Before the man had a chance to respond, I heard a high-pitched scream echoing through the woods.
Scarlett.
“Fuck!”
Then I was moving, dragging the guy along with me as I ran through the trees to get to her. The other guy must have found her. I’d known leaving her was risky, but I needed to get rid of this guy so we could escape. If she was taken away, I would never fucking forgive myself.
A minute later, I could hear the other man cursing and grunting. There was clearly a struggle going on, as the light he was holding was moving around wildly. I slammed the man I was dragging up against a tree.
“You fucking stay there, you hear me.”
He nodded, fear lacing his features. Then I was running towards the light. The scene I was met with had me in a full-on fucking rage. The guy was struggling with Scarlett in his grasp. She was fighting for her life, kicking out and trying to bite his hand over her mouth.
“Listen here, you little bitch, you better fucking quit it.”
No one, and I mean no fucking one, got to call her that except me and the others during sex.
I leapt, crashing into both of them. My knife slid into the guy’s back, piercing through flesh. He howled in pain. Then I ripped him away from Scarlett, pulling him backwards with me whilst tugging the knife out and stabbing it into him again, right where his kidney was.
“You think you can take her from me? You think I’m going to fucking let you have her?”
He struggled against me, but I kept stabbing him again and again, making very sure he would bleed out and die. There was nothing else but the need to destroy him for having the audacity to try to deprive me of the love of my life. No one got to touch her. She was fucking mine.
“You came after the wrong fucking people. I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”
I threw him on the ground and knelt down on his back before shoving the knife between his ribs and piercing his lung. I did the same to the other side. He was wriggling, clawing at the dirt, but I didn’t give a shit. He wheezed as I pressed him harder into the mud. Digging the knife into his other kidney for good measure, I kept him there, knowing he was going to bleed out. His lungs would collapse too.
“Pres,” came Scarlett’s voice.
I looked up, finding her watching us without any sort of judgement.
“He has to die.”
She nodded and pointed to the other man. He was staring at me in absolute horror like he had no idea how vicious and unrelenting I could be. The fool didn’t know the lengths I would go to keep Scarlett from harm. She was mine to protect. Fucking mine.
“I told him to stay the fuck where he was. If he moves, I will chase him down and kill him too.”
There was no way this guy beneath me was surviving what I’d done to him. The man against the tree looked like he was about to piss himself at my words. Well, he better take me the fuck seriously. I wouldn’t hesitate if he tried anything.
“Get off me,” the man below wheezed.
“Shut the fuck up and die quietly, you piece of shit.”
I pushed his face into the mud with a hand to the back of his head. He struggled harder, the mud clearly getting into his mouth and airway as he tried to get me off him. We were silent as the rain continued to batter down on us and the man’s movements grew sluggish. I let him go the moment he stopped, checking his neck. There was no pulse.
I stood and faced the man against the tree. Walking towards him slowly, my bloody knife still clutched in my hand, I saw how pale he looked. Scarlett had her arms wrapped around herself, and she was shivering. Every part of me wanted to go to her, warm my girl up and look after her, but right now, I had to deal with this fuck.
I reached for him and put my knife to his throat, pressing against it, but not hard enough to break the skin.
“Listen here, fuckhead, if you want to walk away with your life, you’re going to do exactly as I say.”
He didn’t respond, but he’d seen me kill his friend. He knew I wasn’t playing around.
“You’re going to take a message to Stuart. I fucking know it was him who hired you, so don’t even try to deny it. You tell him we’re coming. We’re fucking coming for him and he’s not going to walk away with his life. He stole what was ours and hurt her. We don’t take kindly to anyone causing pain to what’s ours. Is that understood?”
He nodded and whimpered.
“Good.” I turned my attention to Scarlett. “Search his pockets for me, little lamb.”
She came over to us and started going through the man’s jeans without hesitation. From his back pocket, she pulled out a wallet. Then she was looking through it. She tugged out his driving licence and showed it to me.