Loving a Bully

Lost You

My father's eyes were studying me from head to toe.

This brought chills to my spine, making my skin crawl.

His apparent calmness didn’t deceive me. Though his face was blank, his eyes were arctic cold when he met my gaze and held it. It was a look in them that made me want to hide but I met his gaze straight on. He wanted to scare me. My fear was something I couldn't give him. Not now when I needed courage the most.

My father looked like he hadn’t aged since the last time I saw him. Face still tan, hair still well-groomed and body still fit, time, unfortunately, was kind on him. He was wearing an expensive suit and even the two men with him were wearing suits. My father insisted upon it. He chose strong and good-looking men to be his personal soldiers and they were recruited specifically to make him look good. Hence, the damn suits.

I tried not to look at Dan’s way any longer. I was afraid I’d start to scream. Staring into my father’s gray eyes, eyes the same color as mine, I straightened my shoulders and tilted my chin up.

"Let him go," I made the order very softly. It was far more effective than shouting or pleading and I could tell from my father’s bewildered expression that I had caught him off guard.

“You dare order me?”

“He’s innocent.”

My father drummed his fingertips on the armrests of the chair. “Innocent? Hardly, daughter. Do you think I’m stupid not to know who this man is?” He turned to his men. “Grant’s son, is he? He looks like his father when he was younger. He’s as stupid as his father too.”

The mockery in his voice was deliberate. He wanted me to know he was aware and amused at my pitiful attempts to protect Dan. Terror gripped me so hard I could barely breathe. Of course they’d find out.

Of course.

But Dan didn't deserve this. His only sin was that he loved me too much to leave me alone. I had to save him. He had to return home to his pregnant wife. Alive.

“Let him go,” I said again and this time my tone was hard.

“Are you insane?” my father’s voice was a deadly whisper. I’d never ever dared to give him orders. Nor did I defy him before I ran away from home.

My courage was a foreign concept to my father. But I deliberately wanted to incite his wrath to take his attention away from Dan. I wanted to make him lose his temper so he’d forget about Dan. It was easily done as he had little control over it. Everyone’s eyes were on me and I knew Dan was already working his way through the binds that held him. I needed to distract them so he could escape.

“I’m not insane, Father,” I answered him, shrugging indifference. “But I do think you are.”

I knew I succeeded when he leaped to his feet, his face twisted with fury. Then he moved towards me, his men automatically stepping away to let me pass. My father towered over me, nostrils flaring, eyes almost black. Everything in me wanted to bolt out of the room and go somewhere, anywhere. Instead, I clenched my hands so hard my nails dug into my palms and forced myself to calm.

Then he slapped me.

Hard.

Across the face.

Blind lights flashed before my eyes but luckily, I managed to stay upright. Behind him, Dan gave a muffled scream through his gag and still dazed with pain, I prayed that he’d keep quiet.

“I gave you everything,” my father angrily spat at me, slapping me again before I could recover. This time, I lost my balance but Rodney caught me before I could fall and pulled me upright. “Everything,” my father slapped me again. “My money was yours to use however you wanted. My properties, my people, everything that I had was yours. But this is how you repay me?”

I couldn’t answer. I was trying not to faint. Blood trickled down the side of my mouth.

“I've been very accommodating to you. Didn't I leave you alone all the while you were growing up? I let you do as you please. w***e yourself as you please. My only request was that you marry my good friend, Montecarlo. Yet you ran away. You f*****g ran away and now he’s dead!”

Good riddance.

Good f*****g riddance.

Because there was no way I’d marry an old man who raped women and children. I’d rather die than be the wife of a criminal who owned a massive drug cartel. The only reason my father wanted me to marry him was that he wanted that drug cartel. I’d rather die than return to that life again.

But my feelings didn’t matter to him. Never had, never will. Since childhood, I had lived in a world where no choices were given to me, especially since I was a woman. So I made a choice. And that was to run.

Spittle ran down the sides of my father's face with each obscenity he shouted as he continued to inflict his punishment on me. Rodney’s hands were tight on my arms, so tight they hurt. Dan kept screaming through his gag and I was terrified, not for myself but for him. The monster’s wrath was on me now. I was terrified Dan would draw his wrath to him instead.

“You’re like your mother,” my father said, finally stopping his punishment. He took a deep breath, stepping back, adjusting his tie. “Just like your mother.”

My chin was covered in blood from the cut in my lower lip, dribbling onto my shirt. I could barely see through one eye but I still managed to glare at him, happy to find my eyes dry.

“Unfortunately, you’re too much of a coward to take your own life.”

I fought the irresistible urge to hit him. The monster was the reason why she took her own life.

“You are such an asshole,” I muttered.

He went solid for a half-second before another blow, this time to my gut, hit me.

“Dare you find your backbone now, daughter?” he sneered. “You shamed me. Shamed me. And if you didn’t have any use left I would have gladly let you slit your wrists and let you join your mother in hell.”

An anguished scream burned inside my throat but I swallowed it down, fighting back tears of grief and tears of rage. I wished I was stronger. I hated feeling powerless. But he was right. I should have just killed myself. Then Dan wouldn’t have been caught in my mess too.

My father and his men had their attention on me that they didn’t notice.

But I did.

I held my breath as Dan rose from the floor behind them, finally escaping from his binds. My gaze met his eyes, furious eyes that were scanning the damage on my face.

Run away.

Dan’s eyes went to my father and I read the intent in them. Terror gripped me so hard I almost whimpered.

Please run away, Dan.

My father noticed where I was looking and he turned. Dan slammed a fist into his jaw when he did, knocking him to the floor. Rodney quickly released me and in my weakened state, I collapsed on my knees to the floor. He threw a punch at Dan. But Dan was quick to evade it and struck Rodney in the gut.

“Dan!” I screamed when Oscar took out a gun, barely noticing the pain shooting through my lip. “Run! Please run!”

“I’m not leaving you,” he snapped, hitting Oscar’s wrist, making the gun fall to the wooden floor. “You run! Go, April! I’ll take care of them!”

There was no way I was leaving without him.

“It’s me they want! Just go!”

“No!”

Fighting Rodney and Oscar one on two, Dan had forgotten my father. But I didn’t. My eyes cut to him just in time to see him take the gun from the floor and aim it at him.

"No!"

Too late. It was too late.

The sonic crack of a gunshot tore through the air. My body froze and my breath left me all at once when Dan's head snapped backwards, spilling blood in the air. My eyes instinctively closed at the sight. The next thing I heard was something heavy landing on the ground with a resounding thud. Then there was complete silence.

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't look.

Inside me was a beast raging, wanting to claw my father's eyes out, wanting to kill them all.

I wanted to scream.

And scream.

Fucking scream and never stop.

Wanting to weep and hurt them the way I was hurting right now, with a pain that went straight to my soul but I was paralyzed. My eyes opened and they fell on the floor. At the dead body in front of me. Blood spread out around Dan's head, soaking his hair. And the light was gone from his half-hooded eyes. My throat tightened.

Dan was dead.

My beautiful Dan who had just told me that he was a father was now dead.

Oh, God.

My stomach constricted.

His pregnant wife.

I couldn't avert my eyes from him even if I tried. He was the one thing that anchored me to life. When I thought everything was hopeless for me, he gave me hope. And now he was dead, pieces of his brain dotting the floor like the petals of roses that had scattered across it.

Dan was gone.

Because of me.

I could hear my father talking to his men in the background but I couldn't focus. All I could think of was Dan. Of his wife and child. Of the happy family life that he was supposed to have with them.

Then I was jerked painfully up the floor by the arm. My trembling eyes went to my father who was holding me. Stony-faced and infuriated, his eyes held a clear message.

Now that the monster caught me, he would never let me escape again.