Page 11 of Bad Man

If he has, I’ll have no choice but to kill him.

I grab my gun from the glove compartment and tuck it into my waistband as I run toward the house. As I step over the threshold, I hear a male voice saying something I can’t make out. Then, I hear Ella screaming, and my heart breaks. All logic goes out the window. The murderous beast that lies just below the surface claws its way into existence.

“Stop!” she cries, the terror in her voice undeniable. “Please!”

“Shut up, bitch!”

No one calls my girl a bitch.No one.

I burst into Ella’s bedroom, and the sight alone is almost enough to make me pull out my gun and shoot him right in front of her. The only reason I don’t is the look on her face. She’s terrified, yes, but as soon as her eyes land on me, I can see a flicker of relief.

He’s trying to tie her to the bed, and he’s almost succeeded. One of her wrists is bound to a bedpost, and he’s working on the other. She’s fighting him, even now that he’s paused his efforts to observe the intrusion.

With a well-timed kick to his groin, she sends him to the floor. I waste no time in jumping in, crossing the room in a few quick strides. Grabbing onto Tyler’s wrists, I bring them behind his back and use them to pull him upright. Then, with a look at Ella, I start to lead him away.

“You stay where you are,” I instruct her. “If you can get that off of your arm, you should. But–”

“Fuck you!” Tyler yells, struggling in my grip. I silence him by bringing my knee up between his legs, holding onto him tightly as he doubles over in pain. “Shit.”

“Just stay here, Ella,” I say again, twisting the man’s wrists to inflict more pain on him. “Let me take care of him, and I’ll be right back.”

“Do you want me to call the police?” she asks, already working toward freeing herself.

“That won’t be necessary,” I say, my voice dark. “Actually, it’s probably best that you don’t call them.”

With that, I shove the struggling intruder out of her room. As much as I want to shove him onto the carpet and blow his head off right here in the hallway, I don’t want to createany mess. Plus, I probably shouldn’t use the gun at all. Even silenced, I’m sure Ella will be able to hear what I’m doing.

Everything I’m doing is to keep her safe. And that includes keeping her in the dark about the reality of what I’m going to do to this man.

I throw him onto the tile floor of Ella’s kitchen hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Tyler scrambles to lift himself up, but I put a stop to it with a sharp kick to his ribs. When he rolls over, clutching the injury, I drop down on top of him, letting my knee dig into the soft flesh of his stomach.

“You really fucked up, Tyler,” I say, using my other knee to crush the wrist that’s gripping his side. It snaps with a sickening noise, and he lets out a cry of pain. “I was just going to come to your house and put a bullet in your brain. You were going to get to die in your own home without any pain. It would have been over,” I say as I grab his other hand. Then, as I say my next words, I break his wrist. “Just like that.”

“Please,” he pleads, reduced to pathetic begging. I should have known that he was the kind of person to do this. He couldn’t own up to his crimes, probably always has his father bail him out when he finds himself in hot water. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll leave Ella alone. I’ll never come back to Blackwood Falls. I’ll say that I fell on a trail here and broke my wrists. Just… Just don’t kill me.”

“It’s a little late for that now, don’t you think?” I ask, lifting myself off of him so I can shove him onto his front. This time, when I put my weight onto his back, I aim for one of his kidneys, planning on inflicting as much pain as I can before I take his sorry life. “You could have just left her alone, taken your win. Although, I wasn’t going to let you have that. You fuckedwith my girl, and that’s not something a man like me can let slide.”

“I’ll give you anything,” he pleads, sobbing as he begs for his life. “My family has money. I– I have a couple classic cars, you could have them all.”

“You think that I’d trade Ella’s peace of mind for any amount of money?” I ask, grabbing onto his head and leaning down so I can look into his tear-filled eyes. “Unlike you, I don’t look at her like a possession. So, any last words, you scumbag?”

“I–” he begins, but I don’t give him the chance to finish.

With practiced ease, I snap his neck. In truth, it was still too kind of a death for him. God knows what he was planning with Ella, but he deserved to suffer for that. Fortunately for him, Ella’s in the next room.

I lie his head back on the floor, another act of mercy. The thought of dropping it, letting his skull crack against the tile, crosses my mind. There’s no point in that, though. He’s already dead. He can’t hurt Ella anymore.

I stand up, giving his body a once over. It won’t be hard to deal with him. He’s not very big, a scrawny guy. Taking care of him shouldn’t be a difficult task. As soon as I get done checking on Ella, I’ll be back for him.

My top priority now is making sure my girl’s okay.

Chapter Ten

Ella

It didn’t take me long to get my wrist free from the binding. Tyler, despite managing to overpower me, didn’t do a good job of tying the knot. I like to think that if Michael hadn’t shown up, I’d have been able to get free on my own. If I was smart, I might have been able to get out of here and away from him.

The what-ifs don’t matter now, though. Michael showed up and saved me. In fact, he showed up so quickly that Tyler didn’t have a chance to do anything but bring me into the bedroom. I don’t have to think about what would have happened if I were left alone with him because Michael…

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