I let out a small breath of relief when I heard the kids’ excited voices cut off once they were safely inside. I didn’t look to see if they’d taken the dog with them or not. I was just assuming they had.
“They can’t just take my dog. Can you have them bring him back out?” She wasn’t looking behind me or anywhere else. Her eyes were locked in on me and I knew something bad was going to happen. I’d never felt so sure of anything in my life.
Another unfortunate side effect of being a public school teacher was I often felt ill-equipped to handle the situations we were told to prepare to find ourselves in. After yet another school massacre, I’d had nightmares for months about being caught in a position where I’d need to fight to protect my kids and notbeing able to fight at all. I’d signed up for self-defense classes and I was thanking everything holy in the world that I had right then.
“Who are you?” I didn’t know how I knew she was bad but I did. I knew she was there to hurt the kids and I just hoped everything about my face and stance told her how hard I was going to fight to keep her away from them.
Her smile dropped and she laughed.
“I assure you, I have more right to be here than you do. Are you fucking Dominic? His taste sure has changed…”
“Look, lady, if you’re some scorned lover, just let it go. Or come back when he’s free.”
“Scorned lover? Ha. I’m his wife.” She took two steps closer. “And I’m that boy’s mother. I’m taking him with me.”
A storm of emotions hit me all at once but I didn’t budge.
“No, you’re not. Not unless Dominic is standing right here with us and tells me that you’re allowed to see his son.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What right do you have to tell me that I can’t have my son? Get the hell out of my way, you cow.”
I braced myself just like I’d learned to so when she tried to shove me I didn’t budge. I braced my hands on her shoulders and pushed her away.
“Lady, you need to leave. Right now.”
I wasn’t expecting her to punch me so soon but she got me with a solid right fist to the cheek. She laughed when I cupped my face in shock.
“Get out of my way or there’s more of that coming your way. That’s my kid in there and I’m taking him. Fuck you and his asshole father. I have plans for him that no one’s going to stop.”
CHAPTER 45
Sutton
My entire body erupted in furious tingles.
“You’re not going to touch him.”
She swung at me again but I swung my arm up to protect my face and then surprised her by letting out a wild scream and launching myself at her. I didn’t know what I was doing but I just knew she wasn’t going anywhere near Ollie. I grabbed at her face, doing everything I could to crush it in my hands but really just scratching her and smashing her into the ground. She pushed at me but I was heavier than her and had the upper hand.
It didn’t stop her from yanking my hair, though, or from digging her nails into my neck. I drew my hand back and punched her as hard as I could. She screamed and managed to toss me off. Instead of running for Ollie, though, she jumped on top of me and wrapped her hands around my throat.
“You fucking stupid bitch. I’m taking him and he’s going to be the perfect little bargaining chip.” Her grip was fierce and I couldn’t breathe. “Killing his current whore is just going to be a plus.”
A flash of my self-defense instructor filled my brain and I let my body take over. I jammed my fingers into her eyes and then punched her in the chest when she reached up to grab at her eyes. She wheezed out a breath and glared at me with red eyes but I didn’t give her time to recover. I swung my arm from across my body to hit her in the side of the head with the hard bone in my wrist.
She fell off me and I rolled with her, kneeing her in the side multiple times when I did. When she was on the ground, coughing and trying to get her breath back, I stumbled to my feet and grabbed a whiffle bat the kids had been playing with daysearlier. I’d forgotten it outside and I’d never been more grateful when I turned with it in my hands and found her on her knees.
She looked like she had more to say but I didn’t care. I swung the little plastic bat with all my strength and hit her in the face. The crack of her nose was sickening but worth it when her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell backwards.
I dropped the bat and sank to my knees beside her limp body. I’d read enough to know that she most likely wouldn’t be out for that long. I yanked her tennis shoes off and ripped the strings from them. Tossing the shoes away I rolled the woman onto her stomach and did my best at tying her wrists in enough knots that I didn’t think she’d be able to free herself.
I’d sank back on my heels and sucked in a much needed breath of air when metal rattled next to my head. I jumped and spun around but it was just Charlie. Well. Charlie holding a pair of handcuffs, a roll of tape, and a ball of what I thought were socks.
“Charlie?”
She rolled her eyes and tugged one end of a shoelace just for it to immediately unbind and let the woman’s arms flop free.
