Page 39 of Bossy Hero

He has this beautiful family.

And I have nothing.

Isn’t that what I deserve?

“Please, don’t fight,” Maddie cries as she runs toward us. Having made it outside, she bolts to his side, tugging at him to help him stand. “Are you okay, Travis?”

The sight of her fawning over him enrages me. My hands ball to fists at my sides, and I literally sense the veins at my temples throbbing. It takes everything inside me not to kill him.

I could do it in three seconds or less.

But he doesn’t deserve a quick death. And I’m not going to throw away my career and freedom for a cunt like him.

Madeline hits me with an icy glare. “Alan, what is the matter with you?”

On his feet now, her husband flashes a menacing look at her. Instantly, she cowers from him, physically recoiling as if she’s seen that look before and knows what’s about to come.

He lowers his face to hers, poison leeching from his eyes and voice. “Is this him? The one you’re fucking? You think I don’t know about your little emails?”

She tries to back away. “Travis, no. My goodness, no. I haven’t been with anyone else.”

Instead of letting her retreat, he clasps both of her wrists together, holding them in one of his large hands. “We’ll discuss this later.” He jabs a finger in my direction. “You keep your hands off my wife. She’s mine.”

Madeline pleads with her husband, brushing up right against his side. “Travis, please let me go.”

Fuming, Leo rushes forward. “Get your damn hands off her!”

My legs spring me ahead of him. “Let her go, asshole!”

When Travis sees us approaching, he violently shoves Madeline off him to defend himself. Unprepared for the forceful push, she sails toward the wet pavement, yelping as she falls.

By the time she’s wailing in pain from the rough impact, I’ve got her abuser laid out on the concrete. A broken nose from my first hit. Probably a shattered eye socket from my second. My third punch is stopped by Lionheart’s giant hand. That one was headed for the fucker’s other eye.

Sawyer’s on my other side, pulling me off Travis Mason a second later.

Maddie’s pain-filled cries turn into screeches of desperation. “Stop it, Alan! Stop it! Don’t hurt him.”

Too late for that. And I don’t feel bad about it.

The only thing I regret is how she looks at me. Like I’m the one who did wrong. I’m the asshole in her eyes.

Disgust mingles with disappointment in my gut when she assists him into his car, getting in with him instead of staying with her son and daughter. Both of them beg her to be reasonable and steer clear of that monster.

But she doesn’t.

She won’t.

Fortunately, she wasn’t hurt badly. Just scrapes along her palms and knees, from what I could tell. More pain she wouldn’t need to suffer through if it wasn’t for that pathetic excuse for a man.

Sawyer stays beside me the whole time, and we watch their fucked-up family dynamic from a few feet away.

When they drive away, leaving Leo and Sammy behind in the parking lot, I scan the area for fallout.

It would seem no one called the cops, and my CO stayed inside instead of following us out, so I might be able to escape punishment. Then again, perhaps an MP will show up tomorrow at my door. Someone like that fucker is bound to press charges or make a stink out of it.

That miserable shit bag.

Even if I do get a court martial for this, I won’t give a shit. Worth it.

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