“I only have like a minute before I have to get off the phone, so just listen, alright?”
“Is everything okay?” I rose from my seat in preparation to do something, but I didn’t know what.
“I would call somebody else, but I don’t really have anybody to call. My grandpa is just too old to do anything—”
“Do what? Liz, you’re scaring me. What do you need?” Was Emerson okay? The heart palpitations were back, along with the nausea. I gripped the edge of the desk because the stress made my chest hurt.
“Some guy came to our door last night and told my mom she owes him money. He called her a bitch…it was weird. He said he would come back today and wouldn’t stop until she paid him.”
“Paid for what?”
“She said they went out a couple times, and when he realized she had me, he got really angry and said she wasted his time and wanted to be paid back for all the money he’d spent on her. Jackass.”
I started to breathe harder, feeling a rage I’d never felt in my entire life, the kind of seething anger that made men punch holes in walls and break chairs on top of dining tables.
“Mom says she’s not scared, but I know she is. I’m scared too. I don’t know what else to do—”
“You did the right thing, Liz. I’ll take care of it.”
“He came around seven last night.”
“Consider it done. Don’t spend another moment thinking about it, okay?” I couldn’t believe a motherfucking asshole would treat Emerson that way, would harass my girls at their apartment, to extort them for money instead of being a gentleman. I couldn’t believe he had been lucky enough to spend time with her in the first place. I couldn’t believe that he took her for granted and only cared about money instead of the fact that he actually got to be with the best person in this world. I was angry but also pained, hearing Lizzie scared when she was such a hard-ass like her mom. I was angry this occurred because of me…because I’d left. If I hadn’t done that, none of this would be happening.
“Alright. Sorry to call. I really didn’t want to.”
“You can call me for anything. I’m here—always.”
I waited in the car until Emerson went inside.
Then I stood in the hallway, a few feet away from her door, and with my arms crossed over my chest, I waited.
I waited to kill the man with my bare hands.
Hours passed, and nothing happened. The hallway was silent. After people came home from work, there was no foot traffic. I didn’t know what I would do if Emerson’s parents came down the hallway to see her, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.
My heart pounded the entire time, the blood audible in my ears, my knuckles aching from a fight that hadn’t even happened yet.
I knew it was him the second I saw him.
He came up the stairs and rounded the corner, heading for her door without even glancing at me because he was so focused on his task that he was oblivious to the pissed-off guy standing nearby.
He was shorter than me, not as thick as me, and not nearly as good-looking either.
I didn’t know why she’d gone out with him in the first place.
But then I remembered why…and I hated myself more.
I poured that anger into my veins, used it as fuel to make my engine rev more powerfully, to use my large hands to rip every feature right off his face. My eyes watched him move, stop in front of Emerson’s door, and then raise his fist to knock.
Seeing the scene with my own eyes made me psychotic. I’d punched Kevin a couple times, but that was because he deserved it. I didn’t get into street fights or resort to violence for insignificant reasons. But now, I felt like a professional fighter working off the clock. I came up behind him and hooked my arm around his neck so I could throw him to the floor.
“What the fuck?” He landed against the hardwood then frantically got to his feet, hitting the opposite wall, looking at me with sheer terror. “Who the fuck are—”
My hand went to his throat, and I pinned him against the wall, cutting off his air so he couldn’t breathe. He tried to kick me, but I sidestepped it like I knew what he would do before he did it. My closed fist slammed into his face, made his nose explode with blood, and for a moment, he zoned out, like I’d hit him so hard that he couldn’t think straight. “Bother my girls again, and I’ll kill you. Understand me?”
Blood dripped from his nose, and his head wobbled on his neck. It took him a few seconds to come to, to realize he was still in serious danger. His eyes shifted to me, terrified. Now that there was a bigger shark around, he wasn’t the arrogant son of a bitch he’d been when he’d strolled up to her door.