Page 199 of Finding Olivia (Trace + Olivia 1)

“My name is not Aaron, to you. It’s dad,” he shook me. “I’m your dad.”

His hold on me was tight and I was surprised my bones didn’t snap.

“Let me go,” I begged, hysterics arising.

I kicked him hard in the stomach and he was forced to let me go as he stumbled down a few steps.

Thankfully, the key was still clutched firmly in my hand, and I ran for the door. I managed to get it open, but by the time I tried to close it, Aaron had recovered and was barging his way inside.

He slapped my face so hard that I fell to my knees. Tears clouded my vision as I clutched my stinging cheek. He towered above me, the look in his eyes anything but human. They were dead eyes. They were the eyes of someone who had lost everything and no longer cared.

“I came for your mom,” he growled, “she’s an idiot to think I’m

going to give her a divorce. I’m prepared to drag her ass back home. I was driving around looking for her, when I saw you walking out of the grocery store,” he kicked my ribs.

I grunted from the impact and clutched feebly at my side.

Oh, God. It hurt.

“Hurting you,” he sneered the word like it was dirty, “will hurt your mom more than anything else. This,” he kicked my face and I tasted blood, “will break her. She needs to be broken. She needs to know she can’t run.” He punctuated each sentence with a kick to a different part of my body. My side. My chest. My arms. He didn’t care where he hit me; he just wanted to hurt me. “I told her there would be consequences if she ever left me. But she didn’t listen!”

His anger was rising from deadly calm to unchained fury.

I whimpered as he beat me, trying to crawl away from him.

Ace barked and growled but there was little he could do.

Aaron reached down, and gripped me by my hair, slamming my head into the wood floor.

I screamed, scratching at his bare arm. “Get off of me! Let me go!”

There wasn’t much I could do to fight back. My whole body was sore and I felt like I was choking on the blood pooling in my mouth.

He beat my skull repeatedly into the floor yelling and screaming nonsensical things.

My vision began to blur and go spotty.

“Stop, please stop,” I begged, crying.

“Trouble! Nothing but trouble!” He yelled.

I tried to swallow but blood clogged my throat. I began to choke and gasp for air.

He punched my face and blood went flying out of my mouth. I rolled over, trying to spit the blood out, and suck in oxygen at the same time. My eyes zeroed in on the spot where my head had been. There was a sizeable pool of blood there and I reached up, feeling a gash on the back of my head. My fingers came away red and I began to sob, which did nothing to help my breathing.

The air left my lungs with a sickening wet sound.

“You’ll pay for everything you’ve done to me!” Aaron screamed and kicked my other side.

My whole body felt like it had been run over by an eighteen-wheeler.

“You-goin-ta-kill-me,” I choked, not able to get the words out as I gasped for air, trying to crawl away again. I was so weak and there was so much blood. I felt it dampening my hair.

I rolled back over, onto my back. I was too tired to move and too weak to fight back.

I begged silently for an easy end. I didn’t want to suffer anymore than I already was. I needed the pain to end.

Footsteps echoed around the doorway and I watched Aaron turn. A moment later, Aaron was crashing to the ground beside me as Trace wrestled him to the ground.

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