Page 111 of If You Love Me

My head whipped toward the voice. There sat Iona with her legs crossed and a gun pointed in my direction. She smiled at me.

“Did you have a nice nap? I thought you weren’t going to wake up for a second there. That would have taken all the fun out of my plans for you, girl.”

I stood from the bed, and she jumped to her feet.

“Sit down,” she said, pointing the gun at me.

The old Evenie might have been afraid. She might have complied, but the woman I was today had been through too much. I was operating in mama mode, and come hell or high water, I was getting to my child.

“Girl, fuck you. You have my baby tied to a damn chair, and you don’t think I’m going to check on her?”

I made my way over to Summer, hugging and kissing her little face.

“Are you okay, baby?” I asked, cupping her face.

She shook her head no. “She shot Mimi.”

My eyes widened, and my head snapped back. “You shot Pauline! In front of her!”

“It was an accident. She shouldn’t have lunged at me.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Mrs. Pauline, shot? Summer witnessed it? My baby was going to need years of therapy after this. She would have nightmares and so much trauma, and that was something I never wanted for her. She was a kid. She should be running around with her friends and enjoying her childhood, not going to therapy because a deranged lunatic couldn’t seem to let go.

I began untying the ropes that bound Summer to the chair.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Iona demanded.

“You have traumatized my child enough. I’m not letting her see another thing.”

I got the ropes undone just as Iona ran up on us and grabbed me by my hair.

“You are not running things in here!” she yelled, yanking me back.

I threw all my weight on her, knocking her back on the bed.

“Run, Summer! Hide!”

My baby sprinted for the front door of the cabin. She got it open just as Iona managed to throw me off her.

“Summer!” she screamed, scrambling to her feet.

I dove on her, taking her to the floor. The gun flew out of her hand and slid under the bed. Grabbing a hand full of her hair, I slammed her face into the floor. I underestimated the strength of the deranged woman. She acted like that didn’t even faze her. She threw me off her like I was a featherweight and scrambled to her feet. My head was pounding, but I had to fight through it.

I climbed to my feet and made it to the door just in time to close it before Iona could run out.

“You leave her alone!” I screamed. “This is between me and you.”

“No, it’s between all of us. You stole something from me, and I want it back.”

“You really think doing this is going to win you Tyrion back? You’re delusional, Iona. This isn’t going to end well for you, and it’s definitely not going to end the way you want.”

“You don’t know that!”

“What kind of man would ever be with the woman that kidnapped his wife and child? You shot his mother, Iona! You think he’s gonna come in here and forgive you and all will be well? You have to be smoking hot crack if you think this is gonna end in your favor!”

“He was mine!” she yelled, grabbing me by my hair.

We started fighting, going blow for blow. I couldn’t pretend like she wasn’t giving it to me as hard as I was giving it to her. We were tearing each other’s faces up with punches. Somehow, I lost my balance and fell back on the bed with her on top of me. That was just enough time to give her the upper hand. Punch after punch landed to my face as she screamed like a madwoman.

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