If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(48)
Author: A.L. Jackson

A horrified scream rose up from Elizabeth, blended with the cries she couldn’t seem to contain. They fed the agitation, the madness that left me unhinged. Because without Elizabeth, I was in pieces. Shattered.

Caught off guard, Logan fumbled backward before he regained his balance. On his toes, he bounced in aggression.

“You are f**king crazy,” wheezed from his lungs. He rushed in, swung wide as he aimed for my face. The punch missed as I ducked my head.

My arm cocked back, insanity flooding from me unlike anything I’d ever known. All I knew was I wouldn’t let him have her. I wouldn’t, and I couldn’t f**king stand the thought, knowing that the two of them had been together.

Was she sleeping with him? Had she been curled up with him in his bed?

Blinded with fury, I slammed my fist into the underside of his jaw. His head rocked back.

A guttural groan roared from his throat.

Her undying presence nipped at my soul, teased and taunted as I bore down on this ass**le who for even a second thought she could somehow be his.

I hit him again, the strike landing on his cheek.

He stumbled back, his own fury mounting a resistance as he surged forward.

Elizabeth screamed.

My attention darted to her, to the one I wasn’t sure I knew any longer.

Sadness poured from her as she witnessed me coming unglued.

Unprepared, distracted by her, his fist connected with my nose. Pain exploded, splitting my vision.

Blood gushed, and I saw red.

I lost it, losing myself in the pent-up rage that I’d harbored for so long. I unleashed it on him, the anger for her, the anger for me, the anger at the injustice of this f**ked up world.

Her desperate voice hit my ears. “Christian, please, stop.”

I stumbled back, aggression still curling through my senses as I glared down at the piece of shit who was trying to steal her from me.

I swiped the back of my hand beneath my nose and across my mouth. Blood smeared. Sniffing, I turned my attention to Elizabeth. She was crying, lost, just as f**king lost as me.

“Go get in my car, Elizabeth.” It was hard, harsh with the anger. I realized most of it was directed at her.

She vacillated, shifting, so obviously drawn to the door and drawn to this place where she hid, where she hid behind lies and pretended she didn’t have to face what we’d gone through. Her unsteady gaze met with the intensity of mine.

“Go,” I said.

The brown of her eyes flamed and dimmed, a roil of confusion, harboring a disturbance unlike anything I’d ever witnessed, a disturbance as severe as the one boiling inside of me.

Anger and regret.

Revulsion.

Pain, prominent and suffocating.

Underneath it all was the love that would ever let us go.

She dropped her gaze and shuffled around me, quietly slipping out the door.

I stared at Logan who was trying to pick himself up off the floor, my entire body rocking with hatred. Blood dripped from my nose. Harshly, I wiped it with the back of my hand.

“Stay away from her. Do you understand me? This is my family. Did you see that ring on her finger? Do you think this is a game? That woman belongs to me. She always has and she always will. Don’t think for a second you can take her from me. She will love me until the day she dies.”

I’d told a million lies in my lifetime.

That statement was one I knew as the truth.

“Fuck you,” he sneered, roughing the heel of his hand across his bleeding face.

Derisive laughter flooded from me. I backed up, lifting an accusatory finger at him as he straightened. “I’m not joking. Stay away from her. You don’t know her…not for a second…don’t pretend like you do.”

Then I turned and ran out the door I’d barreled through not five minutes before.

Maybe I’d f**ked up and maybe there’d be consequences to pay, my actions lawless as I’d lost myself in my rage. But that mattered none. I’d made a promise to fight for her, and I’d pay whatever cost.

She was worth everything.

Night had completely taken hold, the darkness thick, a blanket of clouds squatting heavily over the city. My silver Audi sat at the curb. The tinted windows concealed Elizabeth waiting inside.

I fought against the anger still burning through my blood, fought against the image of the two of them on his couch. I was sure I’d never be able to purge it from my mind. It blinded me. Scrubbing my palm over my face, I opened the door. The overhead light glowed to life, illuminating Elizabeth in the passenger seat. With her head downcast, she twisted her fingers in knots on her lap.

I sat down, started my car, and put it in drive. Tension stretched between us, the tightest band, something explosive threatening to snap. Anger and fury and unanswered questions bounced between us as I seethed in the silence.

I glanced at her, my lip curling as I swiped the residual of blood from my lip. She didn’t look at me. She just slowly rocked and cried, silent tears gleaming in the street lights that flashed through the windows.

God, I loved her so much. I wanted to hold her, tell her it was going to be okay in the same second I wanted to lash out at her.

It took me all of thirty seconds to get back to her house.

I pulled into the drive and cut the engine. It ticked and hummed. We just sat there, me looking ahead, Elizabeth staring at her hands. The air was so thick, and I could almost hear the heavy thud of her heart. Nausea swirled in my raw stomach.

How would we ever get past this?

With her head down, Elizabeth fumbled blindly with the handle, a sob escaping her as she clambered from my car.

Climbing out, I trailed her up the walkway toward the front door. In the stagnant silence that twisted us tight, there was no room to breathe.

The air was thick, heavy, dense as I hovered right behind her while she fumbled to produce her keys. She trembled as she slid it into the lock and let us into the house that was supposed to be our home.

The door swung open.

She stepped inside, stopping in the entry with her back to me.

Quietly I latched the door behind us, and I edged forward, my chest an inch from her back. A single light burned from deep within the kitchen. It cast a faint glow into the dim-lit room. The walls enclosed around us, a stir of anger and a rush of need. I could smell her, her hair brushing against me as she inhaled, her body palpitating with the ragged breath.

“Did you f**k him?” The words dropped from me in a slow accusation. It was laced with all the hurt of finding the two of them together.

I sensed every one of her muscles tighten, the slow sway of her body as she shook her head.

“No.”