Page 192 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

This wasn’t happening.

I refused to let it.

I diverted course, keeping myself concealed as I wound around the rear of the cabin and to the far side. I went for the bastard who had hold of Alicia.

I needed to ensure that Alicia and Lucy were safe first, then I’d handle the rest.

When I made it around the other side, a fucking brute dressed in a black track suit had Alicia’s back pinned to his chest as he wrangled her out the door. She tried to fight him off with everything she had, kicking and tearing at his hold as she shouted, “No. No. You can’t do this. You can’t hurt us anymore.”

I could feel the deranged, twisted satisfaction that burned from where her disgusting husband stood off to the side of the porch. Depravity rushed from him like a sieve. A thirst to quench his wickedness.

Like this monster thought he’d earned the right to destroy the beauty of Alicia and Lucy.

Something he’d been trying to do for years.

I would end that reign here.

I stole forward, keeping myself secreted. I slipped over the side railing of the porch and edged up behind what had to be one of Pierce’s guards.

I drove my knife into the fucker’s side, right between two ribs. Delivering a wound I knew would end him before he even had the chance to realize I was there.

He dropped like a rock to the ground, and Alicia screamed as she was released. She whirled around with pure horror on her face.

“Shh,” I urged.

Her hands flew to her mouth, and her eyes were wild. Pants gushing out of her lungs as she gaped at the man slumped on the porch with blood pooling around his body.

I wanted to grab her. Hold her up and tell her she was safe. Promise her I wasn’t going to allow anything to happen to her.

But I had to take care of the monster whose expression twisted in hate.

Fucker looked at me like I was slime when he was the most disgusting, perverted fiend of all. Standing there in a three-piece suit and a tweed overcoat like this was just another scheduled meeting in his day.

“Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?” He scoffed at me like it meant nothing that his guard was dead at my feet.

I cocked my head. “Do you?”

I could see the war go down in him. The way he looked behind him like he was too proud to run but knew it was his only way out.

I saw the second he made the decision.

The itch of his body before he went for his phone like he was going to call for backup. At the same second, he turned on his heel to flee.

There was no chance this piece of shit was getting away. No chance he would let our secret out. No chance he would torture Alicia and Lucy again.

In the distance, I heard the roar of River’s motorcycle fast approaching.

I sprinted across the porch, taking the railing like a hurdle. My feet hit the snow, and I bolted for him.

I caught up to him in two steps.

I didn’t fucking hesitate.

I grabbed him by the head and jerked him back.

The bastard flailed.

“That bitch is mine. I won’t let her get away with this.”