Page 31 of Monster Bully

“Oh, yeah. Remember when I told you that I spent the summer constantly falling and wiping out my knees on tarmac?”

He nodded.

“This hurts a whole lot worse than that. Trust me. There’s a lot of pain.” She released a breath. “A whole lot of pain.”

Grim assessed the damage. “I’m going to have to take you to a doctor to have it removed.”

“We can’t go to the hospital. Don’t they report gunshot wounds and you’ll be in trouble?”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about any of that, because I have people I can call. It’s going to be okay.”

Grim pulled out his cell phone and dialed the doctor he knew he could trust. Once he was sure he was on his way, he put his focus back on his wife.

He saw the bruising coming out across her face. She had taken a beating.

“Tell me where it hurts,” he said.

“I’m fine, Grim.”

“No, you’re not.”

She shook her head. “He hit me a few times, kicked me, but to be honest, at the moment, all that’s hurting is this.” She pointed at her arm. “And I’m so happy.”

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“Because you’re safe and I know you killed him, and I know it makes me a bad person for being this happy, and … I’m a horrible person.”

He shook his head. “You’re not a bad person, Eve.”

“But I wanted to kill him. I prayed for you to come and kill him.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person. He was doing bad things. He was … there are kids that are not going home tonight because of him. I’m going to find them, and I’m going to bring them home. I am going to bring his entire operation down, Eve, and he is dead. I killed him. I choked the life out of him.” He cupped her face. “You are not a bad person.”

“I love you,” she said.

“And I love you, always.” He pulled her into his arms and he knew he would do anything for her.

Anything, but leave or divorce her.

****

Three Weeks Later

Eve glanced at her husband. He was sleeping.

For the past couple of weeks, she knew she had scared him and kept him awake. She didn’t mean to scare him. It had been three weeks since the home invasion. Three weeks since she had to have a bullet removed by Grim’s personal doctor. The man didn’t ask any questions, all he wanted was to be paid and listened to. Eve followed his instructions and had cleaned the wound regularly, and she was healing quite fast.

Sleep was hard for her. At least last night, she’d been able to fall asleep without a single care in the world. It had been a busy three weeks for Grim.

Whenever he did leave, there were always ten if not twenty guards at the house. Eve liked it. She spent the time baking cookies, and this time, she got to know the men as well. She hated that she didn’t know the names of the men who’d given their lives to save her. Eve didn’t know if they had willingly died or simply didn’t have a choice.

A lot had changed in three weeks.

The bruises on her face were fading fast. Grim spent a lot of time out of the house and she knew why. He was trying to close Anthony’s operation. From the brief information he had given her, they’d been able to locate the missing children. He had also told her that Anthony hadn’t been running his business as long as he implied. He’d gotten lucky, but that hadn’t lasted because Grim had been there to stop it.

Staring at him, she wanted to reach out and touch him, to bridge the gap that had developed between them. She didn’t dare touch him now, though. Grim didn’t get a lot of sleep, because she had kept him up. Her bad dreams were filled with Anthony but in them, her husband wasn’t the victor, Anthony was. She always caught him choking Grim and she couldn’t ever get to him.

Waking up with Grim’s arms around her was a welcome relief, one she couldn’t even begin to describe. So, while he slept, looking so peaceful, she watched him.