Page 27 of Like An Animal

THE SHADOW

X avi throws his head back laughing for the first time in a really long time, but it’s clearly done to mock me. “Seriously, dude? Are you really going to confront Bron like that ?”

I roll my eyes at him as I pull the hood of my jacket over my head. He can make fun of my theatrics all he wants, but I’m making sure there is no way she can deny it’s me who’s taking her.

Even I can admit that I don’t look the same as I did five years ago. So, I dressed the way she remembers me. Black hoodie, dark jeans and boots with the same face paint design I used to use when our band was still a thing.

There’s no way she won’t know it’s me.

“Shut up and get in the car,” I demand as I pull the keys out of my pocket.

“Fine.” He groans as he makes his way to the car.

He gets situated in the front passenger seat as I climb in and put the keys in the ignition.

On the drive, he calls the plane and tells them to be on stand-by and to send another car to Bronwyn’s house, giving the instruction to leave the keys in the car.

That’s the only way this will run smoothly.

Xavi has been tasked with getting the kid out of the house and to the plane.

He can’t leave her there by herself to pick us up.

That would be dangerous for the child. She’s got to be only four years old.

She can’t be left on her own, even if she’s sleeping.

Xavi will keep her safe and protected while I deal with her mother and stepfather.

I pull the car into the driveway and we get out. Reaching into the back seat, I grab the crowbar hidden under the driver’s seat, something I picked up from the hardware store earlier today. Meanwhile Xavi pulls out his pistol, looking at the crowbar in my hand sideways.

“The fuck, Jer?” he groans as he slowly shakes his head. It’s as if he thinks I’m being childish.

“Don’t judge me for my weapon when you’re bringing that . What are you going to do? Shoot the kid?”

He knows better than to think of doing something stupid like that. It’s not just any kid in there. She’s Bronwyn’s daughter. That alone allows her even more protections than your average child.

“Fuck, no! This is for the husband, dumbass.”

Nope. That would give him too quick of a death. He deserves to suffer for what he took from me, what she let him take. I might give him a quick death for looking at her, maybe even talking to her, but he did much worse than that. He tainted things between me and her.

That won’t go unpunished.

“You won’t need that since you’re going to grab the kid and leave. I’ll get us in the house.”

He follows me as I walk up the porch, straight to the front door and try to turn the knob. It’s a small town. Most people leave their doors unlocked in a small town, but this one isn’t.

Smart girl.

“What’s the plan now, genius?” Xavi asks, sarcasm dripping from his words.

I slam the crowbar into the glass panel of the door, but it seems to be one of those panels that keeps glass from falling out when broken. I puncture it with the crowbar before dragging it down to create a big enough hole where I can slip my arm through.

I guess it’s a good thing the glass didn’t shatter. It would’ve made quite the ruckus that we don’t need right now.

I disengage the lock before pushing the door open. Pausing for half a second, I see the golden retriever sitting right there, staring at me with its tail wagging.

Not once did any of our intel reveal a fucking dog.

I don’t like dogs. I never have. They are dirty, stinky and destroy everything in their path. They’re loud as fuck, too.

The dog doesn’t move except to wag its tail.

“Calm down, man. Retrievers are nothing but cute and cuddly,” Xavi mutters as we walk through the door and I carefully close it behind us.

The dog practically wags its entire body as it walks over toward me.

“Aw. Look at it. It’s happy for some attention.”

Xavi reaches his hand out to pet it, but the second it looks at him, the dog snarls and snaps its teeth at his hand.

No barking though. That’s a positive.

“Hey! Bad doggie. Bad, bad doggie.”

The dog sends one more growl at him before looking at me. I swear, if this mutt attacks me, I’m not against putting it in an early grave…but, fuck, it’s Bronwyn’s dog.

The things I fucking put up with for that woman.

Suddenly, the dog’s entire body starts wagging as it walks over to me, whimpering.

I don’t know if the thing is scared or what, but it’s acting weird.

Then, out of nowhere, the thing jumps on me, nearly knocking me back into the door.

“Get this thing off of me,” I growl, but then the dog licks my chin.

“Aww. It likes you!”

Just fucking peachy.

What part of “I don’t like dogs” does the universe not understand?

“Xavi, I swear…”

“Just pet it and it will probably get off of you. I’m not helping you. You didn’t come to my defense when it tried to bite me.”

I swear, I’m going to kill someone over this. Probably Xavi.

I reach my hand down and lightly tap the dog's head.

“I said pet it, not pat it.”

I swear, my eye twitches as I press my hand down on the dog's head and it pants its disgusting dog breath in my face.

It’s times like these where I wish I was taller.

“If you were in any other house, you’d be dead, stupid mutt.”

Then, it licks up the side of my face before jumping down.

“Don’t say a fucking thing,” I warn Xavi before wiping the slobber off my face, being careful not to strip off the paint.

“I didn’t say anything,” he responds while I can hear him laughing under his breath, causing his voice to crack.

“Go get the kid and take the mutt with you to the plane.”

His eyes widen and horror is written across his face. “Me? Why?”

“Because there will be no one here to take care of it. Do I need to explain any more than that?”

If no one is here, the dog will starve and I don’t think my little ghost would appreciate that.

“But, can’t you bring it?”

“No, I can’t have that thing disturbing me. Get it out of here.”

He concedes and I watch him head up the stairs next to the door.

I wait at the bottom as I look through a window.

This place is built in the shape of a C so looking out the window allows me to see through to another section of the house, one where I catch sight of the fucker sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

A minute passes as I watch and see my little ghost walk into the room with her husband .

She starts to speak, stealing his attention from what he’s reading, but they lose my attention when Xavi walks down the stairs, carrying the little girl.

The child’s face is pressed to his shoulder with her eyes closed.

“She’s so exhausted that she didn’t put up any fight at all,” he states, but I roll my eyes.

“She’s a child. What do you expect?” I respond, but then the girl’s eyes open, looking pretty loopy for someone who probably just went to sleep half an hour ago.

“Daddy?” Then her eyes close again, but her face twists with disturbance.

“Shh. Your daddy isn’t here. Go back to sleep,” Xavi soothes her, but then she slowly shakes her head.

“But, I want my daddy,” she whimpers as he carries her out of the house. Almost as if on instinct, the dog follows Xavi and the child to the car.

That was easier than I expected.

I turn and head in the direction I saw them, but what I see through the window is my little ghost slowly backing away from her husband, a look of horror across her face. The husband in question looks pissed and is screaming at her.

That’s a change of pace from what I saw this morning. He was pretty docile then, but right now, he looks ready to kill.

And his sights are set on my little ghost.

Not on my watch, fucker.

I jog in their direction, watching through the multiple windows as she turns and runs away from him.

He chases after her as she takes off, but she’s not fast enough.

She’s barely out of the kitchen when he knocks her down on the ground, straddles her waist, and wraps his hands around her throat.

She fights, trying her best to rip his hands away from her neck, but based on the way the veins in his face and neck throb, it’ll take a hurricane to remove him from her.

Or something close to it.

As I approach, I reel back the crowbar in my hands and swing. It connects hard with his jaw, sending him flying back off of her. His hands are ripped from her neck. I look down at her face as she takes in a deep breath, wheezing in each mouthful of air.

Her eyes open and she looks up at me as she clutches her throat, those forest green eyes sparkling up at me. The recognition hasn’t hit yet. Maybe she’s a bit dazed from the way this fucker just strangled her.

I tilt my head slightly, waiting for her to say or do something, but then as if the lights turn on inside, her eyes become blown with horror and unbridled fear.

There it is.

Hello, little ghost. Have you missed me? Because I’ve missed you.

She better be mentally preparing herself. The plans I have for her are anything but holy.

She gasps as she snaps her body around to face me, scooting her body away. That fear in her eyes is intoxicating. “Jeremy,” she breathes out my name.

My gaze moves from her to the worthless man who just tried to kill her who looks just as horrified as she does.

Did she tell him about me?

She wasn’t aware of all the bodies I piled up for even looking at her, but she was fully aware of the men whose asses I kicked for touching her. I didn’t care how innocent the touch was. She was mine long before I claimed her.

“Who the fuck are you?” he rasps while pressing a hand to his head.

So she didn’t warn him about the monster that would be coming for him?

“He-he’s my brother,” she responds and my eyes narrow into slits.

She’s still going on about that? Well, I’m going to use that to my advantage once I get her back to my place. I’m going to make her hate it so much that she never calls me her brother again.

With the crowbar in my hand, I point to the couch, giving her a stern look so she knows she better not defy me.

She’s in enough trouble as is. If she makes it any worse, I might just kill her by accident.

She scooches back between the two couches in the very small space there. That’s not exactly what I wanted her to do, but it’s good enough. At least she’s not trying to run.

But why isn’t she?

As far as she knows, the child is sleeping upstairs warm in her bed. I expected her to try to run for the kid, but no.

Why didn’t she?

Maybe she thinks if she stays down here, I won’t know about the child’s existence. Not only do I know about her, I sent her away with Xavi and the dumb mutt.

My gaze moves back to the husband and rage bubbles in my chest. The things I’m going to do to him for not only touching and marrying my little ghost, but also trying to kill her will even make the devil weep.

And Bronwyn won’t be able to look away from the absolute carnage I will inflict.

He’s going to die tonight and I’m going to enjoy every second of killing him.