Page 35 of Dark Notes

“You did a lot of damage to my girl.”

He shakes his head. “My girl.”

I chuckle loudly. “I told you I was going to steal her, and I did. And now you have to pay for hurting what’s mine.”

Holding the bat with the top digging into the dirt, I stare at him. “If you tell me why, maybe I’ll go easy on you.”

He shakes his head, like he doesn’t know how the fuck he got here.

“McKinley was fucked up long before I met her. I didn’t do all the damage.”

I sigh audibly. “Maybe not, but you didn’t exactly help, did you?”

He admits, “I didn’t. I treated her like shit, but she could’ve left at any time. I didn’t hold her hostage, man. She chose to stay.”

That’s something I’ll never understand. Why did she stay and take his abuse, instead of getting out?

As if he hears my thoughts, Jett says, “Some people have such a rough upbringing, they are literally conditioned for abuse. They don’t know it’s not normal because it’s all they know. Your experience isyour normal.”

He hit the nail on the head with that statement. It’s exactly why she’s more comfortable with being treated like shit. And probably also why she took his abuse, instead of leaving him years ago like she should have.

“I’m still waiting to hear why.”

He shrugs as if he doesn’t even know the damn answer.

“It was easy. The more I gave, the more she took. It was never too much. And if this is about her weight, well, she needs to lose weight. Her ideal weight is a maximum of one hundred forty-three pounds. She’s pushing two hundred.”

His words hurt my heart, for my girl that believes his words. This jackass has made her hate herself. No one should be made to hate the skin they’re in.

“My girl is fucking perfect. Every inch of her.”

I pick up my bat, and his eyes grow wide with pure panic. He should be afraid, very afraid. There’s barbed wire wrapped around the top, and I guarantee it’s going to fucking hurt.

Stepping closer to him, he says, “Come on, man. You got the girl. She’s fine.”

That’s just the thing though, she’s not. It will take years, at best, for her to heal from what he has done to her.

I swing the bat, going for his face, but he draws his hands up to protect it, so the bat strikes his forearms, and the barbed wire sticks in his skin.

I pull it out, and blood trickles down his flesh.

Drawing it back, I swing forward, striking his knees, and he falls to the ground, screaming. He thought he was tough, abusing my future wife, but he’s not so strong now. Just the opposite. Weak and pathetic as fuck.

I stand over him with a grin on my face, as I slam the bat down onto his stomach, covered in a thinUnder Armourshirt.

Jett steps forward and kicks him in his face. He immediately falls to his back and, like he can read my mind, Jett pulls hislegs free from under his body. I tilt my head and take in his ugly face. Blood pours from his nose and it makes me smile, thinking about the first time I fucked up his face.

I take the bat to his other knee, and he screams and cries out, which only makes me smile more. This is what happens when you hurt my woman. Past or present.

“If you make it out of here alive, you will never contact her again. I saw your vile text message. No more. If you do, you stop breathing.”

“Please stop. I’ll leave her alone. I swear i-i-t,” he stutters pathetically.

I strike his chest several more times before I decide it’s enough. If I keep going, he won’t live in pain. He will definitely be dead. Every time he has an ache, I want him to remember that what he did to her is the cause of it.

“By the way, you’re fucking fired, you talentless piece of shit.”

Through his cries, he says, “If I’m talentless, why did you hire me?”

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