“I’ll fucking kill you!”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re not in a position to be making threats.” I stood back and looked at him with a sense of satisfaction. He was strung up with his hands bound over his head, and his face looked like it had been put through a fucking meat grinder. His feet were barely touching the floor as he tried to wrangle himself free from the restraints. I’d already beaten the hell out of him, but I was just warming up. “You keep running that fucking mouth of yours, and I’ll cut your tongue right out of your head. It’d suit me just fine. As far as I’m concerned, you have it coming.”
“I knew you were a fucking monster. I told Frankie to steer clear of you, but the fucking bitch wouldn’t listen.”
Once again, rage swept over me, and I couldn’t stop myself from plowing my fist into the side of his face, knocking the motherfucker out. His chin dropped to his chest, and as he hung there unconscious, I thought about the moment I walked into Frankie’s house and found that she hadn’t made it home. The boys were both there waiting on her to get home from work and were concerned that they hadn’t heard from her. I tried calling her cell and then the coffee shop, but when I got no answer, I knew something was wrong. I told the boys to stay put and went to the coffee shop to check on her. When I walked in, I found Frankie with a busted lip and a swollen eye, and she was standing over Marc. He was sprawled out on the floor unconscious with broken glass all around him.
Frankie’s eyes were wide with panic as she gasped, “I think I killed him.”
“Don’t give a fuck about him.” I stepped over and took her into my arms, cradling her against my chest. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.”
“What the hell happened?”
“I was getting ready to leave.” She stepped back, breaking my embrace as she told me, “I’d just turned out the lights in the back, and he showed up. He was so mad. I knew he was about to lose it.”
“Over what?”
“You...He’d warned me several times about us getting involved. Told me time and time again that he wasn’t going to have it. I told him he didn’t have a say anymore, and I thought I’d gotten through to him, but when he saw your bike at the house the other night, it set him off.” Her voice trembled as she said, “He came at me, told me he was going to kill me, and then he punched me. He was just so mad. I tried, but I couldn’t talk him down. He just kept hitting me, so when I managed to get to my feet, I grabbed one of our table lamps and hit him over the head with it. He’s been lying there ever since.”
“Sonofabitch.”
“He’d done this kind of thing before. Lots of times, but I’ve never seen that look in his eyes. He was so intent on actually killing me. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did what you had to.” I knelt down, and when I saw he still had a pulse, I looked up to Frankie and said, “I need you to get your things and go.”
“Is he still alive?”
“For now.”
“But… what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to handle this.”
“You can’t kill him, Roman,” she pleaded. “I know you may want to, but you can’t. He’s the boys’ father and...”
“Go home, Frankie.” I heard what she was saying, and while I might not have agreed, I wasn’t going to kill him—at least not yet. “I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” I stood and stepped over to her, pulling her to me once again. “It’s going to be okay. Now, go home and put some ice on your eye and lip, and I’ll be there when I can.”
“Okay.” She looked up at me as she pleaded, “Just please be careful.”
I kissed her on the forehead as I said, “Proud of you.”
She glanced down at Marc as she muttered, “I wish I felt the same.”
“You should. The asshole had it coming.” When Marc groaned and started to move, I knew our time was running short. I motioned my hand towards the door as I told her, “You need to go, Frankie. Now.”
As soon as she’d gotten in her car, I called Shotgun and had him come give me a hand with Marc. We got him into the SUV and took him to the clubhouse. Once we had him in the holding room, Shotgun left me to handle things on my own. I was overcome with rage, and ended up beating the hell out of the man. Hell, I’d come close to killing him, but remembered Frankie’s pleas and restrained myself. Even though he was still breathing, I’d given him a beating he wouldn’t soon forget.