Chapter Thirty-Three
Three weeks later …
Aaron
I stood over my sleeping wife’s form, looking down on her. Admiring her. The bruises on her face had healed and most were gone from around her wrists. The emotional marks still lingered, however. Just a few hours earlier, she’d awaken from another terrible nightmare. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her forehead.
I was caught off guard when her eyes opened, staring at me. She remained silent for a while, instead taking in my all-black ensemble. She stared at me from head to toe before speaking.
“You’re going now?”
I narrowed my eyes. I hadn’t told her where I was going but she didn’t seem surprised to see me dressed to leave so early on a weekend morning. She moved, sitting up on her knees, her hands going to my shoulders.
“I know where you’re going.” Her hands moved up, cupping my face. “After this…” she trailed off, her gaze going over my shoulder before moving back to me. “He gets no more of our energy. After this, it’s done,” she said with finality.
My heart swelled at the conviction in her voice and I pulled her to me, crushing her lips to mine. I moved back before I could get too absorbed in the kiss. I pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then leaned down to kiss her slightly rounded belly. Her pregnancy wasn’t obvious to others just yet, but I had every centimeter of her body memorized. I could see even the most minute changes.
I pulled back and went to the bedroom door, taking one last look at my wife. The fear and anger at the thought that she’d almost been taken away from me permanently, pushed me out the door.
I opted to drive my own vehicle this time, not wanting a driver to know where I was going. Plus, I had security beefed up around our home and community. No need in taking security off my family for this trip. Within minutes, I was speeding down the road in my Tesla, hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, my body rigid with anxiety. I’d waited three weeks too long for this day. The son of a bitch who tried to take my whole world from me was not going to survive until the end of the day.
****
“We’ve been waiting on you,” Joshua stated as I stepped into the darkened, concrete room. I took in the gleam in my brother’s eye. He loved this type of shit. Joshua has his dark side just like the rest of us Townsends. It was an added bonus for him that I was about to take out the scumbag that stalked and attacked my wife.
I took in his all black ensemble before looking around the room, spotting my two other brothers, arms folded over their chests, staring ahead at the center of the room. Tyler’s green eyes turned on me, narrowing before he turned back to the middle of the room. He was still pissed that he wasn’t there to help the rest of us locate Patience.
I pushed past Joshua, moving to the middle of the room where Sam was seated, hands tied behind his back in a wooden chair. There was an overhanging light, illuminating Sam and the space around him.
“Untie him,” I barked out.
Joshua moved past me. From the corner of my eye I caught the glare of the knife in his hand. Sam lifted his face, color draining from his already pale face when he saw what Joshua was holding.
“No, no, no!”
“Shut the fuck up!” I yelled, frightening him even more. My entire body warmed in satisfaction at the look of fear on his face.
Joshua moved behind him, cutting the zip ties that’d bound his wrists.
“He’s been fed properly, right?” I grunted, eyes locked on Sam but asking the other three men in the room.
“Fed, warm bed to sleep in, and kept comfortable the last three weeks, as per your request,” Carter answered behind me.
“For the life of me, I don’t know you’d want this piece of shit kept comfortable,” Tyler growled.
I moved closer to Sam, bending my knees and peering up at him. “I have my reasons.” A sardonic smile creased my lips. “Isn’t that right, Samuel?”
I heard grunting behind me but paid it no attention.
“Look at me!” I ordered.
Sam blinked a few times, his eyes peering down at me. They narrowed on me. He was growing angry. Good.
“My wife…” I paused, grinning even more when I watch his eyes glaze over at those two words. “My wife,” I repeated, “thinks I’m a good man. She tells me almost every day.” I shook my head. “She is my lifeline.”
“You don’t deserve her!” he yelled.
I nodded. “That, we can agree on.” I cocked my head to the side. “She’s wrong. I’m not a good man.” I rose to my full height, standing over him. “A good man wouldn’t do what I’m about to do to you.” I took a step back. “Stand up.”
“Fuck you!” he yelled.
A chuckle broke free of my lips. “I said, stand the fuck up!” I kicked the chair out from underneath him as I repeated my words.
“Unf!” He groaned when he fell on his ass. “She loves me!” he screamed from the floor.
“This fucking guy is whacked!” Tyler yelled behind me.
I bent low, moving in close to him. “You think so? Was she in love with you when she was riding my dick last night? How about when she gave birth to my children? Or now that she’s pregnant with two more of my children? She still love you?” I taunted, knowing my words would finally send him over the edge.
“Grrr-ahh!” he growled, lunging at me. However, he yelled in agony when I stood, dodging his lunge, and pressed the heel of the steel-toe boots I wore to his face.
Blood poured out of his nose but the crazed gleam in his eyes revealed he was too far gone to care. Excellent. That was just where I wanted him.
“Fuck yo–” He couldn’t get the full curse out before my right cross landed on his chin. Just as he was falling from my punch, I landed another kick to his kneecap. The second time, warmth infused my body when I heard the crunch of bones breaking. His yelp of pain also sent a shiver of elation through me.
Sam was beyond reason at that point, which was just where I wanted him. I could see the agony on his face but my words had set him off. He limped, charging me, screaming that Patience was his. I saw red and blacked out. I caught him with a quick jab and then a left hook to his right ribcage, causing him to buckle to the ground. For most that might’ve been enough, but this was the bastard that’d tried to kill my children while my wife was pregnant the first time, then attacked my woman again. The image of him punching her on that video replayed in my mind. The fear I still saw in her eyes most days over the past three weeks, wreaked havoc on my soul. No. This motherfucker could not live to see another day.
I pounded into his face and chest with everything I had. He flailed his arms and legs at first, as I straddled his body. Eventually, his arms fell to his side as he lost consciousness, but I continued the brutal hammering. Even once my arms grew heavy with exhaustion I stood, and broke one of the legs free of the wooden chair he’d been sitting in when I first entered. I used that leg to beat the rest of the life out of that deranged, son of a bitch, until there was nothing left.
By the time I was finished, my chest heaved, as my lungs struggled for air. I felt like I was coming to from fainting. I looked around, seeing the bloody mess that was once Sam laid out on the floor. His face was unrecognizable; blood and brain matter now coated the floor. My entire body was covered in blood but I knew none of it was mine. The room was completely silent.
I tossed the wooden chair leg aside, the sound reverberating against the concrete. It wasn’t enough. I growled and kicked the lifeless body again and again. I wished I could bring him back to life just to do it all over again.
“That’s enough!” I heard in my peripheral but I didn’t stop.
I kicked and kicked again until three pairs of arms tugged at me.
“He’s fucking dead!” Carter yelled.
“Bro, enough!” Joshua added.
“We need to dispose of the body,” Tyler chimed in.
“Fuck him!” I growled.
“Let it go, bro,” Joshua stated. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt her anymore.”
His words finally mollified me. She was safe. My wife would no longer have to worry about that motherfucker ever again. Or anyone else, as long as I was concerned.
I held up my hands, silently telling my brothers I was fine. They could release me.
I turned from the body. The sight of it still angered me and I needed to regain my sanity to go back to my family.
“You need to clean up,” Joshua came up behind me, stating. “New clothes are in the bathroom. Shower, get this shit off of you, give me your clothes and we’ll burn it with the rest of this filth.”
I nodded, heeding Joshua’s words. I sauntered off in the direction he pointed, reaching the bathroom that was a total contradiction to the room I’d just come from. Whereas the large, empty, concrete space was dreary and dark, the bathroom looked as if it could’ve been a part of a luxury home or hotel. A full size shower, granite tiles on the floors and walls. There was even a huge bathtub for soaking. This was on of Joshua’s buildings.
I didn’t dwell too much on my brother’s affairs. After removing my clothing, I stepped in the shower, and let the hot water wash everything away. I wasn’t about to let Sam or anyone else come between my wife and I any longer. Even if that someone was me. We’d been through too much. She was mine and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it.
I’d promised her that once I returned home, that it was over. He was no longer a part of our lives and I meant it. Sam was dead. The only other time I’d see him again would be in hell. But before then, I had a wife and children who needed me. They’d get my full attention from there on out.