Page 121 of Corrupting Ivy

The uniformed man drew his weapon.

I pulled the trigger twice, placing both slugs center mass, then I squeezed once more, putting the other between his eyes.

Billy watched the officer drop to the ground with wide eyes full of shock, then swung his gaze back to me, his mouth gaping.

Jeremiah held out both hands, dropping his gun to the dirt at his feet, then held them up.

“Who are you? What is this?” he said, his voice shaking as he watched Jake and his team emerge from the shadows and take their places around us.

I ripped my mask from my face and tossed it to the ground. “I’m Randall. I suggest you remember it.”

I stepped next to Dante while my men kept their guns trained on him. Gregory, a man I’d known for years, grabbed the pistol from the ground and two more picked up Ivy’s father, dragging him next to the mining machine.

“This is the day you learn the ramifications for touching what doesn’t belong to you.” I unclipped my rifle strap and handed it to Dante. “And I'm the one that’ll take too much pleasure in teaching you.”

Gregory wheeled Billy over to the side at gunpoint while my men created a half-circle around us, stopping either of them from fleeing.

“You’re a big man with all these guns behind you.”

I grinned and removed my Kevlar, along with all my weapons attached to my thigh, hip, and ankle, then stripped off my shirt.

“They aren’t here for me. They’re here to protect Ivy.”

Jeremiah curled his upper lip in a snarl. “How many men was that cunt fucking while I had to take care of my brother?”

I cracked my knuckles as I tightened my fists, walking towards him, eager to see his blood pour from his body.

“The only cunt I see is you.” I swung, my fist colliding with his stiff jaw, then followed with an uppercut to the nose, which had him staggering backward, his hand covering his face. “I should cut your hands off for touching her.”

He charged toward me, and I braced myself as he rammed his shoulder into my chest, plowing us back while my feet dug into the ground. I drove my elbow into his spine, the bony point drilling into his backbone with a sharp thud, over and over, until he released me, but not before landing a solid hit against my ribs.

Jeremiah exploded at me with a flurry of fists and kicks. I guarded my face with my forearms as I’d learned in all my years of boxing.

Keep your hands up and move.

His fists hammered into my side as I bent, then he came in close and wrapped his arm around my head. I ducked down, scooped his legs in my arms and fell to the ground with me on top.

I straddled his waist, locking my feet over his thighs, pinning them down so he couldn’t knee me in the back, then with all the force I could muster, I slammed my fist into his nose.

Bone crunched as it bent sideways with a burst of blood splattering across the ground. I punched him with my left, knocking out a tooth.

Ivy’s soft features flashed in my mind as I pulverized his face while I thought about what plans he had for her.

All the pent-up rage I’d felt when she told me what Billy did to her. Then to not get the chance to destroy Coen was on another level of fury.

I channeled whatever emotions I'd suppressed and used it to annihilate his face until he was no longer recognizable.

Jeremiah’s body went limp as his hands landed beside his head. I held my fist up, ready to land another blow. His blood dripped from my knuckles, splattering to the red mud beside him.

My breaths heaved in and out as I assessed him. His chest still rose beneath me, but any damage I did further would be for my own amusement, and that’s not what this was about.

I rose off of him, my gaze landing on Billy with my two guys holding him at gunpoint, then to Ivy.

She’d disobeyed me.

Instead of sitting in the forest waiting for me to come back, she stood next to her father while Jake bandaged his hand, her eyes pinned on me, wide with fear.

My breath caught inmy throat as I watched Randall beat him with a savagery the likes of which I’d never seen before. He held his bloody fist in the air, and then, without hesitation, climbed off him. And that was it, the end of his merciless onslaught.

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