I grabbed her arm and she flipped out on me, acting like a damn crazed cat, hissing and spitting, scratching and kicking until I let her go again.
I followed her as she ran outside and toward his truck and started talking to college boy again, begging him to ignore me, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He looked over at me and I gave him a grim smile, my warning to move the fuck on because my offer to let him live was quickly expiring.
Laney grabbed at his arm when he tried to open the truck door, and he pushed her away. Unfortunately for him, too hard, and Laney fell sideways, landing on her side with a yelp.
Oh fuck no, he wasn’t getting away with that.
I stormed toward him, reveling in the fear that came from him as he climbed into his truck and tried to shut the door, but I got there before he could. I gripped the handle and ripped the door back open, and then my hands were dragging him from the truck and slamming him to the ground.
“No, Jesse! Don’t!” Laney screamed from next to me, but I ignored her in favor of my throbbing fists begging for blood.
It all turned into a blur as I pounded fist after fist into his face and chest, and the blood began to flow. He fought back, but his strength was nothing compared to my experience and my raging fury, and I lost count of how many times I smashed my knuckles into him.
All I know is that when the veil of red lifted, he was unconscious, I was covered in his blood, and there were two police officers aiming their guns at me.
I stopped hitting him and sagged back on my haunches, breathless and exhausted, my anger finally spent. Laney was hysterical and being held back by Charlie, both of them looking fucking petrified.
“Put your hands behind your head and get down on your front!” one of the officers yelled, while the other one got down on his knees and checked college boy’s pulse. He stood back up and spoke quickly into the walkie talkie at his shoulder.
“We need medics here ASAP—”
I zoned him out as I lay down on my front with my hands behind my head and my cheek pressed against the hot blacktop of the driveway, and I stared at Laney, wishing, for not the first time, that I was dead. Because in her eyes, I was dead now anyway.
She looked over at the man I had probably just beaten to death, one hand covering her mouth to stop the noises she was making from escaping. Charlie was holding her, her own gaze wide-eyed and in shock at what had just happened.
Sure, in this life, it wasn’t a surprising occurrence, but if, like I believed, Charlie had orchestrated the whole thing as a way to get Laney and I back together…well, shit, then it was just as much her fault as it was mine. Because you don’t set a trap for the devil and expect someone to live through it.
The sound of bikes pulling up drew my attention away from Charlie and Laney, just as one of the officers put his knee between my shoulder blades and grabbed my hands so he could cuff me. I grunted in pain as he pushed all of his weight onto the one spot.
“Jesse?” Casa yelled my name and started toward me, and I watched as Dom held him back.
The other cop had his gun aimed at Casa and the rest of my brothers that had turned up. Poor cop looked like he was about to crap himself, too. In the distance I could hear the sound of an ambulance, the distinct wails echoing through the neighborhood.
I looked back at Laney, watching the trail of tears streaming down her face. “What have you done, Jesse?” she sobbed, breaking what little piece of me there was left. “What the fuck have you done!?”
