Neither did Lexi.
And when she looked at me the way she was now, worried and tense, I felt the need to be real with her, even though I probably shouldn’t have. But I meant it when I said I didn’t want secrets between us. “She doesn’t have a weakness, baby.”
No hesitation. “Sure she does. We all do.”
“She’s more snake than person, Lex.” My posture stiff, I added an irritated, “Full of a poison that I put there. Ling is a monster of my own creation. She’s barely human, and I nurtured the animalistic side of her. I fed it and watched it grow and did that shit happily because, at the time, I could use that part of her. And what happens as a result of that—” I blew out a breath. “—is my own fault.”
My woman laid it out, no holds barred. “I know you’re worried. I’m worried too. But you don’t need to because I’ll protect you.” The words were whisper soft.
A small snuffle escaped me, and when I turned to my wife, I caught her expression and my smile waned.
She was serious.
Dead serious.
My expression stone-faced, I uttered a rough, “Think I spent six fuckin’ years away from you for you to go and risk your life for me?” I shook my head slowly. She needed to heed my hard words. “Not happening.”
I saw the exact moment she got me. Her face fell and her pretty pink lips parted slightly as she swallowed hard. The term of endearment trembled. “I love you.”
“Don’t do that.” I clicked my tongue in annoyance, my spine stiffening.
“What?”
“Don’t...” It hurt to say it. My voice quieted, “Don’t say goodbye. Not now.” A solid pause. “Not yet.”
Yes, Ling was leaving a trail of bodies behind her, but as my woman moved slowly, resting her forehead on my shoulder, her thick brown hair hanging in waves as she hugged my arm tightly as though I were already dead, I decided I wouldn’t be one of them.
***
Molly It was stupid to say, “Don’t stress,” to somebody who was very clearly stressed, so I followed up softly with, “I won’t let anything happen to him.”
Lexi smiled tiredly as she kept her eye on the little monster eating toast at the dining table and keeping conversation with a bunch of contract killers. “I know you won’t.”
Her certainty in me lifted me to a higher power, had me leveling up.
So when it was time to head off, I took my little dude by the hand and walked him to the car with a confidence that surpassed me. We waved from the driveway and I took off down the street, peering back at him through the rearview mirror. “Hey, bud,” I started. “I know it’s a little crowded at home these days, but soon, everything will be back to normal, okay?”
A.J. examined me with wisdom beyond his years. “When the bad lady is gone?”
This child. Jesus. The intensity he exuded was completely unnatural for a boy his age, yet coming from him, it was expected.
“When the bad lady is gone,” I clarified.
We drove on, and just before we reached the school, his little voice sounded. “Molly?”
“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.” I winked in the mirror then smiled, trying to ease the tension radiating from him.
His soft brown eyes widened, and he pointed towards the road wearing an expression of pure terror. “Look out.”
I didn’t see the black Mercedes Kompressor run the stop sign, but as I hit the brakes and spun the steering wheel to avoid the impending collision, my head throbbed and I gritted my teeth as the front end of Big Red screeched to a stop on the footpath without being hit. A cloud of smoke covered the car and the smell of burnt rubber had my nose bunching.
My heart beat out of my chest. “Oh my God,” I panted as my hands shook.
“Molly?” the little frightened voice said quietly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I swallowed hard and pulled out my phone, hitting the panic button Happy had installed on it then undid my seatbelt and knelt on the front seat to look back at my little monster. His silent cries made my chest ache. “Are you okay, buddy?” I looked him over. He didn’t look hurt, just shaken, and when he nodded like the trooper I knew him to be, my body slumped and I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, buddy. I’m so sorry.”
From outside the car came an alarmed but feminine, “Oh, God, are you okay? I saw everything. Do you need help?”
“No.” I reached out for A.J. and he put his trembling hand in mine. I squeezed it tight, thanking God things weren’t any worse than what they were. “We’re okay.”
“Are you sure?”
Suddenly, the worry from the woman’s voice was gone and was replaced with menace, and my heart stuttered. I turned slowly, and the second I saw her, my insides shriveled.
Oh, fuck, Molly. What have you done?
Ling blinked at me through the open window and her brow lowered. “You don’t look good.”
“Back off,” I growled through gritted teeth as it hit me hard.
She was never after Twitch.
It was A.J. she wanted.
“You’re hurt,” Ling insisted as she threw open the passenger door. It all happened so quickly I had no time to react. One second, I was conscious, then next moment, I wasn’t. I fought it. God. I fought so hard, but as she continued to Taser me, I lost the battle.
And as the darkness took me, I heard her utter, “See? Not fine at all.”
***
Ling Inwardly gloating, I watched the young woman’s body shake with the force of fifty thousand volts. I observed happily as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she shook like she was being electrocuted because, well, she was. I held the Taser to her stomach and gloried in the way she shuddered spasmodically. When she began to foam at the mouth, I stopped, rather reluctantly.
I didn’t want to kill her. I just wanted her to suffer. And suffer she would when she at last woke to find her ward snatched out from under the safety of her steeled wing.
Molly would suffer.
They would all suffer.
I had plans for this little boy, this beautiful little boy whose parents were a pair of fucking assholes. Selfish, self-absorbed assholes.
My grin was hidden under my stone-faced expression, and even though I didn’t reveal it, I felt it so damn hard I wanted to lift my head heavenward and laugh into the morning sun.
Oh, yes.
I would make them hurt in the cruelest of ways.
“Help!” I screamed as loud as I could, garnering attention from the street.
My eyes wide, I slipped out of the car and rushed to the few people surrounding the close call. “Somebody help!” I put my hands on a man, gripped his shirt tightly, and sputtered, “I know this woman. Call an ambulance!”
The man already had his phone out, dialing, and I internally smirked but rushed back over to the car, and called into the window. “Molly? Can you hear me, Molly?” I panted loudly for good measure, then uttered a wavering, “You’re going to be okay.”
Forcing tears out of my eyes, I made my lips tremble, as I yelled out to nobody in particular, “Somebody help my friend!”
A small crowd had gathered around the car, and as I opened the back door, I reached out to the little boy I had loved before he even existed. My heart full, I muttered, “Come to me, A.J.”
But he just sat there, watching me with wide eyes. He was terrified, and I did not like that. Not at all.
“I know your parents, sweetie,” I told him. “Come with me. I’ll take you home.”
When his eyes settled on the back of his guardian’s head, he turned back to me, and uttered, “Is Molly okay?”
Who gives a fuck? “Yes, sweet boy. She’ll be fine. She just fainted is all.”
He hesitated, peering down at my hand.
Come to me.
“Come here.” My voice was low, commanding, and when I saw him push himself back into the seat, away from me, I internally reprimanded myself. “Don’t you want to go home to your mummy, Alexa? And your daddy too?”
Come to me, my baby.
The little boy nodded slowly, cautiously, and I smiled softly. “Come with me, sweetie.” He put his hand in mine, and my insides uncoiled. I hadn’t known I was holding my breath until I let out the shaky exhale.
He had come.
He’d come to me willingly.