Jarrod“He can’t be fucking serious,” Leo whisper hissed at me as we looked at the cabin. “This guy’s a complete moron.”
I knew what he meant – it was totally open, and he hadn’t even chosen a place where he had a good chance of escape, even in the dark – but there was still the matter of what he’d already done today.
“He’s also wanted for the attempted murder of Maude and the injuries he gave Katy,” I reminded him, turning to look at him in the little amount of light that we had where we were crouched down. “Let’s not underestimate him.”
“Fucker,” he growled, almost making me laugh, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to ever do that again after this.
Just then the screen of my phone lit up with a text from DB.
DB: Go up and knock on the door.
Yeah, that gave a good indication of how weak this man’s plan was because that’s all I had to do.
Passing it to Leo, I got up from my crouched position and made my way to the door. Just as I was about to knock on it, I heard a scream followed by a shout from inside. Moving back, I kicked the door open just as Mom hit him around the head with a frying pan while he was on his knees.
“You’re a nasty man,” she screamed as he fell face down on the floor. Lifting it up again, she brought it down on his ass. “Nasty, nasty man.”
Not even sure what I was looking at, I yelled, “Ma!” watching her bring the pan down again in the same place.
“Jesus Christ, is your mother spanking him with a frying pan?” DB called as he ran across the room.
Confused and, I’m not ashamed to admit it, terrified out of my mind, I scanned the room not seeing any sign of Elodie, and that scared me even more.
“Ma,” I shouted again, finally getting through to her.
With the pan lifted above her head, she looked over at where I was standing with DB now beside me and Garrett behind us.
“Officers, arrest this man,” she ordered, lowering her arms and dropping the pan on the back of his thighs.
The heavy thud it made when it hit the floor afterwards told us all we needed to know – she’d hit him with a motherfucker of a pan. If his ass wasn’t broken, his head definitely would be, and I didn’t have it in me to give one shit about that.
“I’ll call for an ambulance,” Garrett offered in a tone that made it clear he didn’t want to, as DB pulled his cuffs out and made his way over to the asshole who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Stepping toward Mom, I started panicking over the fact I couldn’t see Elodie anywhere. “Where’s Elodie?”
Looking up at me with tears building, she opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal that came from behind us.
“Boo!”
DB had just been bending over to give first aid to Shane, and the scream made him jump up and grab for his gun. That was joined by a clatter behind us and the word “fuck” was shouted as Garrett dropped his phone. Me, I froze and battled back the tears I wanted to cry at seeing her unharmed but also at seeing evidence of how truly unaware she was of the gravity of the situation she’d been in.
Christ.
“Phone’s out,” Garrett barked, picking it up off the floor.
Pulling mine out, I made my way over to where she was clapping her hands at DB who was holding his chest now. Hitting 911 (even though the last thing I wanted to do was save the bastard), I reached her just as the operator answered and asked what service I wanted.
“Cawot!” she squealed, watching as I crouched down in front of her.
I’d be her cawot for the rest of my life if she needed to me to be, so long as she was safe and smiling.
Unable to talk, I passed my cell off to DB to carry out the checks and shit the operator wanted and lifted her up, closing my eyes as she tried to strangle me with an overly enthusiastic hug. It was the best hug I’d ever had in my life.
“Clear,” Garrett bellowed to the others outside the cabin, before he came back in and crouched down beside us. “Cawot’s a hero, baby, so you hug him tighter, ok? Heroes need hugs when they conquer a dragon.”
I wasn’t a fucking hero at all. Right now Maude was lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life, my woman was in pain and scared out of her mind, and it was a miracle that Mom and Elodie weren’t in the same way. So, what I was was a man hanging on by a thread who wanted to rip the fucker lying on the ground’s head off.