“I will not! That prick has my sister and he has taken her away from us for the last time, so unless the three of you want to take me on too, stay the hell out of my way because I am going to make sure he never hurts her or anyone else ever again.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Erin
I can feel the heat from Joel’s glare burning its way through my body. He’s gone crazy, completely off the deep end. Fuck this, if he is going to kill me then I am going to spew words at him to make him suffer until I die. I have been his victim for long enough.
“You know what Joel? Go ahead and kill me.” I shrug and tilt my head to the side. “I will die a happy woman for the simple fact that for the first time in my life I found out what love is.”
He just stands there with the gun in his hand and I can tell he is getting angrier with every word I say as his nostrils start to flare and his hands start to shake, so I keep going.
“Love is a man named Adam Payne. Love is having the man you love worship your body and your mind and your soul in ways you could never imagine.”
“Shut the hell up, now!” Joel screams.
“I will not shut up. Never again. You may kill me, Joel, but you will never take away the love I have for Adam. Never. Do you know what else love is, Joel?” I pour out my hatred in my words. “Love is a little girl named Sierra, who thank God will never know what kind of an evil, sick, twisted excuse for a human being her father is. She will grow up knowing exactly what love is since Adam will be the one who will raise her. She will know nothing about you. You don’t even exist to her.” I lift my head and with a heated gaze I scream at him, “Now pull the fucking trigger you worthless coward.”
He crosses over from the foot of the bed to the side and I feel the bed dip as he places down one knee. He doesn’t say a word as he unties one of my hands and walks around and unties the other one. Both of my hands fall down as they are aching from being tied up for so long. He just stands there and says nothing. His silence frightens me more than anything but I am not going to lie here and let him decide my fate. I move to get up, but he shoves me back down and climbs on top of me, pinning my hands above my head. I kick and buck and claw my way free and shove him as hard as I can. The gun goes flying out of his hand and lands with a thud on the floor.
“I am going to kill you, you whore!” his wrathful voice screams.
“Like hell you are,” I shout back as the heel of my hand connects with the side of his head. I get up and run. I run as fast as I can, not caring at all that I am running through the cabin with only my panties on. I make it to the door and start to open it when he grabs a handful of my hair and jerks me painfully. I land on the floor.
“You actually thought you could get away from me? And you actually thought you could get the last word in?” He leans down and his mouth hovers over the top of mine. “I call the shots here, not you. I will say this, though.” He brushes his lips across mine and I squeeze my eyes shut as I start to gag and dry heave from the feel of his lips on my skin. “With that little stunt you pulled back there, you made me change my mind about dying along with you. I think I want to live.”
He takes his mouth away. “Yes. I want to live and raise Sierra. I think that’s a very good idea, Erin don’t you?” He looks down at me with a smug expression.
“Adam w...will n...never let you have her,” I stutter.
“Despite the lie you’ve been letting her believe, Adam is not her father. I am.” He smacks his chest in anger.
“You will never be her father no matter what you say, Joel. EVER.” I spit.
“We’ll see. Or better yet, I will see because you are about to die. Now up you go,” he says as he grabs my arm and yanks me up. He walks us toward the bedroom and pulls me inside, then crosses over to the dresser where he starts to rifle through the drawers until he finds a t-shirt and shoves it in my direction.
“Put this on. Change of plans. We’re going for a little drive.” I take the shirt from his hands, not because I want to leave with him but because I don’t want him looking at me without clothes on anymore. I begin to pull the shirt over my head and in that moment, I see him reach down to the floor to grab the gun. Right as he is nearly bent over all the way, I lift my leg and kick him in the stomach and take off running again for the door. This time I finally manage to get it open and when I run out onto the porch I scream as I see Luke’s Range Rover come to a stop right in front of me. As soon as I see the man I love step out from the back of the vehicle I also feel a gun pressed right into the back of my head.