Page 160 of Creep

I was going to fucking kill him.

This had Leo Briggs written all over it.

I doubted Leo would have gotten directly involved. No, the coward would have gotten someone else to do his dirty work.

My eyes strained as I looked around for a black SUV. I had turned the corner and was close to Luckas’s house when I saw it. It was going fast and heading toward something—someone—in front of it. I reacted without thinking, driving ahead until the front bumper of my truck clipped the back corner of the car. The impact of the force caused the SUV to spin out of control.

I waited until the driver’s side was exposed to me and rammed my truck straight into it. I missed the driver’s spot by a foot. It didn’t fucking matter because the fucker was already trying to escape through the passenger side.

I got out of my truck and gave chase.

“Mael!” Lia called from behind me. I ignored her. I couldn’t look at her because once I did, I knew I would fucking ignore everyone and everything and go to her.

I needed to catch this fucker first. He was fast. But I was faster. I tackled him down on the side of the road. He let out a pained scream as his skin slid over the gravel.

I turned him around to face me. I didn’t recognize him, and I knew he didn’t recognize me, but I would make sure my face would be the last thing he saw before he took his final breath on this earth.

I pulled my arm back and punched him. He went out cold.

I stood up and dragged him with me.

Lia waited by my truck, her face pale and her hair a mess. I let my eyes quickly assess her, resisting the urge to just hold her and never let her go. My arms shook from the restraint as Lia looked down at the man I was dragging behind.

“Is he… is he dead?”

“No,” I answered. That was the only thing I was going to give her.

“Get in the car, Lia.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, to argue with me. I shook my head. “Now, baby. Go.”

Finally, she nodded and got into the passenger seat. I stayed where I was, trying to calm myself down. Fuck me, but any later, and she would have been run over… and she would have been taken away from me.

My fist tightened around the fucker.

I looked down at his prone body. There weren’t any visible tattoos, but I would find out soon enough if he belonged to the Sicilians.

I hauled him up onto the bed of my truck and covered him with the sheets I kept there. I also zip-tied his hands and legs together and shoved the fucker’s sock in his mouth. Couldn’t be too careful.

I climbed into my seat and turned to Lia. Before she could say anything, I pulled her in close to me and wrapped my arms around her tightly. She was tense against me at first, but then she melted into me, letting me hold her and letting me calm my heart once more.

Things had never felt more out of control than they did now, when I thought there was a chance I could lose her for good.

I couldn’t fucking lose her.

I fucking loved her. It wasn’t lust or even an obsession with her. It could have been at first. I didn’t fucking know, considering all the feelings seemed to just blend in together with her, but this feeling?

This all-consuming feeling I got with her that always felt like I was on the brink of madness, where I couldn’t fucking think, fucking function, fuckingbreathewithout having her constantly on my mind…

It was love.

I was in love with Amelia Whitlock.

“I’m okay,” she said softly.

I shook my head. “No, you’re fucking not. I’ll make it better.”

She pulled back and looked at me. “What are you going to do?”

---