Yet the fucker kept laughing, not bothering to try to beg for his life. He just didn’t care.
I raised the weapon even higher, gasping for air as pain from the past and what she’d been forced to go through razing my system. I didn’t care about what happened to me. I just…
“No, Viper. Axe is right. Grace needs you,” Rock said. “We need you on the team. The police are here. Let them handle this. Let him spend the rest of his miserable life in prison where he belongs while you remain a free man.”
As I closed my eyes, a flash of images was pitched in front of me. Memories I didn’t want of my beautiful sister, guilt and rage almost overshadowing everything else.
Yet I couldn’t do it. And why? Because I loved Grace too much. Because I needed her.
I needed us.
So maybe I did the unthinkable and something I would regret later, but I let Mike go, rising to my feet and backing away. But I tossed the hatchet, the blade coming within an inch of the monster’s face and plunging into a tree.
“Fuck me,” Axe said from behind me. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
As several police officers swarmed the scene, I was pulled backward, my team surrounding me on both sides.
“Come on,” Axe said after the son of a bitch was dragged to his feet. “Grace is asking for you.”
This time, I walked away. I walked away knowing that the system might not work the way I wanted, but the guys were right.
I had everything to live for.
Everything a man could want.
EPILOGUE
Grace
Time was precious.
Most people usually took time for granted, going about their daily activities of work or school, taking care of family and meeting friends. One day often disappeared in a week.
Then a month.
Then a year.
Suddenly, five or ten years had gone by and everyone was wondering what happened. Why they were older. Why they hadn’t done more.
Maybe I’d gone through the motions up to this point, but I’d learned to take one day very much at a time, enjoying the little things.
The barn was almost finished being rebuilt and I had Viper and his Zullie buddies to thank for that, the group utter craftsmen,taking my crude designs and making them into a perfect location.
There were three smaller buildings under construction as well, which would soon allow me to accept more rescue animals. Ellie May’s Sanctuary had acquired another horse we were nursing back to health, a donkey, and another dog. We were a regular menagerie.
When I used the word ‘we’ I included Viper. He’d turned out to be a real animal lover.
On top of the peace and harmony the sanctuary brought to both of us after the horrific ordeal, I’d just received notice that one of the grants I’d applied for had been approved. We had much to celebrate, but for me, it was the little things that mattered the most.
A beautiful morning.
The scent of flowers.
The cuddle of a pup.
And the soft, or rough, kisses of a man who could make me feel like the most special girl in the world.
What I’d learned was the time was utterly precious and in the blink of an eye and if you weren’t paying attention, you could lose everything.
