Time slowed.
Mav could hear the blood rushing through his ears. His eyes never left Alexander’s. And because he was so focused on the predator in front of him, he didn’t register the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs or see Nina when she appeared in the doorway.
It was only when she said, ‘You don’t have to hurt him, Alex. I’m here,’ that Mav felt true fear.
He went from calm and ready to panicked and frantic the moment Nina entered the equation. Because if he died, he was just dead. But if she died, his body would keep living without a heart. ‘Nina—’
‘Oh, no. This is perfect.’ Alexander waved her into the room with the gun. ‘Tell him the truth,’ he spat. ‘Tell him how you led me on and then forgot about me the moment you got what you needed from me.’
Nina looked into Mav’s eyes, and even though she said, ‘I led him on,’ her eyes frantically said everything else.I love you.I’m sorry.I’m scared.
‘No, you didn’t,’ Mav argued, drawing Alexander’s attention back to him. ‘He’s insane. He’s a predator with a narcissistic bent. And he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison.’ Turning to Alexander, he taunted him. ‘What happened to you? Huh? Do you struggle to get a hard-on, Alex?’
‘Shut up!’
‘Mav,’ Nina begged quietly.
‘Oh, I think I hit a nerve,’ Mav mocked, even as he braced to take Alexander down.
‘You know nothing!’
‘Is that why you have to hold a woman down to get her to have sex with you?’ Mav asked, deliberately pulling all that contained fury towards him.
A roar filled Mav’s ears, and he wasn’t sure if it was from Alex or the blood in his own head.
Alexander turned the gun on Nina.
Mav didn’t think.
He lunged.
He heard the shot as he took Alex to the ground. Alexander might have been toned, but he didn’t lift heavy shit on a ranch all day. Mav pinned him down easily.
There was one sickening moment where he turned around, his heart completely still, but the instant he confirmed that Nina was all right, standing in the corner, pale and in shock, he unleashed the full force of his rage on Alexander.
There was no mercy left in him. Mav let the fury come. He alternated left and right hooks to Alexander’s face until the man’s eyes rolled back in his head and his skin was a canvas of bloody, swollen flesh. And, still, he didn’t stop. With every thwack of his fist on bloody flesh, he reminded himself of what this man had done to his family, to other families, and he felt nothing but sick satisfaction.
After a full minute, his arms were numb from wrist to armpit.
‘Mav.’
He threw one last punch as Nina’s shell-shocked voice punched through the adrenaline.
‘Mav,’ she said again, and this time she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Stop.’
He slumped against her.
As the adrenaline drained from his body, he felt the searing pain for the first time.
Nina released a warbled sob and clawed frantically at his shirt, pulling it from his jeans so that she could look.
He knew it was bad. He could feel the blood draining from him, leaving him light-headed.
‘Oh, my God. Mav!’
‘Don’t worry. I’m gonna be okay.’
‘What do I do?’
