Page 3 of Defiant Queen (Mount Trilogy 2)
nd from my position behind him, I saw her bolt up and clutch the covers to her chest like she’d held that trash bag.
Jerry lunged for her, slapping a hand over her mouth. “Don’t you fucking scream, or I’ll make paying your dues even more taxing, girl.”
Hope fought against him, but he shredded her threadbare shirt down the front and her tiny tits fell free. He reached for one and squeezed. His other hand disappeared.
“Get ready to pay your rent, girl. Your sister’s too. Unless you want me to take from her. Bet she cries just as pretty as you.”
Rage boiled in my empty belly, and I had to force back the urge to puke at his words. He didn’t deserve to live.
With the Louisville slugger he’d bought Jerry Jr. for Little League over my shoulder, I flexed my hands, adjusting my grip. I’d take an evil life to save an innocent soul any day of the week.
Jerry ripped back the covers all the way as I stepped through the doorway.
“Don’t you fucking touch her.”
Jerry whipped around to look at me, and Hope’s whimpers of fear filled my ears.
His gaze landed on the bat over my shoulder. “The fuck you think you’re gonna do with that, boy? Want me to shove it up your ass since you think you’re king shit?”
He moved faster than I would’ve thought possible, lurching his bulk off the bed and charging me like a bull, his dick swinging out of his dirty pants like a limp hot dog.
That motherfucker.
I didn’t think. I swung.
But Jerry ducked, and the bat slammed against the side of his neck. He stumbled backward until he crashed into the wall, his hands going to his throat. He slid to the floor as Hope silently cried in her bed, shaking with fear as she grasped the sheet to cover herself.
Jerry struggled to breathe as I stepped toward him, my disgust growing as I thought about what he would’ve done to her if I hadn’t been here. If he hadn’t dodged, I might have crushed his head like a melon with that first swing, but I was glad that didn’t happen. He didn’t deserve to go that easy or quickly.
A grown man trying to rape a fourteen-year-old girl deserved to die slowly, in as much pain as possible.
I pressed the end of the bat to his hands where they covered whatever I’d hurt in him with my off swing, forcing him to cut off his own air supply as I increased the pressure a little at a time.
“You’re never gonna touch another girl in this fucking house.”
Jerry’s eyes bulged out of his head a little more with every passing second. Finally, for the first time since I stepped foot in this hellhole, I saw fear in them.
It fed into my racing blood, and I didn’t hesitate to increase the pressure as he tried to pull his hands free, but couldn’t.
He was gonna lose consciousness soon, and I wanted that fear and pain clawing through him before he went. If my suspicions were right, it was no more than what he’d caused plenty of other helpless kids.
“Never again, Jerry. You hear me?”
With as much force as I could, I jammed the bat against his hands, and there was a sharp crunch before I watched the life drain from his eyes.
I gave it another good, hard shove, just to make sure he was really dead. When he slumped to the side, Hope’s cries grew louder. I leaned down to check Jerry’s pulse.
Nothing. Not a single beat left of his black heart.
I just did the world a favor.
When I stood and met her eyes, the bat dangling from my fingertips, the fear was still there. Except this time, I didn’t know who she was more afraid of, but I could probably get it in one guess.
Or maybe I was wrong.
Hope bolted from the bed, the sheet wrapped around her, and slammed into my side. Her arms wrapped around my waist. “Thank you.”
I could barely make out the words through her sobs as her tears soaked into my dirty shirt.
