Page 201 of Beautifully Reckless

“Fuck. I thinkcomms are down,” JD pants, stumbling through the doors behind me. Smoke clings to him, blood smeared on his shirt, but his determined eyes are locked onto mine.

“We gotta find Abbey. She’s the top priority.” I tell him something he already knows, but he nods anyway.

I take off running, with JD on my heels, rounding the crumbling walls of the chapel, desperate to lay eyes on my wife.

A terrified scream echoes through the trees behind the chapel, and I fucking bolt that way, my gaze scanning wildly, my legs pumping fast.

“Abbey!” I shout, skidding to a stop, my chest heaving so hard I can barely hear over the thunder of my own pulse.

“Ringo!”

My Angel!

She can hear me.

Darting to my left, I chase the desperation in her voice, crashing through the shrubs and trees like a fucking freight train.

The sound of heavy feet pounding the forest floor up ahead, has me running faster, twigs snapping as angry male voices yell something I can’t make out.

“Fuck. Someone’s on her tail,” JD barks beside me, keeping pace.

“Let’s fucking end this,” I snarl, eyes trained forward, my blood boiling, my muscles primed to inflict the worst kind of punishment.

“Over there!” JD points to my right, and I spot the flash of a white dress moving east with two males closing in.

Changing direction, I point and shoot blindly towards the men, losing sight of them a second later when they disappear down an incline.

I don’t stop. I keep fucking running, pushing my thirty-three year old body to its fucking limit.

Another piercing scream rips from Abbey’s lungs, only this time, it’s laced with pain.

As I slide down the incline, I spot the men up ahead, standing over something.

“Fuck! I didn’t mean to!” one of them shouts, and as I get closer, I can tell it’s Daniel Stone, fisting his hair as he freaks out.

“Shut the fuck up! They’ll hear us!” the other guy snarls, shoving Daniel aside.

In three more fucking strides, I’m already there, but my eyes shift from the men to something that stops my fucking heart…

My wife.

Curled in a ball on the leafy ground.

An agonising scream ripping from her lips.

No.

I step forward, momentarily stunned by the sight of crimson soaking through the white fabric of Abbey’s dress.

“Fuck, man. I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Daniel stammers, stumbling backwards, his eyes locked on me as he tries to scurry away.

His idiot mate—who I recognise as Craig McRoe, Daniel’s best mate… and one of Abbey’s rapists—hasn’t even noticed me standing right fucking beside him.

His attention is on my Abbey, his gaze unreadable and cold.

“Let’s just get her back to Banes,” Craig snaps. “He’ll know what to do with her…” His words trail off as his gaze finds me right fucking there.

His lips part to speak, but I lift my gun, jam the barrel underneath his chin, and pull the trigger.

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