“She’s got something else coming, don’t ya, bitch?” the other one growls as anothersmackgreets my ears.
“Stop it,” I say a little louder. “Stop it. Stop it. STOP IT!”
I run from the spot I’ve been hiding in and rush toward the sounds of their now confused voices.
“What the fuck was that?’
“You got more pussy in this house you didn’t tell us about?”
I barrel straight into the kitchen, to find Gloria huddled on the floor, seemingly in pain with blood coating her mouth.
A rush of confusion and pain takes over me as I raise the baseball bat high over my shoulder and crack it so violently against one of the men’s faces, that his neck snaps and he hits the floor in a lump.
“Whoa!” the other one shouts as he tucks tail and tries to run.
But I give chase.
There’s no way I’m going to let anyone get away with claiming Gloria’s life when it isn’t owed tothem.
He stumbles and almost falls as he barrels down the long hallway with me hot on his tail. I swing the bat down with all of my might and just miss him as he quickly scrambles back to his feet and keeps running.
And just when he reaches the front door, just when he’s so goddamn sure that he’s going to be safe, it’s kicked open so roughly that it falls off its barely there hinges and hits him in the face.
Tieran stumbles in with a hand against his face, pain in his eyes, and I know I’ll have to answer for that later.
However, it’s never the way we ever had to “answer” to Gloria for anything. He’ll simply want an explanation and I’ll comply.
He’ll lie to me and tell me that he understands, and he’ll make me promise to never do it again.
It’s the cycle we’re both infinitely trapped in.
He promises to stop sticking his dick into every cunt that promises they can get him drugs and I promise to stop hitting him when I’m angry.
And even through his pain-induced haze, he’s come to my rescue yet again.
Tieran almost instantly realizes what’s happening when the man tries to get back up, and throws himself against the door, pinning him under the weight of the fractured wood and his body.
“Gimme the bat, Hens!” he shouts at me. I toss it at him and watch as he gets to his knees, teetering violently as the man attempts to push him off, then turns the bat around bringing the knob down on his face so rapidly and full of anger, that he shatters all of the bones in his face in no time.
Tieran then uses the bat to help himself back to his feet and walks over to me. Leaning against the wall, he rubs the side of his face again, looking down into my eyes.
“Let him choke to death. We’ve got other shit to take care of.”
“Tieran, I’m—”
“Yeah, I know. We’ll talk about thatafter,” he states as he raises his eyes toward the kitchen doorway.
Somewhere inside, we can hear Gloria sputtering and struggling to get off the floor.
“I’ll do it,” he says quickly, cupping the side of my face, then giving me a peck on the lips. “Wait here.”
CHAPTER19
TIERAN
Despite Hensley’s protests, I left her in the hallway.
I know that if anyone else comes through that door for anypleasure, she’ll be more than capable of handling that easier than she will Gloria.