Break, page 37
Stomping across the living room of Andy’s cabin, I come to a stop a foot in front of where my fucking wife is cowering on the floor. “HOW COULD YOU, YOU BITCH?”
Thank God for Andy. I met him at a business event. He was dating one of the women there, and we hit it off. When Ethan, Max, and Vincent stopped coming around as much, he and I began to hang out. He’s been my sounding board for years when it comes to the problems Mina has caused. It was just my luck that he was brought in to investigate me.
Getting a heads up on their plans and where Mina has been staying has been priceless. I owe him everything. There’s no place I could have stayed that the cops wouldn’t have thought to look. His cabin was the perfect place since no one really knew of our friendship.
Curling my lip at Mina, I release a screech of frustration. All she ever does is cower. But her sob is music to my ears. She should be crying. She’s betrayed me and threw away everything, ruining my life. All for their cocks.
Jabbing a finger in her direction, I can’t stop from snarling at her. “I knew you’d always go for the first cock you could find. Little precious Christian Mina was always a mask, wasn’t it? You’d barely spread your legs for me, but for them?” Holding my hands out to the side and tilting my head back, I scream, “YOU JUST OPEN RIGHT THE FUCK UP!”
“P-Please. You need to calm down. Please, Danny,” she chokes out, and I see fucking red.
Dropping to my knees in front of her, I grab her hair at the back of her head and jerk her face up to mine. “Calm down? How the fuck am I supposed to get out of this? Huh? How the fuck does my life go on from here? All I ever wanted was for you to do as you were told. Do what you promised you’d do.”
Throwing her to the side and away from me, I stand back up and begin to pace again, ignoring her shriek. She stays silent, thank God, so I can process what I’m going to do.
Stopping, I look back down at the woman who was supposed to be mine. Who is mine. “You know, they were all right about you.”
Pushing herself back up, she hangs her head, probably ashamed that I know what kind of person she is now. I want to fucking hurt her the way she hurt me.
My foot moves before I know it, kicking the side of her thigh, and I’m disappointed when she only sucks in a breath instead of crying out.
“My parents knew you weren’t good enough for me. They knew you’d cause me problems down the road. Mom always calls after we see them to tell me how disappointed she was when she’d see you. You never treated them like family. Just your presence around them would put a damper on our evening. It’s why I could never take you to my work events. All you do is embarrass me.”
I don’t hold back my sneer when she doesn’t react to my words. My eyes shoot around the cabin, looking for something, but I don’t know what I need.
Talking more to myself, I leave her and start to yank drawers open, searching for something I can use to hurt her.
“You know, the guys never had anything good to say about you, either. They’re just pissed at me and using you to get under my skin. From the moment they met you, they couldn’t stand you. You were this annoying little bug under our shoes, and every time you showed your face, they’d whisper how much of a loser you were. Did you know they tried to talk me out of marrying you?”
My wife only shakes her head in answer, still saying nothing.
Nodding quickly, I smile at the memory. “They did. That night of my bachelor party, they tried to talk me out of it. Told me you were only using me for my money and that I could do better. That I deserved better. But your pathetic father begged me to get you out of his house. Fucking paid me too. Not nearly enough. Even he knew you weren’t worth more than a few thousand dollars.”
The last drawer I yank open, my eyebrows rise when I see the handgun partially buried under some receipts and other junk. Pulling it out, I check and see that it’s loaded. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet, so I set it on the top of the table carefully, and then slide the drawer closed.
“D-Danny, I-”
Storming over to her, I forget the gun and grab her upper arm, hauling her to her feet. I drop the knife to the floor so I can use my other hand to hold her out in front of me. I’m so furious at her that I can’t stop my fingers from digging into her skin.
When she winces, I flash my teeth at her. Running my eyes down her body, I snort in disgust and shove her away from me. “You got so fucking fat with them. Let me guess, Max moved you into his house, and you just sat in the pantry eating everything in sight? That was always your problem growing up, too. You could never restrain yourself. You see food, you eat it. You see money, you want it. You see cock, you fuck it.”
I’m surprised when she stands up and looks directly at me. Mina always looked away when I was angry, but now she seems just as furious at me as I am at her.
It enrages me that she’s pissed, so I hiss out, “You have some fucking nerve being angry at me. I didn’t put us into this situation. This is all on you! This is your fucking fault.”
She shakes her head, then flicks her eyes down to the knife lying on the floor between us. “I didn’t do this to us, Danny. It was you. You have a temper and want to control everything. No one can live like that.”
My head jerks back. How can she think that? “You’re wrong. I only ever wanted a perfect life for us. I wanted us to be happy together. Start a family together. You had the perfect life, and I’ve always treated you well.”
This bitch fucking laughs at me. She fucking laughs. What the hell did they do to her? My mind starts spinning, and my breathing picks up. Fuck, I can’t catch my goddamn breath. Why the fuck is she laughing at me?
“You… You’re delusional! Our life was awful. You were awful, and you’ve never treated me any way other than to tolerate me. Danny, you have to listen to me. This needs to stop now. Let me go before you get into even worse trouble. Just let me walk out the door, and I’ll let them know that you only wanted to talk.”
It feels like shards of glass are stabbing my brain. I can’t process any full thoughts, as she keeps begging me to let her go.
Gripping my hair, I scream into the room. “YOU FUCKING CHEATED ON ME!”
“I didn’t. I never cheated on you. Not once.”
Lies.
All she does is spout lies and false promises.
“You fucking did! You fucked them. I know you did.” Christ, why the hell are my eyes watering? It fucking guts me that they took away what was mine. Mina has always been mine since the day I met her. I spent years keeping them away from her, but the second she slipped out my door, they fucking took her.
It barely registers that she is inching toward me. “Danny, I didn’t cheat on you. You and I aren’t together anymore. We aren’t in a relationship any longer. That ended when you hit me, and I walked out the door.”
I can’t hold back my sob. “We are in a relationship. We’re fucking married, and I have the papers to prove it! That doesn’t go away just because you say it does.”
She’s crossed half the distance that separates us. “A paper doesn’t mean anything if the marriage is done.”
My body jerks forward when she drops to the ground, and I realize she’s scrambling for the knife. Roaring out in rage, I lunge for her and slam her body to the ground, her fingers just grazing the blade before her body is shoved back a few feet.
The force of her body hitting sends air gusting across my face, and I know I’ve knocked the wind out of her. Snarling, my spit hits the side of her face. “You don’t get to decide what a piece of paper means. You’re my wife, and you’ll always be my wife. THEY will never have you!” Picking her up by her shoulders, I slam her back down. “DO YOU FUCKING HEAR ME, WIFE? You’re mine, goddamnit!”
“Stop! Danny, please stop!” Her pleas only serve to piss me off more. I have every right to fucking touch her. To have her with me. My eyesight narrows to a pinprick as she tries to smack me away and shove me off her.
Rearing back, I stay straddled across her stomach and swing my arm back before slamming it against the side of her face. I just want her to stop freaking out so she’ll listen. Why won’t she just listen?
“For fuck’s sake, Mina, would you calm the fuck down?” I yell at her, smacking her hands away like they’re annoying gnats each time they fly toward me. “This is what you always do! You always turn a tiny issue into something life or death.”
Hitting her again, I’m relieved to see that her hands start to lose their power. “This is what you make me do.” Smack. “You push and push me until I snap.” Smack. “If you’d just apologize, maybe we could actually get somewhere without you being so exhausting. You’re exhausting!”
My fist curls, and this time when I hit her, landing a solid blow. Her head bounces against the floor with a satisfying thud.
Finally. Finally, she submits. Her hands drop to her sides, and I study her, breathing heavily where I’m perched on her body.
Damn. I knocked her out with that one.
Closing my eyes, I try to catch my breath and slow down my rapidly beating heart. It’s like it’s trying to break free through my chest and it fucking hurts. Rubbing my hand over the spot, I squeeze my eyes shut at the pain. I feel like I’m having a fucking heart attack.
The thumping of my pulse is slowly dissipating in my head, and I feel like I can finally think straight. She always pokes and pokes at me, knowing exactly what buttons to push.
Looking down at her, I frown.
Fuck.
She’s still knocked out. There’s no way I hit her that hard. Tapping the side of her face, I try to rouse her. “Mina, you need to wake the fuck up. We’ve got more shit to talk about, and then we’re going to leave.”
Looking up at the ceiling, I wait for her as I sit here, poking the knife into the tip of my finger. Obviously, we aren’t going to be able to go home again. I’m going to have to move us out of state until Mina is able to retract her statements and fire her attorney. When my parents told me she was trying to serve me papers, I lost it.
I followed the lawyer to her home and had planned to talk some sense into her, explain my side, but she has a bunch of kids and a husband. There was never a good chance, so I figured I’d just refuse to sign.
Thinking of kids, I look back down at my wife, running my eyes over her stomach. Using the knife, I slice up the center of her shirt and spread it open. She’s already put on an extra few pounds, so a little baby weight shouldn’t be too much of a change. A smile grows on my face at that thought. A baby will fix what’s broken between us. She’ll be too busy taking care of my son to worry about looking for other men to fuck. There’s no way she would abandon me and my child.
My eyes shoot over to the window when I hear a soft scrap and thump outside on the front stoop. Narrowing them, I stare at the door, concentrating on the sound. There’s been a whole fucking hoard of raccoons that won’t go the fuck away. When I hear the noise again, I shove off Mina and walk back over to the table where the gun is lying.
I’ll kill those motherfuckers. Nothing but rodents and a waste of space.
I hunch down violently when the front door crashes open, slamming into the wall. The noise tears through my head when just moments ago, I was enjoying the blissful silence.
Voices are screaming at me from all directions. They’re in the door, next to the window, coming at me from the other side of the room.
“Danny, drop the gun!”
“Put your hands up!”
“On the ground!”
“MINA!”
The last voice is one I recognize. I don’t turn away from the guns that are pointed at my chest, but my eyes slide over to where Max is running through the room like he has no fucking care that I’m here.
I sneer when he drops to his knees next to her, cradling her head and checking her over. “Worried you lost your chance for more pussy, friend?” I bite out.
Panic fills me when he ignores me, still trying to urge her awake. I don’t want him to touch her. He has no right to be touching my wife!
“STOP FUCKING TOUCHING HER!” I scream, my chest heaving with barely controlled rage.
“There you are, sweet girl,” he says softly. My eyes drop to Mina and she’s wincing, blinking her eyes open. “You okay if I move you?”
“She’s not going anywhere. I told you not to fucking touch her, you worthless sack of shit. Mina! Stay where you are, baby. I’ve got you in a minute. You’re okay now.” I try to cajole her, wanting her to look at me, but she doesn’t.
A film of red covers my eyes when she only looks up at him like he’s a fucking God.
“Danny, I need you to put the gun down. Drop it to your side, and then wait for us to move to you.” It’s the Captain talking to me, stepping closer with his gun still trained in the center of my chest.
I look around and see close to a dozen officers, including Vincent, who looks like he’s never met me before in his life. There’s no understanding written there. No sorrow that Mina left me and forced me to resort to this. It’s like he’s staring at a stranger; a stranger he’s pointing a gun at.
Looking back at where Mina is lying, I see Ethan now, helping her up into Max’s arms. Stars dance across my vision as they take her away from me. She’s always running away. Never staying to fix what she broke.
I can’t move as they walk her out of the room, and just before she disappears through the door, her eyes fall to mine.
There’s no way out for me.
“This is all your fault,” I whisper.
Without taking my eyes off the woman who betrayed me, I take a small amount of pleasure when her eyes widen as I pull the trigger.
Chapter 50
Little Dove
Max
One hour and forty-seven minutes.
That’s all it took for Officer Andrew Harrow to break and admit what he’s done.
Cooper was able to have him back in the room within thirty minutes of us realizing that Mina was gone, adding an extra half an hour to her current two-hour ticking time bomb.
Turns out, Harrow and Danny have been friends for the past three years, unknown to any of us. By the time we learned Harrow had loaned his hunting cabin to Danny to hide away in, we were racing to the address. We are all devastated that Danny has had her for this long already.
Now, here I am, crushed between Ethan and Vincent on a bench seat that shouldn’t fit more than two average sized people, staring down at the woman I love as the paramedics check her over.
My little dove hasn’t taken her eyes off us as they poke and prod at her, asking questions of ‘Where does it hurt?’ and ‘Can you feel this?’. I want to rip all their hands off her body and pick her up to keep her safe between the three of us.
Dropping my chin lower, I push every thought I have of love to her. I want her to know that I’m here and I’m not fucking going anywhere. More importantly, nothing has changed between us now that Danny is gone.
Fuck Danny.
The sight of him pulling the trigger and crumpling to the ground is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I’ll never forgive him for what he’s done to Mina, but there’s an ache somewhere buried deep in a tiny part of my body that is sad his life ended the way it did. We were friends for a reason.
Mina is going to be crushed.
“You doing okay, sweetpea?” Vincent asks from my right. He hasn’t pulled his gaze from her either. The medical personnel probably think we’re all fucking psychos right now, especially after we refused their ‘only one can ride’ rule.
Her voice is raspy, even after swallowing a few sips of water. “I am right now, Vince.” Her eyes dance across all our faces before she says the last thing I would have expected. “I’m sorry you’ve lost a friend.”
Ethan’s body jerks, and Vincent mumbles something under his breath. But not me. I know what she’s trying to say, and I want her to know that I understand her.
“Danny changed a long, long time ago. The man from before was my friend. I’m sad we lost that Danny, but he disappeared years ago.”
I ignore the grumbles of the woman messing with the cords surrounding Mina when I see her eyes fill with tears. Dropping to my knees, I’m careful as I cup her face, using my thumb to wipe away each one as they escape.
“I’m so sorry.” Her voice cracks, and I press a kiss to her lips to stop her.
“This is not on you. None of this was your fault. Danny wasn’t right in his head, little dove. He hasn’t been for so long, and the only thing you have to carry from this are the scars he’s left you with. But Ethan, Vincent, and I will all be here with you, love. Do you hear me?”
My heart is fracturing at the pain I see written all over her face. Dropping my face to hers, I roll my forehead along hers, and I fight against the never ceasing roil of emotions slamming into me from all directions. She nods her head slightly showing that she hears me, and I don’t move until I’m asked to.
“Sir, I’m sorry, but I really need you to go back to your seat.”
Ignoring the medic, I press another kiss to Mina’s salty lips and then give her a soft smile as I run my thumb over her uninjured cheek once more. “We’ll all get through this. I love you, sweet girl,” I whisper, and feel relief push all my turmoil away when a slight blush creeps up her skin.
“I love you too.” She meets my eyes and then looks at Vince and Ethan. “All of you.” Her voice cracks again, this time from the intensity of her feelings. We haven’t talked over what steps everyone has gotten to with her. When Ethan’s shoulders tighten, and I hear him suck in air. I have a feeling that was the first time he’s heard it.
His teeth are clenched when he grits out, speaking directly to the medics, “You need to get us there. Now.”
Tears are still falling down Mina’s cheeks as she closes her eyes. I’m not concerned that Ethan didn’t say it back, and I don’t think she is either. We all know that Ethan is just as in love with her as she is with him. Probably before Vincent or I figured it out.
