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Just action.
I struck, clawed, kneed, kicked.
I watched in satisfaction as my nail marks down his face split open and trickled blood.
I didn’t get to enjoy his pain for long, though, before his fist was colliding with my face. Before my hair was grabbed again, yanked savagely to the side, then used to toss me to the floor.
The impact knocked the wind out of me, but I was moving before I could even draw a breath again, trying to put some distance between us.
But then, right as he was leaning down to grab me again, I heard it.
Heard him.
Judah.
Crying.
It was half a beat before Warren heard him too, his mouth twisting into a cruel sneer.
“No,” I cried as he turned toward the door, I reached out, grabbing his leg in both my hands, and yanking back with everything in me.
He fell hard and fast, unprepared, and barely able to throw out his hands to break his fall.
I was scrambling up, one hand yanking my pants back into place, and the other grabbing a super cute bear porcelain figurine Aurelio had come home with one day, excited because it matched Judah’s bedspread.
I hated to sacrifice him, but I grabbed it with both hands as I came over Warren’s body, and slammed it downward with everything in me.
“Warren!” Denny’s voice called even as the bear crashed into his boss’s skull. “We have to go!” he yelled. “They’re coming!” he added, tearing up the stairs.
I scrambled away from Warren, who was conscious, but just barely. Rushing across the hall, I made my way into the bathroom, grabbing the top to the toilet tank, and bringing it back into the hall with me, using my body to block the door to Aurelio’s bedroom as Judah wailed inside his little locked room, likely terrified, and my heart cracked for him, even if I knew I had no choice. I couldn’t go to him. Not yet.
“No!” Warren roared as Denny tried to peel him off of the floor. “My son,” he added as Denny’s hands grabbed his boss by the jacket, pulling him backward as Warren tried to rush at me.
“We’ll get him back,” Denny said, his cold eyes glaring at me as he made that promise. “But not today. There’s not enough of us tonight,” he added, dragging Warren down the stairs.
“You bitch!” Warren growled, eyes wilder than I’d ever seen them, his teeth bared, making him look every bit the monster I always thought he was. “I’m coming for him. And then I’m going to wrap my hands around your throat and watch the life leave your eyes.”
His threat was tempered a bit by the fact that he was actively being dragged down the rest of the stairs as he said it.
I didn’t rush inside to my son.
I didn’t dare lead anyone to him.
In case this was a trap. Or Warren broke free from Denny.
I stood there, the ceramic lid raised, ready to strike out.
Adrenaline was still rushing through my veins, the sound of my heartbeat thumping in my ears, muffling, but not completely blocking out Judah’s cries, and the little slams as his hands and fists hit where he knew the door was located, but was unable to get it open from the inside.
Did he have enough air in there?
It was okay.
He’d be okay.
So long as he was crying, he had enough air.
As much as my heart was in tatters at the sound of his fear and confusion.
