“You’re really going to play this all out, aren’t you?” Alec hissed and caught Eva’s arm, making me tighten my grip on Pick to restrain him. “Fine, I’m willing to play. What do you want, E?”
“This isn’t a power play for me to get a pretty toy, Alec. The only thing I want is my child.”
“Bullshit! What happened to the girl I met who said kids gave her the willies?”
“You knocked her up. So I guess I’m just going to have to learn to adjust.”
“Good for you, Tink,” Pick whispered, nodding his hea
d in approval and smiling at the pregnant chick. “Good for you.”
“Jesus Christ,” Alec shouted inside the garage. “Why can’t you just take care of this?”
“I am! I’m going to stay here and take care of my baby, like a mother should.”
“A mother? Oh, my God.” The douche let out a belly laugh. “Are you even listening to yourself? This is not you. You’re not mother material, Eva. You’re a fucking spoiled, rich cunt.”
When Pick bristled, I tugged him closer to me, keeping him reined in. “Don’t do it.”
“Just because I didn’t plan on this ever happening, doesn’t mean I’m going to brush it aside like a minor inconvenience. I’m keeping my child.”
“Well, I can’t allow you to do that.”
Fuck. That didn’t sound good. From the muscles in Pick’s arm tensing under my grip, he didn’t think so either.
“Why not?” Eva shot back, glaring up at him, and clearly not alarmed by his threat. “I’m not asking you to do anything. In fact, I don’t even want you involved.”
Alec jerked her closer to him, and this time, I had to use both hands to keep Pick from charging. “How stupid do you think I am? Of course, you’ll ask. You’ll get the law on your side, too, and you’ll fucking bleed everything from me. You could hold this over me for the rest of my life, suck me dry with some bullshit child support, make me pay for all kinds of shit I want nothing to do with. And I refuse to let you get away with it.”
She gave a long, tired sigh. “Alec, believe me, I will not do that to you. I don’t want anything from you. Actually, if I never saw you again, I would be overwhelmed with joy. I’ll even sign a piece of paper, saying so.”
“See, now.” Alec shook his head and laughed softly. “I’m having trouble believing that. I know you, remember? I know what a conniving, manipulative bitch you are. And I refuse to let you continue this.”
“Well, I’ve changed.” Eva huffed out a sound of aggravation and tugged at the grip he had on her arm. “People can change, you know. Now...let me go.”
“Not until you agree to get rid of it.”
“Never!”
“Then you leave me no other choice.”
Everything happened at once. Alec shoved her against a wall with enough force that I lurched forward right along with Pick to help her out. Eva’s pained gasp haunted my ears as her douchebag baby daddy braced one forearm across her throat to choke her into place while he reared back his other fist and punched her in the stomach. Repeatedly.
She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. It echoed through my ears, telling me I’d remember that scream in my dreams for years to come.
Christ, the crazy bastard was serious when he said he wasn’t going to let her keep her baby.
Pick roared out an animalistic sound of denial and lunged past me, beating me to the bastard. Surprising Eva’s attacker with his shout, he ripped Alec away from her and spun him around.
“What the—” Alec stumbled, off balance.
Pick didn’t bother to introduce himself. He snatched up a wrench that had been sitting on a nearby table and wound his arm back before swinging and catching Alec square in the face with the business end of his steel.
Now it was the douchebag’s turn to scream. He grabbed his nose, and blood flew. Pick kicked him in the knee, making him stumble back into the wall of the garage not too far down from where Eva had crumpled to the floor, cradling her stomach. Then he pressed the flat side of the wrench hard against Alec’s throat with both hands. Face immediately turning twenty shades of purple, Alec clawed at Pick’s fingers, seeking oxygen.
“You just messed with the wrong girl, pal.” Pick kneed him in the stomach, right where Alec had hit Eva in hers.
I grabbed his shoulder to pull him off. But he wasn’t coming off.