Page 94 of Love Me

Peeling my truck out of the distillery parking lot, I wait the few seconds for my phone to connect to Bluetooth before I call Hannah. I’m at least ten minutes away, nervous energy flowing through me. What the fuck is he thinking showing up here unannounced? He hasn’t made any attempt to see her or even fucking call her. The bare goddamn minimum. Hannah picks up on the third attempt.

“Hey, is everything okay?”

“Hey, baby, stay calm for me because everything is fine. But Levi is at the elementary school trying to pick up Charlie. Kinsey has her, she’s safe. I’m on my way there.”

“What? That motherfucker! I’ll meet you there.”

I hear the rustling of Hannah moving throughout the store, probably making sure her ovens are off and everyone leaves so she can lock up the doors, and then the line goes dead. Fuck, I hate that this is her life.

Hannah is pulling in at the same time I am, her little Jeep whipping into the parking lot behind me. I’m already out of my truck and moving in her direction before she gets hers in park. Pulling open her door, I grab her hand and haul her out, the two of us jogging together to the front of the school from the side parking lot.

My eyes are on him just as he’s seeing me, the asshole stiffening and ready to run his vile mouth.

“Hey, asshole. What are you doing here? Heard you’ve been fucking my sloppy seconds. Still pissed I got to her first?”

I see fucking red. I move in his direction, but Hannah gets to him first. It catches him off guard because he expected me to lunge for him and not her. Her arm pulls back and flies hard right into his fucking nose. She doesn’t stop there, grabbing his shoulders and driving her knee right between his legs so hard that I can’t help but wince.

“You stupid fucking bitch!” Levi cries out. Hannah moves for him again but I grab her around the waist, lift her off the ground, and haul her back. This time I’m the one to get in his face, leaning over him from where he’s dropped to his knees on the gravel with his hands cupping his shriveled balls. I grab his shirt and force him to look up at me.

“Speak to my wife like that again and I’ll fucking end you,” I grind the words out, my tone menacing, pinning him with a look that dares him to fucking try me.

“Your wife?” he sputters the words, and if I wasn’t so fucking pissed right now, I’d laugh in his face.

“You heard me. Mine. Your days of fucking with her are over. Now you get to deal with me.”

“Fuck you both. Hannah, you’re fucking done for. This is assault!” Like the pathetic piece of shit that he has always been, Levi jogs over to his car, pulls out his phone, and connects a call. Ignoring him, I turn back to Hannah where she stands, fuming. Moving slowly in front of her, I reach down and gently lift her right hand, checking her knuckles and fingers for any damage before bringing them up to my mouth, where I drop a tender kiss on them.

“Are you alright, beauty?”

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long. But fuck if that didn’t hurt. How do you do that so regularly?”

I chuckle at her through my simmering rage. “Practice, and we never bare knuckle it like you just did. I knew my wife wasa badass, but you just blew me away. I’ll see if they have some ice inside. Do you want to take Charlotte home?”

“No, she’s safe. I don’t want to cause an interruption to her day. She isn’t any the wiser of what happened, and it will only alarm her if I rush in there to bring her home. But I owe Kinsey a drink. God, Liam, what if they had let her go? What if he had taken her? Can he even do that?”

Cue Hannah spiraling as her adrenaline starts to come down.

“He didn’t though. We’re going to figure this out.”

Just as Hannah opens her mouth to no doubt fight me on it, we hear the siren. My head whips back around to find Levi sitting smugly on the hood of his car, a wad of tissues held to his nose to stop the bleeding. I stomp over in his direction, watching him flinch back but trying to hold his ground and not cower.

“Bitch rebroke my nose! She’s not going to get away with that!”

“You want some fucking broken ribs to match? Get the fuck out of here, Levi. You want to start being in Charlotte’s life? You show up every fucking day. Not when it’s just convenient for you to show face for your new woman. Charlie is the only priority. That’s it. HER! You haven’t been able to do that for four fucking years. So, if you’re not going to find a way to treat her mom with the respect she deserves and be a positive, active role model in Charlotte’s life, then get back in your fucking car and drive back to your shithole in Seattle. There’s no fucking in and out when you feel like it,” I yell the words into his face, my body heated and ready to drop this asshole six feet under. Over my dead body will he set Charlie up for a lifetime of fucking disappointment because he never wanted to grow up.

The police car pulls into the parking lot as Levi scramblesto get away from me. I laugh as Owen steps out of the car and gives me a nod. This should be interesting.

“Levi, what the hell did you get yourself into?”

“Hannah assaulted me. She broke my fucking nose and kneed me in the balls like a crazy bitch.”

I’m on him before anyone can react, wrenching him backward by his shirt, pulling my arm back, and letting it go with every bit of power I reserve for the ring with my brothers. It lands hard into his abdomen, and before his knees hit the ground again, I’ve pulled my second, landing it right to his cheek, shoving him hard and letting him fall to the ground.

“Well, fucking shit, Liam, now I’ve gotta arrest both of you. Get your ass in the back of the car. Where’s Bonnie, Clyde?”

I put my hands up in the air, showing that I’m done.

“You make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near that school, Owen. Promise me. He came here to get Charlie without talking to Hannah first. He’s a damn stranger to her at this point.” Owen nods and walks over to the shitbag moaning on the ground. “Han! C’mon, baby, we’re getting a ride in the back of a cruiser and there’s something I’ve always wanted to try in one of these!” I yell over to Hannah. Before getting into the waiting police cruiser, I lean down into Levi’s space where he’s moaning like a little bitch.

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