Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
A sharp pain exploded across the back of my head. Stars burst behind my eyes as I staggered forward, catching myself on the hood of the Bronco. Andy’s third man, the one I’d missed, had circled behind me, a crowbar in his hand. Warm blood trickled down my scalp as I turned to face him. He must have had shit aim and caught me with a glancing blow or I’d have been knocked out at the very least. Dead if he’d had any arm strength whatsoever. “You should’ve minded your own business,” he growled, swinging the iron again.
I caught it mid-swing, the impact jarring up my arm. “They are my business.” I yanked the iron from his grasp, then swung it like a baseball bat straight into his solar plexus. The guy gasped in pain before sinking to the ground, struggling to breathe. With any luck I’d ruptured his diaphragm, taking him out of the fight completely.
Blood dripped into my eye from a gash on my forehead, blurring my vision. I wiped it away with the back of my hand, taking stock of the situation. Penny had managed to break free from her attacker, who was now doubled over and cursing. Andy was advancing on Zelda again, murder in his eyes.
Another car screeched to a halt and two more men climbed out and managed to tackle me to the ground before I could make it to Penny and Zelda. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs. I rolled, trying to throw him off, catching glimpses of the scene around me. Penny pulled Zelda toward her as Andy’s face contorted with rage.
“You think I’m going to let you walk away?” Andy shouted at Penny. “After everything you’ve cost me? You and those fucking brats?”
I drove my elbow into my attacker’s face and shoved him off, struggling to my feet just as the other one joined the fight, grabbing me from behind. I felt myself tiring, the blow to my head making the world swim in and out of focus.
“Penny!” I roared, catching her eye as I grappled with both men. “Take the girls and run! NOW!” I bellowed, throwing one attacker into the other, buying Penny and Zelda a few precious seconds.
Penny grabbed Zelda’s hand, reaching back into the Bronco for Kira. She yanked both daughters close and turned toward the woods that lined the roadside.
Blood streaming down my face, I planted myself between them and their pursuers. Andy’s face twisted with fury as he watched his quarry escaping. He started after them, but I managed to get a foot out to trip him up. He face-planted on the gravel at my feet, and it was all I could do not to laugh at the bastard.
Andy wiped blood from his split lip, his eyes narrowing as he glared at Penny. “I’m sick to death of you and your brats,” he spat, his polished facade completely gone. “Do you have any idea what you’ve cost me?” Behind him, his men regrouped, circling like wolves. I felt a familiar heat building in my chest -- the same protective fury that had erupted fifteen years ago when I found Julie with that bastard. The rage that had cost me a decade and a half of my life. But this time was different. This time, I had something to fight for, not just against.
“Let them go, Andy,” I growled, widening my stance. Blood from the gash on my forehead trickled into my eye, and I blinked it away. “This isn’t going to end how you think.”
He laughed, the sound sharp and ugly. “Look at you -- bleeding, outnumbered. You think you’re going to walk away from this?” His gaze shifted to Penny, who was backing toward the tree line with the girls. “You stupid bitch. Did you think I wouldn’t find you? That I’d just write off what you stole from me?”
“I didn’t steal anything!” Penny shouted back, her voice steady despite the fear I could see in her eyes. “Everything I took was mine!”
Andy snapped his fingers, and the man with the tire iron lunged toward Penny, catching her arm before she could retreat farther. She cried out in pain as his fingers dug into her flesh, and something in me -- something I’d kept carefully controlled since the day I crushed a man’s skull with my bare hands -- broke free.
I moved without conscious thought, my body responding to a threat against what was mine. Three long strides brought me to the man holding Penny. My fist connected with his jaw with a satisfying crack that vibrated up my arm. He staggered, his grip on Penny loosening. I didn’t give him time to recover, delivering a knee to his midsection that doubled him over.
“Keep going!” I shouted at Penny when she turned to look over her shoulder.