Page 100 of Octane

“Yes, but he said he was going to come home for lunch. He could be here any second!”

“That’s okay. Grab your wallet and anything else super important that you may need. We can worry about your non-essential items at a later time.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” she agrees, walking toward her bedroom.

“What thefuck?” I hear from behind me.

I turn and find Daniel in the doorway with an enraged look on his face. A second later, Sawyer comes running back into the living room with her purse over her shoulder.

He runs at her, but I stop him by grabbing him in a bear hug from behind.

“Sawyer, run! The penthouse, and lock yourself in!” I shout to her while struggling to keep Daniel in my grasp.

In a flash, she’s out the door, and I swing Daniel around, throwing his body into the wall.

I watch as he turns then rolls his shoulders, readying himself for a fight.

“It’s over. You have no more leverage over her. Zach just paid off his debt,” I lie a little bit, but he doesn’t know that.

He looks at me skeptically.

“Oh, you didn’t think I knew about that, did you? You can’t hurt her anymore, asshole” I stalk toward him. “So I would suggest you leave her alone, or else things are going to get very ugly for you.”

“Don’t make a threat that you can’t back up,” he snarls at me. “Sawyer is mine. Always has been. Always will be.”

He lunges at me again, and we fly backward into the dining room. Crashing against a chair on my way down, my movement is stopped, and for a moment, the wind is knocked out of me.

Daniel goes down as well, but soon he’s trying to crawl his way on top of me. Kicking one of my legs free from him, I curl it around his body, and slam him to the floor on his side. I roll on top of him, and he swings at me from below, making contact with my jaw.

Pain radiates up into my head and ear as his fist cracks against me, momentarily stunning me. He takes advantage of this, and once again, we’re rolling across the floor in another exchange of power.

He straddles me and wraps his hands around my throat tightly, cutting off my air supply. I throw a punch and get him in his nose. Blood starts pouring out of it instantly, and he stops to wipe it with the back of his hand. Before I have a chance to roll him off of me again, I hear a thud, and he falls to the ground.

When he’s out of the way, I see Sawyer standing there with a lamp in her hands. She’s breathing heavily and has a look of shock on her face as though she can’t believe what she just did.

“That’s my girl,” I smile up at her.

Wasting no more time, I get to my feet. Grabbing Sawyer’s hand, I press a kiss to the back of it, then we turn toward the door.

“Wait,” she stops us just before we make it out.

She takes her hand from mine and pulls the ring off of her finger. Tossing it onto the ground, it rolls until it hits Daniel’s unconscious body.

“Now I’m ready,” she beams at me.

She puts her hand back in mine, and I walk out of the condo with her, hopefully for the last time.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

SAWYER

Iran to the elevator like Jackson told me to, then I waited for it to arrive. Once it did, I couldn’t bring myself to get on it. I needed to make sure Jackson got out of there.

When I got back to the condo and saw Daniel on top of Jackson, choking him, I panicked. I grabbed the lamp from the end table and swung with the strength of a decade’s worth of pent-up anger and aggression.

I can’t believe I did it.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jackson looks at me with obvious concern as we ride the elevator to his penthouse.

---