Kelso

Striding around the cabin with my bat in hand, I listen for any movement on the back porch. I hear a fire crackling, and trees creaking in the wind. Such serenity for a man who doesn’t deserve it.

Stepping onto the wooden deck, I come face-to-face with Sheriff Johnson. My lip curls up into a sneer and adrenaline races through my body. My fingers twitch around the handle of the bat. 

“Well, the Kings are more resourceful than I gave you credit for. I thought it would take you longer to find me.” Eric Johnson shows no fear, no invitational smirk, only an emotionless expression. 

“Cowards like you never stay hidden for long,” I say, my voice tight with rage.

Eric Johnson chuckles. “You must have passed my daughter on your way up? That’s sloppy of you, allowing her to see you coming for her father.” 

“Is it fear seeping into your voice?” I ask when I hear the break in his tone. Cracking my neck from side to side, I continue, “Bringing up Ivy won’t save you. You accomplished your plan to tear us apart. To break your daughter. You won’t live long enough to enjoy the show though.” My voice is raw and brutal even to my own ears.

The sheriff laughs again, and this time I snap and give a mighty cry as I lift the bat high into the air. I charge for him and his eyes widen. Deep down, he didn’t think I was capable of murder. How wrong he was. Swinging the bat with all my strength, I strike him across the shoulder. Eric grunts in pain and staggers backward, wincing. 

I don’t allow him to recover. I pull back the wooden bat and swing again with all my strength; this time the blow lands on the sheriff’s back. He doesn’t make a sound as he falls forward onto his knees, his head bouncing around like a flimsy doll’s. 

Dropping the bat, I grasp the front of his polo shirt and turn the bastard to face me. His rasping breaths and trembling body don’t deter me from balling my right hand and slamming my knuckles into his left cheek. His head snaps right. I crash down my fist a second time, and his head snaps again. 

Third. 

Fourth. Blood sprays across my jaw, but I don’t stop.

Fifth.

As I’m about to make the sixth blow, his head turns to me suddenly, and he gurgles something indistinguishable. But it’s not the words that catch my attention, it’s his eyes. A familiar pair of green eyes stare at me, terror bursting forth from them. I attempt to inhale, but the air becomes caught in my throat.

Squeezing my eyes closed, I shake my head. Don’t think about her, not now.

Opening my eyes, I’m met with the same emerald orbs. A flash of a memory thunders through my mind: Ivy sitting over me, naked, her thick red hair hanging down both sides of her face as she smiles lazily at me. “I love you, Kelso,” she breathes in a tone that shatters and puts my heart back together in the same heartbeat.

I gasp for breath and let go of Eric. I stumble away, my back hitting the porch chairs. My heart beats erratically.

“You have her eyes,” I say, my voice breaking. Fuck. I can’t escape my emotions. Hurting Ivy this way, taking away the only parent she has left, is a line I can’t cross. I hate her, but I love her more. It feels as if my insides are tearing in two; one part of me is desperate for revenge, but the other abhors hurting the woman I love. 

The ashen and bleeding man in front of me tilts his head, a mixture of shock and relief across his face.

I straighten as it suddenly hits me. He’s not worth it. This small-minded, sad, and lonely old man isn’t worth my freedom. He’s not worth me becoming the man Ivy will always remember as the person who killed her father.

Pushing myself up, I wipe his blood off my face and turn around, heading for the side of the cabin, toward my car. 

“Don’t you want to know why she told me about your past, about your fears?” I still and tense at his shaken and ragged words, fighting the urge to turn around and finish what I started. “She begged me to keep it a secret. My innocent daughter thought she was doing the right thing. Protecting both sides. That innocence, that purity is what I’m trying to save in my daughter. If you truly loved her, you would have left her alone.”

I spin around, and the sheriff jolts back. “Your daughter is a strong and capable woman who needs nothing from either of us, but she chose me.” I jab at my chest. “Ivy chose to be with me, knowing all of me, and she was happy. Why does it not matter to you? Why do my past and gossip override that I would have gone to the ends of the earth to make your daughter happy, and I’d kill to keep her safe?”

“Because you’re a criminal. People like you don’t change your stripes. Ivy needs someone with morals, a man with stability and security. Someone she can depend on.”

A bitter laugh escapes from me. “You’re wrong, about so much. You don’t know me, or even your own daughter. Ivy lives for passion, she exudes light, and the moment you’re in her presence life becomes exciting, life becomes more. You want her with a boring, stuffy businessman who will come home and tell her she’s pretty and ask when dinner will be on the table. She’d die sooner in that life than she would with me. I cared about her wants, her dreams.” Frustrated, I throw my up arms up into the air, and Sheriff Johnson jumps again in fright. A small amount of joy unfurls in my stomach at making this man fear for his life. “In the end, what either of us want means nothing. How you missed your daughter’s strength and courage is beyond me, because whether you’re alive or dead, she will live her own life, her own way. It will be great, and you will not be part of it.” 

Stepping off the back porch and looking up at my car, seeing my brothers standing together, waiting for me, I realize how lucky I am.

Turning to face the sheriff, I land my last blow. “That will be your real punishment, when weeks turn into months and months turn into years, and you realize what you lost. Then you’ll know true heartache.”