Page 74 of Four Times Taken

"No fucking way." Ryan shook his head.

"We're not leaving you alone with him." I leaned back, studying her.

"I'll be fine. I've dealt with him a great portion of my life." She tightened her lips at me.

"Yeah. And now you don't have to deal with him alone," Ethan retorted.

"Look, we can respect everything else you asked for, but that man is a lunatic. There's no telling what he'll do." Matt stared at the piece of shit flicking his cigarette ashes on the floor.

"In that case, you'll be in the other room. Won't you? Damn, it's not like I'm asking you to leave the house. Just go into the next room." She grew agitated, gripping her hair with her hand, breathing shorter. "I just can't handle all of this testosterone, male dominance, peacocking shit at once. Please."

"Okay, okay." I grabbed her hands and pulled them from her hair. The last thing I wanted to do was add fuel to the fire and cause her more distress. "Fine." I rubbed my hands down her arms, waiting for her breathing to return to normal. "Fine. We'll be in the other room. Won't we?" I looked at the other guys looking at me like 'what the fuck is wrong with you?'

I nodded toward her clearly on the verge of losing her mind, and they huffed, "Fine."

Chapter 47

Eric

We're all piled in the bathroom, the only room close enough to the living room in case we need to intervene. Ethan balled his fists up, gritted his teeth, and I could already see the force with which he's ready to put some damage in that wall. He's as easy-going as the rest of us. A little more serious, sure, but laid back.

He's also had a rough past, pretty similar to Lily's, except he was his mother's caregiver as a kid and has a lot of suppressed issues. It's one of the reasons he travels with us and will make sure we stay in luxury accommodations. Whenever his anger reaches a boiling high, and he wants to break something, leaving his immediate environment and booking somewhere nice reminds him that he's no longer that kid in that cramped apartment, trying to keep his mother calm and withholding his own feelings. It reminds him he's grown, and he's taken himself and his mother out of it, and that he can channel his emotions into other things.

I could imagine being here in this cramped house with Mrs. Thornbread, helpless in one room, and Lily, the woman he cares about, being disrespected by that waste of space, was triggering everything and taking him back to that place he managed to escape. We're all on the verge of popping a blood vessel.

"Hey!" I attempted to snap him out of his rage although I knew that's near to impossible. Lily's soothing words and gestures came close, but as long as that man is still in this house, breathing the same air as her, none of us are going to be able to keep from wanting to hurt him so bad, he never steps foot in her presence again.

"What?!" Ethan yelled.

"Don't punch the wall," I reminded him.

He paled when he realized the effect it would have on Lily and her mother. It's the reason they fixed the walls in the first place. Not only that, but the implications it would have, that he'd be comparable to her father. He looked around the cramped bathroom in desperation, stepping out into the hallway for some air. Sinking down against the wall onto the floor, he dropped his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry. I just wish we could..." He gritted his teeth.

"Kill him," Matt finished.

Ryan and I blanched, turning to look at each other. "Stop him," I said. "Not kill him. We wouldn't go that far." I gulped.

"Would we?" Ryan asked.

Shaking my head, I rose from my spot on the bathtub. "That's not who we are. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked, slapping Ryan and Matt upside the head.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I ignored it, but it continued to vibrate, so I pulled it out.

"Fuck! We're just desperate. That thing is a parasite," Ryan growled.

There's a message from a number I don't recognize.

'Hello Eric,

This is your father's nurse...' The first text message started.

Nurse? Since when has my father had a nurse? I wrestled with the conversation around me and scrolled through the message with my heart in my mouth.

"What if we pay him off? Couple million? That should get him out of the picture." Ethan perked up.

"I've thought about it, trust me, but..." Matt began.

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