Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tigger
I thought about what Thunder said and decide I’m going to tell Summer the truth and how I feel about her.
I blow out the breath and knock on her door. There’s no answer.
“Summer?” I call out, knocking on her door again.
There’s no answer, and now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing her car outside.
“She’s not here,” I look up to find Ryan leaning against the end of the hallway. “Check your phone.”
I look at her in confusion, but go into my room and sit down on the edge of my bed. I see I have two missed called. When I look at the call history, my eyes fly up to meet Ryan who is now standing in my doorway.
“Shit, she found out before I could tell her,” I beat my fist on the dresser next to me. “Where is she? I need to tell her.”
“Need to tell her what? That you were too coward to tell her who you were? Or that you were just toying with her the entire time?” I want to wipe that contentment off of her face. She never did like me much, and now she has every reason to hate me.
“No, I wasn’t toying with her. I fucking love her, Ryan. It just took me a while to realize how much I care about her. I care about her more than I care about anything else in the world,” I confess out loud for the first time.
“Well, shit, if I had known that, I wouldn’t have let her leave to go home.”
“Go home to where Ryan? Where the fuck is she?” I’m on my feet in seconds and advancing towards her.
“Port Angeles,” she squeaks.
“Fuck, you let her go to Port Angeles when we are on lockdown? Do you have any idea what would happen to her out there? Not only are Lefty and my step-dad out there, but Michael was sending her threatening letters from prison. What do you think is going to happen to her when he finds her?”
I push past her and start shouting for Thunder and Dean.
“Text me her address, I need to go find her now.”
I don’t wait for her response, instead continuing to shout for Dean and Thunder.
When they find me, I tell them we have to leave now. The second I mention Summer went back to Port Angeles, they are on their bikes and ready to take off. The three of us don’t waste time, not even bothering to pack anything or tell anyone we are leaving.
******
We break every speed limit law trying to get to Maple Valley and make it there in under two hours. I pull over to the side of the road and pull out my phone, pulling up the address Ryan sent me and showing it to Thunder. He nods once since he’s familiar with the area and we take off in that direction, only stopping two streets down from her house, so we don’t draw unwanted attention in our direction.
“Look over there,” I point to the house in the distance that has Summer’s car parked out front, another car, and a motorcycle. A green motorcycle at that. That means Connoly probably isn’t here, but that’s okay, we just need to get Lefty. Connoly we can deal with later.
We sneak up to the house once the sun has finally set and the sky starts to grow dark. We enter the neighbor’s backyard and jump the low fence so we can enter Summer’s backyard.
I can hear her muffled screams coming from inside of the house.
“Shut up, whore, you ruined my life, so now I’m going to ruin yours,” an unfamiliar man is standing over her. He looks kind of like the man from the video Dean showed me of Summer on the Amy Aker’s Show.
“Isn’t that Michael?” I ask Dean.
He squints and nods once in confirmation.
“We have to figure out how to get inside before they hurt her. Right now she’s tied to a chair, how long before they hurt her?” I say, drawing my gun and preparing to take aim.
“Slow down, brother. That could get her killed. We need to find a way to get inside without them seeing us so we can get a clear shot at them,” Thunder’s right, so I lower my gun.
I look around and spot a door in the far corner of the backyard. I point to it, and Thunder and Dean take off in that direction and I stand guard at the window Summer is in to make sure they don’t see us coming.
Thunder is the lock expert, having dealt with locks when Natalie was rescued from her home here in Port Angeles.
He makes a signal that the door is unlocked and we step inside. We silently make our way to the kitchen where she’s being held, and I motion for them to only take out Lefty and not Michael.
Dean takes aim and shoots Lefty between the eyes, sending blood flying around the room and straight into Summer’s face. Her scream is muffled, but the scream is still audible through the cloth in her mouth.
“What the fuck?” Michael looks up in time to see he’s now staring down the barrel of not one gun, but three guns.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” I order moving around and yanking him away from Summer when he takes a step in her direction and prepares to remove a weapon from his pocket. I yank him away from her and throw him in Dean’s direction.
Dean and Thunder take him down to the floor and point a gun at the middle of his head with him kneeling on the floor. He doesn’t dare move when I untie Summer and remove the handkerchief from inside of her mouth.
She wobbles, and I grab her under her arms to hold her up. When I’m sure she’s regained her footing, I release her, and she turns to face Michael. There’s a look of disgust on her face when she takes several steps toward him and kicks him in the balls.
“You stupid bitch. Who are these men? Your latest play toys? You know you’ll never be over me,” he chuckles like he knows what he’s talking about.
“I’ve already moved on,” Summer looks back at me and her eyes are pleading with me to understand whatever she’s about to confess. “I’ve already fallen in love with someone else and who knows, maybe someday they might want to be with me too.”
I drop my gun on the chair she was sitting on and run towards her, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close.
“I love you, sweetness,” I whisper into her ear.
She looks up at me, sadness in her eyes,“You don’t have to say that just because you came here to save me. I understand why you didn’t tell me who you were. You don’t have to be ashamed that you didn’t want to be with me, I get it,” she shrugs like it’s nothing, but I can tell she’s hurt.
“See, even he doesn’t want you. No one wants damaged goods like you,” Michael spits in her direction and nearly hits her.
“Respect the lady, fucker,” Dean hits Michael in the back of the head with his gun.
“That’s not why I didn’t tell you,” I confess. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you would want to be with me. I’m fucked up, Summer, damaged goods. You deserve so much better than me, but I love you all the same. That’s why I never told you.”
She smiles up at me, “Don’t ever lie to me again or keep secrets from me.”
“I hate to break us this reunion, but what should we do with this one?” Thunder gestures towards the man still kneeling on the floor.
“Let me borrow your gun?” Summer holds her hand out for Thunder’s gun, but he shakes his head no. I instead hand her mine.
I think she’s going to kill him, but she instead takes aim and shoots his dick off. Blood flies everywhere, and he releases a blood-curdling scream.
“Take that, motherfucker,” she spits on him and laughs.
“Take him out,” I nod to Dean and escort Summer outside, so she doesn’t have to see his execution.
“Are you okay?” I ask her once we are outside. She’s shaking.
“No, but I will be,” she smiles up at me. “By the way, you aren’t getting your jacket back.”
I laugh and hug her tightly against me finally content in knowing she’s mine once and for all.