“We have to go to his house,” I told my father after he was done explaining. “We have to make sure she’s alright, I don’t give a shit what else happens tonight.”

“You want to hurt him,” Dad said thoughtfully. “You’re going to end up doing something bad tonight if we go there now.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” I yelled at him, running my hands through my hair in frustration. “I fucking need her back. I need to explain… I need her to know what happened. I need her to know she doesn’t have the full story. Fuck, Dad, we need to go see her.”

He looked at me for a long moment before finally giving me a short, curt nod.

“We can go,” he said. “I know where he lives. We’ll need some people to come with us, though. We need people we can trust. Do you know anyone?”

I threw some names out and he nodded at my choices.

“We’ll go right now,” I told him.

“It’s too soon,” he argued, and I could’ve fucking strangled him if he wasn’t already a dead man walking. “We need to get some backup, we can’t just head into this without preparing ourselves.”

“I don’t give a shit,” I repeated for the third time. “Are you fucking insane? This is the girl I fucking love. Once this is all over, I fully intend on marrying her. She’s fucking mine. So, you’re either in or you’re out, Dad, and if you’re fucking out, I’m never speaking to you again. I need your fucking help with this.”

He looked at me for a long time before nodding again. “I understand,” he said, and his tone was gentler than I’d heard it in a decade. “I felt about someone that way once.”

We stared at each other, and neither of us mentioned what we were both thinking.

Some phone calls and urgent conversations later, we finally had a team ready to come with us to Savage’s house. We all met in a parking lot a few miles from the house, and I explained what we had to do.

“He’s dangerous,” I told my men while my father waited. “He’s going to hurt her if she doesn’t comply, and he won’t hesitate before hurting any of us. We need to be prepared. He has guards at his house as well, it’s well protected. Just make sure that Evangeline Lovell is safe.”

I held up a picture of her on my phone, one that I’d taken of her that night at the amusement park. It felt like a million years ago now.

“Keep her safe,” I repeated. “Or I’ll fucking kill you. She makes it out of there alive, no matter what happens. Remember that.”

They all nodded, and I took a last look at the team my father and I had managed to gather in the measly half hour we had. They were all good men, one worked for Empire Sin and two had been personal security guards of my father’s for a number of years now. You made a lot of fucking enemies in the business, and he was especially talented at making people hate him to his core.

We set off towards the house in two cars, and the journey there passed much too quickly to do any thinking on the way. I longed to see her again, to tangle my hands in her dark hair and push her to her knees where we both knew she belonged. I just wanted her fucking back, and I would’ve done anything to make that happen.

We pulled up in front of the house, and the gates opened automatically. As we drove inside, I saw several guards of Savage’s checking out what was going on. They were fast on our trail, and once we parked and got out of the cars, they were already waiting for us.

“Who are you?” one of them barked at me, and my father laughed out loud.

“You should know that, boy,” he spat at him, which ended in a coughing fit. “You should do your fucking job better.”

The guard looked embarrassed but I ignored him completely as I headed for the house. It was a beautiful building, and wealth dripped from every part of it. It was painfully obvious the property belonged to a man who was very well to-do. My father followed behind me, and I rang the doorbell, my heart going crazy in my chest.

A girl opened the door, and for a second, my heart lurched because I was convinced it was my girl. She had dark, long brown hair just like her, and green eyes. But the similarities ended there, and she seemed like just a poor man’s version of Evangeline. My fucking girl.

“Step aside, baby girl,” my dad told her with a grin, and the girl took a step back as I stormed inside the house.

The guards were arguing outside and my dad and I were on our own as we walked inside. My eyes scanned the house, looking for any trace of her.

“She’s not fucking here,” I barked at my father, and a moment after I spoke, the reality of that room finally dawned on me.

It was filled with women. All long-legged, skinny-as-fuck brunettes that looked like Evangeline in some way.

The true horror of what was going on in Savage’s house made me want to fucking throw up. He was stocking up on all these fucking girls that looked exactly like her, probably through Empire Sin. What intentions he had with them, I didn’t know, but just seeing them prance around the house in skimpy, slutty lingerie, I didn’t need to guess what he’d been doing with them.

“Sick fucking bastard,” I muttered under my breath, exchanging a look with my father. “I could fucking kill him for this.”

“Everything in its own time,” my father said calmly. “Let’s go upstairs.”

We rushed up the stairs, with me taking two at a time because I couldn’t fucking stand the idea of Savage being alone with my girl. I needed to get her the fuck back and out of this fucking creepy dollhouse of terrors.

I heard her sweet little voice before I saw her.

She was crying.

At the sound of that, I felt an insane amount of adrenaline surge through my body, and I rushed even faster. I followed the sound of her sobs, and when I found the room they were coming from, I practically tore the door off its hinges.

I walked inside and my heart fucking stopped seeing her there, with Savage’s hands wrapped around her throat. He was choking her. Fucking choking my little girl.

I was the only one allowed to do that, and I would fucking never do it to hurt her.

“Hands off,” I growled at him, meeting Evangeline’s eyes for a single second. She looked terrified, and it hurt to see her that way. “Hands fucking off, Savage!”

He didn’t even look at me. His attention was focused solely on her as he stroked the hollow of her throat with his thumb and held her neck tightly with both hands.

I went up behind him and tackled him to the ground. Evangeline went down with us just as my father finally made his way into the room.

In a second, the small space was filled with sobbing and screams, curse words being thrown every which way as I tackled Savage.

Evangeline crawled away, and I hoped to fucking God someone took care of her while I dealt with her cunt of a stepfather.

I’d never felt the amount of rage I had in my body at that moment. I managed to pin Barron to the ground, my hand around his throat while he lay on his back. He looked up at me with crazed eyes, and laughed. The bastard fucking laughed.

“She’ll never be yours,” he snarled at me. “I told you the fucking first time I saw you, Knight. She’s a daddy’s girl through and through.”

“Fuck you.” I spat in his face. “She calls me Daddy now.”

I punched him hard in the side of the head and knocked him unconscious, and once he lay on the ground unmoving, I made my way over to Evangeline. She was shivering in a corner, her legs pulled up tightly against her chest, and her eyes swimming with fear and tears as she looked up at me.

“Don’t hurt me,” she begged, and I shook my head helplessly. “Please, I’ll beg. I’m so scared, Carter, don’t hurt me, please. Don’t hurt me, Daddy.”

It fucking ached to see her that way. I extended a hand towards her and she shrank back from it, so fucking scared.

“Evangeline,” I begged her. “Angel, please. It’s alright. I can explain it all. Just let me explain everything.”

She shook her head vehemently, refusing to lift her head. I was too scared of hurting her to do much more than keep my arm extended towards her.

“Angel, it’s me,” I begged her. “It’s not what you think it is. None of it is, I promise… I promise you can trust me. Please. Just give me your hand.”

She finally looked up. Her beautiful, sapphire green eyes were brimming with tears and the fucking sight broke me. I couldn’t stand hurting her like this. I’d rather hurt myself than see her in pain again.

“I won’t hurt you,” I tried to reassure her. “I’d never hurt you, Evangeline.”

“I… I know,” she whispered, and her eyes focused on mine through all the tears. “I know you don’t want to hurt me, Daddy.”

“Come here,” I begged her, motioning for her with my hand.

She hesitated a moment longer before dropping to her hands and knees, and sobbing softly as she crawled towards me. I held her so fucking close, I never wanted to let go.

“I’ll explain,” I whispered into her mane of hair. “I’ll explain everything, Angel, I fucking promise you.”

I heard Savage stirring behind my back, and I pulled Evangeline to her shaky feet as I turned back to stare at him.

“Wait downstairs,” I told her. “You’ll be safe. We have some guards with us.”

“No,” she shook her head in a panic, glancing at the barely moving figure of her stepfather on the floor. “I don’t want to leave you again, please don’t make me. Please, Daddy, don’t.”

I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair before blocking her body with mine, pushing her against the wall. She gasped lightly.

“I’m going to fucking hurt him, Angel,” I told her roughly. “I want him fucking dead for what he did to you, do you understand that?”

She whimpered and I let her go. My father stepped in and took her hand in his.

“Come on,” he told her. “I’ll come with you. You shouldn’t see this.”

She followed him out of the room shakily, her eyes lingering on mine. They left the room just in time to see Savage groan back to life.

“Get the fuck up,” I barked at him. “Up. To your fucking feet.”

He stumbled as he picked himself up, staring at me with all the hatred he could muster.

“You’re a fucking dead man,” I told him, and he laughed, a bitter, crazed laugh that would haunt me for the rest of my time.

“Could say the same about you,” he grunted. “What do you think sweet little Evangeline is going to do once you’re dead?”

In a flash, he pulled a gun from his pocket. I stared at him, unmoving, as he pointed it at me and clicked the safety off.

“She’s going to come crawling back to Daddy,” he laughed. “Just like she always fucking does. Because I’m the only man she needs.”

“You’re insane,” I spat at him, knowing I shouldn’t set him off but being unable to resist. “You’re going to wind up dead either way, Savage.”

“Not before you,” he grinned.

I lunged at him and tackled him to the ground once more. We struggled for control of the gun and I punched him in the face to get the upper hand, but he was a fucking resilient bastard now that his life was at stake. I clawed and hit and punched and spat at him, and he fought back with full force.

When the gunshot sounded out, I didn’t even know it hit me. And when the second one reverberated from the walls, I saw the floor pool with blood spilled from one of us.

I didn’t even feel a thing as the gun clattered to the ground and we both collapsed.

A shot for each man that ruined Evangeline’s life.

It felt fucking fitting.