Page 94 of Single Mom's Christmas Wish

“There you are, you little shit,” I grumble and get moving.

Light-footed, I leave my car across the street and enter the motel’s parking lot. I have already spotted the cameras, and I know where to walk in order to avoid them. Keith is about to put some money into the ground-floor vending machine when I snatch him, lifting him straight off the ground.

“What the fu—”

He struggles, but he can’t wriggle out of my grip. I put one hand over his mouth and haul him up the stairs. His screams are muffled. He bites into my fingers, and I hiss from the pain.

I throw him through the door of his room. Splinters jump out from the frame.

He lands on his side and rolls across the floor with a pained grunt. “Fucking hell…”

“We meet again, Keith,” I calmly reply, then close the door behind me. The lock is broken, but the chain still works, so I put that on, never taking my eyes off the weasel as he scrambles backup into a standing position.

“What the fuck, man? Are you crazy?”

I smile. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?”

“You set the cops on me, you crazy bastard!”

“You broke into our house,” I reply. “You planted cameras. That’s illegal, you fucking idiot. What did you expect? No consequences for your stupidity?”

“I had to find out the truth.”

“No, you just wanted some dirt on your ex-wife.”

“I’m trying to protect my daughter!”

That gets my blood boiling to the point where I start moving toward him. “You don’t give a shit about Maisie. You’re just pissed off that Dakota moved on, that she wouldn’t take your sorry ass back.”

“No, I— what are you doing?” He pauses, eyes bulging with horror as he realizes I’m too close for his comfort. “Stay the fuck away from me!”

I show him the phone he’d dropped in church. “You left this behind.”

“My phone.”

“Not anymore. But here’s my offer. You get to stay alive in exchange for you deleting every single second of footage from our house, including any copies, in any and all formats.”

Keith blinks a few times, terrified but still looking for a way to save his sorry ass. “What are you talking about?”

“Let me say it again. You will delete everything, including whatever account you used for the hidden camera software. Whatever data exists on this phone, access to the cloud, emails, files, etc. All of it.”

“I will do no such thing. That’s evidence,” he snaps.

“Yeah, evidence in court against you, you dumb piece of shit.”

“I don’t care! It’s evidence that Dakota isn’t a fit mother to our daughter.”

“Excuse me?”

Keith straightens his back, suddenly overconfident. Dumbasses are way too easy to handle, and this guy is making the whole operation feel like a walk in the park. It should be illegal to be this cocky and foolish. “Dakota banging three men at once? That’s a whole new level of depravity. There’s no way I’m letting her keep custody of our child.”

“Your ex-wife’s sexual prowess pisses you off that much? Is that why you’re dragging Maisie into it?” I scoff, shaking my head slowly. “Your daughter has a new family now. She even has an older brother. She’s happy and well cared for. And what Dakota does in the privacy of her own home is her business and hers alone. You walked out, Keith. You don’t get to waltz back in with this righteous bullshit.”

“I’m just looking out for Maisie—” I take my gun out before he can finish yet another garbage statement and point it at him. “Wait!”

I remove the safety and take a step forward. He can tell from the look on my face that I am more than ready to empty the entire magazine in him. I’m not one to shy away from bloody violence ifthat’s what it takes to protect my family. Dakota and Maisie are my family.

“This weapon is untraceable,” I calmly reply. “Take this phone, log in, and do what I asked. If you don’t, I will end you. Right here, right now. And nobody will ever know what happened to you.”

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