Page 76 of Flynn

He had her. Ellis had my woman, and he was fucking hurting her. I was going to make him pay. I was going to rip him limb from fucking limb, and I was going to laugh the entire time. I wanted to paint the hotel walls red with his blood and put a different part of his body in every corner of this goddamn island.

Trev took a corner so sharp I swear we went up on two wheels, but it was barely more than a footnote in my head as I listened to Chiara fight for her life.

Come on, baby, keep fighting. I’m almost there. Please keep fighting.

Ellis swore again and there was the sound of glass shattering before a loud thump and a cry of pain. There was the sound of someone struggling to breathe, and I knew it was Ara when Ellis continued to tell her they’d be good together, that he just needed a chance.

I clenched the phone so hard I thought it would break.

“Fucking fuck!” Trev snarled, slamming his hand on the steering wheel as he listened to the monster his son had become. Another sharp corner, and he laid on the horn, narrowly missing a cyclist.

Ara was still fighting as Ellis continued to make grunts of pain and mutter curses. The sound of material ripping was followed by another blood-curdling scream from Ara and Carol began to sob. Trev looked sick as I shook with rage and the need to murder that son of a bitch.

“Shut up!” Ellis roared, followed by Chiara’s scream turning to a sharp yelp of pain, a small sob following.

“Stop fucking fighting!” Ellis roared again.

The tires screeched as Trev slammed on the brakes when we reached the hotel, and I was out the door before the car even stopped. I ran past reception, past Sofia who looked at me in alarm with Trev hot on my heels, and I ran right for the stairwell. I wasn’t waiting for a goddamn elevator, not when Chiara’s sobs were echoing around me.

“Just give us a chance, Chiara. We can be good together. You’ll see!” Ellis shouted, but Chiara screamed again, and I almost slipped on the stairs. Before I knew it, we were a flight of stairs away and I pushed myself harder than ever, listening to Chiara cry out again, this time she sounded like she was in pain. There was more struggling and something that sounded like another hit before Ellis started swearing in earnest, and I knew she’d clocked him one.

“Flynn,” Trev called behind me. I turned to look at my uncle and his face was ravaged. “Please,” he whispered.

I shook my head. “He’s fucking dead. You can’t keep protecting him,” I snarled.

“Not for him, and not for me,” he insisted, meeting me at the stairwell door. “For you. Don’t do something that will take you away from us too.”

I hesitated a moment before I nodded and threw open the door and raced down the hallway, my heart in my throat as Chiara gave another cry of fear. This time I heard it from behind her door. Trev got there first and was just reaching for the handlewhen it flew open, and a figure came barreling out and right into his chest.

Seeing Chiara—even as bruised and frightened as she was—loosened something in my gut.

She was alive.

The moment Trev reached for her, she started fighting again, her fear driving her into protection mode, and Trev tried several times to get her attention. She’d stopped fighting so hard when Trev wrapped his arms around her, but she wasn’t with reality yet. I wanted to take her from him, to hold her, but I waited. Firstly, I didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was, and secondly, someone had to deal with Ellis, and it couldn’t be Trev.

“You got her?” I asked, wanting to hold her, but wanting to choose violence as well.

“I have her. You got your shit locked down?” Trev asked, his blue eyes locked on me, his meaning clear.

Don’t kill Ellis. Not for his sake, not for Ellis’s sake, but for my own.

I struggled with myself a moment, forcing myself not to look at Ara or I knew I’d lose all control. Instead, I drew in a breath and nodded. “I’ve got a handle on it.”

I stepped inside the room as Trev continued trying to bring Ara back around, and I noted the signs of a struggle first. As I rounded the corner where the bed was, I found Ellis kneeling on the ground with his fingers pinching his nose.

“Fucking bitch went crazy on me, man,” he insisted angrily. “I wanted to take her out for a meal, and she fucking attacked me!”

Red coated my vision at his lies, and I held up my phone that showed the call I was on with Ara, the call still active. Ellis’s eyes darted to it in confusion before realization washed over him and he paled.

“I heard everything, motherfucker,” I hissed, taking a stepcloser, relishing in the fear that entered his eyes. Before he could bother to say anything else in his defense, I stepped forward and picked him up by the collar of his shirt before driving my fist into his face. He swore, and I did it again… and again… and again.

I saw nothing but red. The need to wring the life from this fucking waste of oxygen was riding me hard, and a small part of my mind started working out ways I could get away with it while the rest of me continued to pummel his face.

When that was a bloody mess, I started on his ribs, satisfied when the sharp, pained breath he took in told me I’d broken at least one rib.

“Flynn!”

Trevor’s voice sounded through the rage fog in my head, and I hesitated on the next hit.

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