Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
I screeched.
Marley started barking.
“Get him outta here!” Tommy hollered.
I grabbed my puppy’s collar, pulled him out of the room, and shut the door behind him.
Marley kept barking from the other side of the door.
Tommy kept punching. He was punching Nick like he was a heavy bag. Over and over and over.
“Tommy! Stop it!”
He ignored me.
“What the fuck, man? How many times you been here?”
“This is the s-second time.”
Tommy glared at me, lip curled, like I was a piece of dirt.
I jolted back, my blood running cold.
“She didn’t see me,” Nick said quickly, swaying like he was dazed. “I was just casing the place. Figuring shit out. I delivered something. Your guard signed for it and I left.”
“You didn’t get the message last time, you stupid little shit?” Tommy pulled a gun from his back and put it against Nick’s cheek.
“Talk,” he said.
I fell to my knees on the floor. “Tommy!”
“Shut it, Athena.” He glared at me and then looked back to Nick.
“I got this route so that I could make sure she’s okay. Her father asked me to deliver a letter. He mailed it to me and I re-packaged it. I was just gonna try to talk to her when I delivered it.”
Oh God, Nick.
Tommy let go of him and got the letter from the floor and tore the envelope open. His eyes skimmed it and tossed it on the desk.
I got up. “Tommy, let him go.”
“I’m sick of his shit, Athena.”
“Nick, you have to stop,” I pleaded.
Nick wiped his lip. “Look at this guy, Tia. Look at what you married! You okay with this? The stuff you used to feed me about being an upstanding citizen? Volunteering, making a difference in the world, and this is who you marry? Someone who pulls a gun on me for tryin’ to just talk to you? Ruby told me you’re carrying his baby, Tia? Seriously?” Nick scrunched his face up in disgust.
“Shut your mouth,” I demanded. “That’s my husband and the father of my child you’re talking shit about. Get the fuck outta here and don’t come back!”
“Nice try, Tia. He’s not walking outta here,” Tommy said, emotionless.
Nick and I both gawked at Tommy. Tommy who was standing there with a gun in his hand.
“Let him go, Tommy. He’s not coming back. Right Nick?”
Nick shook his head, his eyes on Tommy’s gun.
Tommy cocked the gun.
I gasped and threw myself at Tommy. “Let him go. Don’t do this.”
He glared at me. “I’m sick and fuckin’ tired of people trying to fuckin’ take you from me, Athena.”
“Nick can’t take me from you, baby.”
Tommy lifted me up and sat me on the edge of his desk and moved back toward Nick, who was sheet white.
“Let him go!” I shouted, desperately. “He won’t come back.”
Tommy moved toward Nick and put the gun in Nick’s mouth. I gasped. Nick’s eyes couldn’t have been any wider.
“Tommy, no. No, no-no-no.” I put my hands in my hair.
Tommy glared at Nick, a muscle jumping in his jaw.
Nick was crying. And peeing his pants. I saw the wet spot spread on the front of his uniform.
I sobbed. I had to stop this insanity.
“Tommy!” I screamed. “Please.”
I was bawling. I jumped off the desk.
“Get the fuck back up there!” he demanded, his chest was moving up and down rapidly. He was so close to snapping.
I sat back on the desk and thrust my hands through my hair, sending Tommy a pleading look, tears running down my face.
I put my hand on my belly and looked at my hand, my wedding rings; the gravity of this was cutting like a knife. A serrated knife.
Tommy side-eyed me and then his expression changed. He pulled the gun back.
“Last chance, fucker. I see you again?”
“You won’t,” Nick promised. Nick’s face was bleeding.
Tommy stepped back again and with his gun, he waved toward the door. “Leave town. You got twenty-four hours. Don’t come back. Before you go, get word to Greg O’Connor that due to that little stunt, he no longer has my protection.” Tommy gestured toward the letter.
Nick looked confused a second and then nodded and left, not looking my way.
I stopped crying. Tears were drying on my face, but my whole body still shook.
Tommy put the gun down on his desk and followed Nick out. Marley was barking, sitting outside the door, showing his tiny puppy teeth to Nick.
I moved to the doorway and then after hearing the front door click shut, to the foyer. Tommy talked to Will outside. He was pointing at Nick and giving Will shit.
Will went and opened the gate, which the UPS truck was directly against. Another car was outside the gate, a guy I recognized as one of our security guys standing on the other side.
Nick reversed the UPS truck out of the driveway and peeled off.
I picked up my puppy.