Page 17 of Claimed By the Mountain Man

I was wrong.

This morning when I dropped Emily off at her work, I noticed the black car parked on the curb of the next building, but it was the man leaning against the lamp post smoking that caught my attention. His eyes weren’t even on us, but I could tell his attention was. He was really trying not to make it obvious that he wasnotwatching us and no, he was no ordinary man.

Perhaps it takes the devil to spot a demon. A man with a heart as dark as mine, stalking my precious angel but no, I am not going to let him steal her from me, so I figured this is the time to bring out my gun. I rarely hunt despite living in the mountains, as the gunshot can set off memories I would rather stay buried but today, I put all that aside.

Today, I put an end to all the running and hiding.

The man doesn’t notice me watching him watch my angel all morning. His dark eyes are zeroed in on the diner, and when he notices her leave through the side door to the alley between the diner and the exit building, he follows her.

Walking to them and threatening the man away would be enough to make him leave, but he’d be back. I need to do it in a way that every time he thinks of Emily and the fucking beast protecting her, he experiences bone-chilling fear.

And I can’t do this in the open.

So, I wait.

It takes everything in me to stay in my car and watch as the man forcefully grabs my angel’s arm – he’ll fucking pay for that – and drags her to his car. She wants to run, I can see her looking for an opportunity to escape, but his gun stops her from doing anything too reckless. He starts his car and peels out of the parking lot.

I expect him to take the mountain road out of town, so he’s easy to track. I follow far enough behind him to not draw suspicion, but when he turns down an old, abandoned dirt road all bets are off as I figure we are far enough away from any accidental witnesses.

The engine of my old truck roars to life as I step on the gas, closing the distance between us quickly. He notices me rather fast, after all my old truck is kicking up a storm behind me. He starts to speed up, but he doesn’t know the winds in this road like I do, so despite my truck being older I’m at his rear bumper in no time at all.

It takes all my effort to calm my anger and adrenaline. I need to be calm and collected so that I don’t hurt Emily in the process. We are already going faster than I wanted, but if I time this exactly right, it will be okay. After all, I had to do it a few times when I was deployed in the warzone. The military might not have tamed me, but it did teach me quite a few tricks.

I ease the truck slightly to the side, inching closer to his rear wheel. As I expected, he slows down when he approaches the upcoming turn and this is my chance - I grip the wheel tightly and slam on the brakes, jerking the steering hard to the right. The front end of my truck strikes the back of his car with a solid hit, performing a textbook PIT maneuver. His car spins out of control, veering into the turn. He struggles to regain control,slamming on his brakes and bringing the car to a rough, but otherwise safe, stop.

As the dust settles, I can see him trying to restart his car, but I’m already at the driver’s side window, and I bring the butt of my shotgun down, shattering the glass before pointing the barrel at his head.

The man is breathing hard, eyes wide and he raises his hands in the air, too shocked to speak. I take the gun from his lap quickly before finally looking to check on my angel who looks scared out of her wits. I motion for the man to get out and I can read the anger in his eyes. A lanky, blue-eyed man with long black hair stares back at me with a vengeance in his gaze. Not what I would consider a threat, but he attempted to steal something from me, so now he is my enemy.

“Come out,” I roar, loud enough for him to hear. “I will not say this again.”

The man laughs, oblivious to the threat I pose, and thumb flicks the safety off with a sharp metallic click. The sound cuts through the air a second before I stand back to shoot the front tires of his car, deflating them with a sharp hiss. He yells, his eyes widening in alarm when I point the gun back at him.

“The next bullet will be to your head. Do not test me.”

The man gets out of his car slowly, hands still in the air as he steps to the side. I keep my gaze locked on him with deadly precision.

“Emily?” I ask softly, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you baby?” I want to look at her, to assess every inch of her myself until I was sure she wasn’t hurt, but I can’t look away from this threat right now.

“I’m okay,” she says, but the tremble in her voice makes my grip tighten on the gun. There’s a sob caught in her throat, and it cuts through me like a blade.

“Stay back,” I warn her, my voice low and firm. I can feel her eyes on me, but she listens as I hear her footsteps move towards my truck. I can feel her fear hanging in the air, and I hope to end all of that today. The man shifts his weight slightly, trying to inch back towards his car. ‘Don’t even think about it,’’ I growl, stepping closer to him.

The man is anxious, I can tell by the way he’s shifting around and looking for a way out of this situation. I expect him to give up, to surrender and I must have grown soft because he lunges at me instead, landing a decent punch at my wrist. The shotgun drops to the floor, and he kicks it away from me as he leans in for another punch, this one clipping the edge of my jaw. All it does is make me angry.

Adrenaline surges through me and I can’t help but let out a dark laugh. “If you were smart, you would have gone for the gun,” I charge at him, throwing my weight at his body and tackling us to the ground. We hit hard, and dirt plumes around us as I hit him hard, a sickening crunch to his nose. I grab his collar and slam him back down. He tries to push me off, lands a hit to my side but I barely register it. Blood pours from his face, and I land another hit to his ribs, leaving him gasping for air.

“You dare to come for what’s mine?” I whisper in his ear, my manic taking over. Another hit. “If you ever so much as think about her again,” another hit. He groans, barely conscious and I force myself to take a breath and stop. I drop my fist, letting go of him and standing up to dust off my jeans. As much as I want to keep hitting him, Emily deserves better than a man like that. I would be better for her.

I turn to Emily and she’s standing near the truck. I expect her to be scared, after finally seeing this darkness in me, but when our eyes meet, she cracks a breathtaking smile and runs at me full speed. I catch her in my arms, holding her close to me.

“Are you okay?” I whisper, bringing my hand to her cheek, brushing off the tearstains from her cheeks. “Did he hurt you? I will fucking kill him if he–”

“How are you the same person?” she whispers. “One minute you are gentle and sweet and the next you’re… scary.”

“Do I scare you?”

“Not me,” she whispers, shaking her head. “You scare everyone else but me. Heck, you scared Bobby, and he belongs to a notorious gang in Bakersfield. I was working at this coffee shop when he started stalking me, sometimes even showing up at the building I lived in. He and his gang scared me, I was afraid they would break in and… do something terrible, so I grabbed my things and left. I don’t know how he found me.”

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