Page 45 of Hard Wood Daddy

Then I see her face.

It’s like she’s just realized something that answers every question she’s ever had.

“Rutger, Lindsay’s contract… I know scams and that’s not a scam. She’s being honest with you. You should sign and let her keep running her classes.” She licks her lips. “But these guys? They’re screwing with you. You take their contract to a lawyer tomorrow, and he or she will have them out of your hair by the end of the week. There’s still time to pay the taxes. You have a year before the courts can foreclose on the land. Every one of them has been lying to you. Even the people at the county. They are probaby taking bribes from--”

“Shut your fucking mouth, whore!” Patron roars.

Nobody talks to my woman like that.

He’s lucky I swing the other fist, not the one holding the axe.

Patron takes my fist in his jaw.

Bone cracks against bone. He stumbles across the lawn with a shout.

He swears at me, rolls up his sleeves. I take a step toward him with a snarl and he loses his footing, crashing down on his ass.

“What about the city?” I ask, turning to Tess.

She frowns. “What about it?”

“If I sell to him now, I can use the money to give you the life you want. I’ll follow you where you want to go, Tess, just don’t leave me. Please.”

“You… You think I want you to sell and move to the city?”

“My mother did, and—”

“I’m not her,” she says, smiling. “I love your mountain, and I love you, silly. What does the city have for me that the forest doesn’t?”

She turns and glares at Patron as he stumbles to get up, clearly three sheets to the wind.

“They’ve been conning you, Rutger. But it all goes away if you just take everything to a lawyer. They can settle the taxes legally. Trust me.”

I nod. “I do.”

“Good. And Lindsay needs you to sign her lease.” She grins, then cries out.

Don threw his bottle at her. He’s still dizzy, so his aim is bad, but he hit her in the shoulder.

And I see red.

I go roaring at Don.

I hit him again and again, sinking one blow after another into his gut, his defending arms, his head. He tries to block me, but Idon’t stop. I just pound him, holding onto the axe handle, giving him the full force of my knuckles stabilized by hardwood.

My vision’s red.

Nobody touches my woman. Nobody, nobody, nobodynobodynobody—

“Hey!”

Tess grabs my arm to pull me back.

Her soft hands are the only thing that could have stopped me. Her voice is like a leash on a rabid dog.

I look down and realize Patron hasn’t been fighting back for a while. He’s a bloody mess on the lawn, rolling around weakly. Spitting up blood and teeth.

“I will fucking kill you if you come near Tess ever again,” I spit at him. I sink a kick into his guts.

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