“Get out of the truck,” I demand, keeping my eyes straight ahead.

“What? Are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. I’ll buy you a new one. Now out.”

Blaine shakes his head, but doesn’t say another word as he jumps out of his truck and softly closes the door behind him, being careful not to alarm Brian.

I crack my neck, start the engine, and slam on the fucking gas, driving right into the side of Brian’s car.

The impact causes me to slam my head into the windshield, but with my adrenaline pumping I don’t feel shit. I shake it off and focus on what I came here to do, to finish this.

Kicking the door open as hard as I can, I jump out of the truck and rush over to Brian’s side of the car. “You fucking piece of shit.” I punch my fist through his window, watching him jump back and cover his face as the glass shatters around him.

“What the fuck!” He screams. “Take my shit. You can have it. Please.”

I reach through the broken window and grab him by his hair, slamming the side of his head into what’s left of the window. Then I pull his head up so that he can look into my eyes. “I’m here to take much more than that.”

With both hands, I yank him out through the window and throw him down onto the ground, before yanking him up to his knees.

I lean in close to his face as he grabs at his wounded flesh, trying to stop the blood from his cuts. “You took everything from me!”

“Royal,” he stammers.

I raise a brow and choke him up against the side of his car. “You were stupid for coming back here. You know that, right?” I squeeze his neck tighter and slam him against the car again. “Answer me!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He grips my arm with both hands. “I didn’t know he would come after you and your family. You have to believe that.”

Releasing his throat, I punch him across the face, causing him to fall over and grab at his busted mouth. “You think that shit matters to me? Huh!” I place my boot on his back and force him flat down on the gravel. “I lost my world that night. Those fuckers came into my home and raped and murdered my wife . . . and my child. They were fucking innocent. Do you know what I did to them when I walked in and had to watch that? I saw it with my own fucking eyes! Did you know that?”

He shakes his head and grips at the gravel, as if it’s going to somehow save him. He’s wrong. Nothing will now. “No. No. No,” he says quickly. “I didn’t know!”

With my boot on his back, I pull out my knife and kneel down close to his face. “Well, good thing you’re here so I can tell you then.”

I flip him over on his back and kneel over his shaking body, shivering from the cold rain and fear of what’s about to happen to him. “I shot them each in the dick.” I bring my knife down to his dick, putting pressure on it. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Then I shot them in the head.” I bring the knife up to the side of his skull and pierce the skin with the tip. “And I watched as they bled out.”

“Shit! No! Please,” he begs. “I have a baby girl. She’s almost two!”

My heart stops from his confession and my throat feels as if it’s closing up. I’m losing it. I’m fucking losing it.

“That’s why I did it. I needed money to get my wife out of here and somewhere safe. She was already nine months pregnant and I did what I had to do to get the money. It wasn’t safe here for my family.”

I lean my head back and shake it, letting the cold rain drip down my face. “Shut up!” I bring the knife down to his throat and slightly puncture the flesh, twisting it. “Don’t fucking talk! I don’t want to hear that shit.”

“Please! She’s sick and she needs her father. She has leukemia. Her name is–”

“Stop!” I quickly stand to my feet and kick him back over to his stomach, not wanting to hear another word from his mouth. I place my boot on the back of his head and shove it into the dirt, pissed as fuck about what I’ve just learned. “Fuck! What did I say? One more word and I’ll cut your fucking throat out!”

I drop to my knees and grip at my hair, before running a hand down my face. So much shit is running through my head that I can’t decide what to do next. This is not how the fuck I planned this.

“Please don’t kill me. I only came here to visit my mother and get some more money for my daughter’s treatments. She’s so sick,” he cries. “Please. Her mother can’t work. It’s only me.”

Guilt overwhelms me to the point of suffocation. I feel like ripping his fucking heart out the more he talks, but the thought of Hadley being here, sick and losing her father, eats at me, making me vulnerable and sick to my stomach. I would die for my family.

“I’m sorry! If I could take back what I did I would.” He crawls up to his knees and laces his hands together, begging me. “Please don’t take her father away from her. She’s just a little girl.”

“Fuck!” I scream out. “Shut the fuck up!”

We both look over as Blaine comes rushing over, soaking wet and out of breath. “Shit, man. I got a message from Jax. Some shit went down.”

Fear consumes me at the thought of anything bad happening to Avalon, and suddenly all I can think about is rushing to her. I can’t fucking let anyone hurt her. The thought has me quickly rising to my feet. “Fucking hell!”

My eyes land on Brian on his knees pleading. All I can see when I look at him is a man begging and doing anything in his power to provide for his child. I’d do the same thing.

Walking over to him, I take my knife and cut his shirt open, before placing the knife to his fast rising chest. “Never fucking forget the lives that were lost because of you. Every time you take off your shirt and look in the mirror, you will remember them. It will fucking haunt you like it does me.”

Grabbing his neck, I dig my knife into his flesh, causing him to close his eyes and scream out as I slowly carve an O on the left of his chest and then move over to carve an H onto the right side. It’s so deep that there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be hurting for a while, before scar tissue forms making it permanent.

When I’m done, I stand back and look at his bleeding chest as the rain mixed with his tears runs down his grateful face. “If you do anything to fuck up that little girl’s life, I will come after you and I will fucking kill you. I will carve your fucking heart out and watch as your life slowly drains from your lifeless eyes. That is a promise.”