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And villains had no qualms about killing.
“You laid your hands on her,” I growled out. Usually I tried my best to keep calm when about to pounce on someone, but this asshole really made it hard. Seeing him choke Taylor… how the fuck could I be calm when I wanted to rip this man apart limb from limb? “You will come to regret it.” That was a promise.
He smirked, so oblivious to the danger facing him, his smugness so unwarranted. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.” I didn’t say anything else, mostly because he lumbered forward in an attempt to hit me, but I redirected his fist away from my face. Soon enough I had my hands wrapped around his neck, squeezing as hard as I could.
You get what you give, right? Do unto others as you would have done unto you. I was karma’s dark messenger, ready to give retribution, and I would give karma its fill of Tom today.
My arms snapped straight as I choked him, and my arms were longer than his. Our position negated anything he tried to do. No matter how he sought to hit me, his hands couldn’t quite reach me.
I stared deep into his eyes, watching as the realization hit him: I wasn’t going to stop. I wouldn’t release him. His skin turned red, then a little purple, and his eyes bugged out of his skull a bit, widening in abject horror. He sputtered, he spat, he tried to peel my hands off his neck, but I was too strong. A fly like him could not push away the inevitable.
I didn’t know how long it was until he began to fade, his struggling becoming less and less. Eventually, his legs gave out and he couldn’t keep himself up anymore, so I lowered us down to the floor, in much the same position I’d found him and Taylor in. My hands fit snugly around his neck, his eyes starting to roll back into his skull. He was seconds from passing out, his brain deprived of oxygen for too long… and then death would come.
How many times had I ended someone’s life? I’d lost count. Still, with however many times it had happened, not once had anything ever stopped me. Once started, I never pulled back, not when it came to doling out the sweet release only death could bring.
But Taylor called my name, her voice hoarse and rough, “Creed.” She said my name like no one else, and hearing her voice made my hands lessen on Tom’s neck—not a lot, but enough to give him some respite.
She must’ve crawled her way over to us, because the next thing I knew, I felt her hand on my back, its warmth flooding me and calming the righteous fury inside. “Creed,” she spoke my name again in a whisper, “don’t.”
Don’t. That word echoed in my mind as I glared at her dad. Everyone always asked me to stop. Usually those people were the ones at the end of my gun. Never had someone told me so calmly to stop, to refrain from handing out justice, to keep myself from killing.
She wasn’t just anyone, though. She was Taylor, and as I was slow in turning my head toward her, I knew it then: I couldn’t kill this motherfucker. Not now. Not like this, in front of her.
The expression in Taylor’s green eyes was one of pure emotion, pleading and gentle at the same time. “Let him go,” she told me, showcasing the fact that she was a much better person than me. If I was her, I’d want him dead. If I was her, I probably would’ve killed him myself by now just to free myself from him.
No one else in the world could’ve gotten me to stop. Literally no one else. Out of the billions of people on this planet, only Taylor could stop me. I wasn’t sure if that made me a strong man or a weak one.
Did it matter?
I never broke eye contact with Taylor as my hands released Tom’s neck. The man’s top half fell back, his head hitting the floor; he was barely conscious, mumbling incoherently with a dry, cracked voice.
Taylor smiled at me, my prize for letting him go. “Let’s go.” She stood, holding out a hand for me to take. She wanted me to take that hand and go with her, to come home with me and never have to think about this man again.
I slipped my hand into hers, standing with her. We stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments, the seconds ticking by one after another. Her neck was still red, but the skin on her face had calmed somewhat. Still, she’d wear another bruise around her neck for a while, and that was something I simply could not forgive. I might be able to let it go now, for Taylor’s sake—because she asked me to—but not forever.
One day, Tom’s time would come, and when it did, I’d be there.
I turned my face to Tom on the floor. “If I see you around again, I won’t let her stop me.” A warning, one the man would heed if he wanted to continue living. Staying away wouldn’t save him forever; I could not promise when I’d come for him, but I would. Mark my words.
I never left a job unfinished, and this was perhaps the most important job of them all.
Together, Taylor and I walked out of her room, hand in hand, leaving her dad on the ground, his face all bloody and bruised. His neck was in much worse shape already. What could I say? I went in for the kill.
Taylor didn’t say anything until we got in my car, and once we were on the road, she whispered, “Thank you for coming for me.” She stared at me with those big, green eyes, the look of gratitude plain on her beautiful face. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Her voice was still sore, but she sounded better than she had earlier.
I reached a hand over the center console, squeezing hers. “I’ll always come for you, Taylor. Always. You’re mine, now and forever.” I loved this girl more than life itself. I loved her to an extent I’d never thought love was possible. To say I’d do anything for her would be a gross understatement.
I wouldn’t just doanything. I’d doeverything. I’d do it all, regardless of if it was necessary. I’d be whoever she wanted me to be, do everything she wanted me to do. I would be there for her until the day death itself took me.
“I love you,” she whispered out the words, giving me a tiny smile. She only had eyes for me, like the rest of the world didn’t exist, and she gazed intently at me as I drove us home.
Words could not describe how badly in love I was with her, so I settled with saying, “I love you, too.” Now and forever. Forever and always. Nothing would take me away from her again. Not my duty to the Guild, not my Black Wolf namesake, nothing.
It’d been a bumpy ride, but life was only beginning for us.
Epilogue
