, Linds. This was what you wanted, wasn't it? To punish her for stealing your dad’s attention and love?”
There was a manic grin on the boy’s face as he closed the short distance between them, pulled back his foot, and slammed it into her ribs, and Ashlyn felt all the air leave her lungs in a rush.
“You wanted this, Linds, admit it. Tell her all about how you complained to me about her, bragged about how you were prepared to do anything to get her out of your dad’s life,” Everett continued as he kicked her again, in the stomach this time, and Ashlyn struggled to get her lungs to reinflate.
“I never wanted this,” Lindsay screamed. “I never really wanted her hurt. I was just angry and wanted her to go away.”
“We can make her go away now, can't we, Linds,” Everett sing-songed. “A few more kicks and we might be able to get her ribs to just snap into pieces, pierce her heart or her lungs, and then bye-bye, new step mommy.”
“No! Don’t! Just stop, Everett, please, I don’t want this. Stop, just stop.” Lindsay sobbed.
“Can't stop now, we’re having too much fun.” Everett shot her another one of those evil grins as his foot slammed into her again and again until the world began to shimmer and fade, no longer quite staying in focus.
If she passed out, it was all over.
Not just for her but for Lindsay, too.
Because Ashlyn was pretty sure that once he finished her off, Everett was going to turn his violence on Grant’s daughter.
