Chapter 31

“You’ll be fine, Abhay. Just hold on for a few more minutes,” Julian told his friend, running a hand through his hair lightly.
“I’ll help carry him.” Leo volunteered from behind him, hunkering down next to Julian as he waited for instructions.
“In a minute,” Julian told the boy. “I’ll have to make sure that the coast is clear first.”
Julian stood up from his crouched position and began walking towards the garage door, but he didn’t make it far as someone caught hold of his leg and toppled him over. Julian staggered back against the wall and the first man he attacked earlier, who had been lying unconscious on the ground, sprang up on his feet and launched at him with a wrench in his hand. He must have gained consciousness while Julian had been busy freeing Martha and Leo. But Julian quickly kicked him in the nuts and took the wrench away from his hand.
Just as the man hit the floor, Julian swung the wrench on his head and heard the sickening crunch of metal hitting bone while blood splattered on his face. The thug was as good as dead, just as he should have been the first time, but Julian wasn’t a lawbreaker and he wasn’t about to kill him intentionally. Leaving the bleeding man on the ground, Julian went outside to search for more of them.
“Hey! What’s taking so long?”
He didn’t have go outside to take care of the third man who spoke. He was coming inside to look for the others. Julian turned to the side of the garage and let the man inside before he took him by surprise.
“What the...” The man looked at Martha and Leo in surprise, but before he could look at his unconscious comrades on the floor, Julian struck him from behind with the wrench he still had in his hands, knocking him out. It wasn’t easy maintaining the correct pressure on the metal wrench. Too much force or a hit in the wrong place and he could kill the men. He had to make sure he didn’t.The last thing he wanted on Sia’s conscience was the death of these people, and death would only be too quick a punishment for them.
“Julian, are you all right?” Leo asked as he rushed to his side.
“Yeah, I’m all right.” His head was hurting, making his eyesight a bit hazy. Maybe the hit he’d taken to the head was serious after all. “Leo, can you search them for guns while I keep watch outside?” Julian asked to which the kid nodded instantly.
Leo did as he was told and soon came back to Julian with two guns in his trembling hands. Julian took the guns from the boy, keeping one for himself and the other to Martha.
“I’m so sorry. You didn’t have to see all this,” Julian told them both. He was angry at Arthur for having to make them go through all this. They didn’t deserve any of this, and neither did Sia.
Hang on, I’m coming for you, Sia, he thought.
“It’s not your fault,” Leo said, giving him an awkward smile as he didn’t know what else to do at a situation like this. “You came for us. You saved us. But now it’s time to save Mom. Can we now move your friend?”
“Of course! We have to now.” Julian rushed over to Abhay’s side and pulled him up with all his strength. He was heavy, but Leo helped him carry some of the dead weight. “Martha, do you know how to use a gun?”
“Gun?” Martha’s face turned bone white. “Oh God, no!”
“Then, I’ll need you to take over for me,” Julian told her. “I can’t carry him and protect you at the same time.”
With that, he hoisted Abhay up on Martha’s and Leo’s shoulders and walked ahead of them to the garage door. Looks like he was in luck since he saw the fourth and last man walking toward the garage to find out what was taking the others so long.
Julian didn’t waste any time. He shot the man right in the knees and, once he was down, slammed the butt of his gun on top of his head to knock him out. Thank goodness that the guns all had silencers on them, or the whole house would’ve been alerted by now.Arthur had made sure that no one would sense anything was amiss. Oh, how Julian wished that he could just set fire to the garage like the men had intended to do, but he didn’t have time to waste. He led Martha and Leo to the car that he had parked in front of the house and helped Leo place Abhay in the back seat. Martha got into the driver’s seat and handed Julian her gun just in case.
“Go!” Julian whisper yelled at them and Martha started the car and drove off. Thankfully, the front gate didn’t make too much of a noise when it opened, and the three of them were out of harm’s way as they drove to the hospital.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, Julian hunched forward when a wave of pain hit him. Looks like he’d calculated wrong once again. There was still someone left and they had just stabbed him in the shoulder.
The person behind him wrenched the knife out of his shoulder and was ready to strike again, but Julian purposely fell to the ground, kicking the assailant’s legs out from under him. As the other man fell, Julian shoved the knife out of his hand and threw punch after punch at his face until he was nothing but a bloody pulp.
“You son of a bitch!” he gritted out through clenched teeth as his arm began to bleed profusely, but he didn’t stop hitting the man until he knew for sure that he was unconscious.
He wiped his bloody hands on his pants as he got up and looked at the entrance to Sia’s home. It was time to teach that piece of shit a lesson. Julian would do anything to protect the woman he loved, because no one messes with his girl and gets away with it.

* * *

“Stop struggling!” Arthur yelled, irritated as he yanked Sia’s hair to move her forward.
“Let go of me, you bastard!” Sia yelled back at him, trying her best to loosen his grip on her but to no avail. “Stop them! How can you do this to them? To your own son!”
She tried to get free, but she couldn’t. She needed to get to Leo and Martha. They were her life, but Julian was her reason to live now, the reason why she was now fighting back rather than being a coward like she had been all those years that she had been married to Arthur.
“Shut up!” Arthur roared as he threw her on the floor, but Sia landed on a wooden table instead.
Sia screamed as her head hit the sharp corner of the table. More blood dripped from her face, running from her forehead down to her chin, but she ignored the pain and tried to escape through the door on all fours. But Arthur was there to catch her, kicking her side, making her fall back on the ground and groan in pain.
“Did you actually think that I would let you go? After everything I’ve done to get you!” Arthur clicked his tongue.
“What?” Sia was confused. Her father had chosen Arthur for her to marry so the devil’s money could save his company from going bankrupt.
“You don’t know, do you?” Arthur smirked, his hair falling over his forehead, making him look even more manic. Sia knew that whatever he was about to say, it would change her life forever.
“Your father didn’t go bankrupt. I made it happen,” he said. “I paid his secretary to sell me sixty percent of the shares, so that he would have no other choice but to make a deal. And when the time came, I became his savior. Believe me, he was more than happy to sell you to me.” Arthur smirked at her horrified expression.
Sia tried to back up, but her back hit the living room couch. “B-but . . . w-w-why?” She was trembling uncontrollably by now. She didn’t want to know, but she was dying to know as well.
“You were twelve when I first saw you. In a charity event with your parents. And I’d wanted you ever since. Even that day, I wanted to fuck you up against the stage in front of everyone, but I had to wait for an opportunity. And when that didn’t come, I made one for myself. You know . . . it’s a fantasy of mine to fuck you in front of an audience,” Arthur said, laughing like a madman. Sia tried her hardest to push down the bile that had risen to her throat. “And I will be doing just that. Those men out there, the ones that are about to burn your little son to the ground,” Sia whimpered as tears streamed down her face, “Those men are just a few . . . friends . . . that I made from my contacts in jail. And they will love to watch as I take you in front of them.”
“No!” Sia scrambled off the floor and backed away from Arthur. She was at a disadvantage as she had moved herself on the opposite side of the door, far from her path to get away. While she backed up against the wall, her hand came in contact with one of her porcelain flower vases. She grabbed it with her hand behind her back and waited. Arthur went after her, and when he was within striking distance, she smashed the vase against the side of his head.
Water and shards of porcelain scattered everywhere as Sia made a dash for the door. She was close now, so very close . . . when Arthur grabbed her middle and slammed her to his chest.
“You little bitch!” Arthur’s hands came around her throat and squeezed it hard. “I was going to go easy on you, but you just made everything all that difficult! Now you’re going to pay for it!”
Sia struggled against his grip as he started to choke the air out of her. Her nails dug into his arm, hard enough to break skin and draw blood but his hands were like steel bands around her.His hands tightened on her a fraction harder and Sia sat black spots dance in her visionwhen suddenly he was yanked off of her from behind and thrown down on the other side of the room.
Sia fell to the floor in a heap, gasping for air to fill up her lungs when she felt arms engulf her. Unlike with Arthur, she didn’t struggle as she melted into those arms. “Oh, thank God!” Sia muttered against his chest, still feeling out of breath. Her throat was going to bruise, but that didn’t matter at the moment. Julian was back. He was safe.
He helped her up and wrapped his hands around her tightly. “It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” The second time Julian said it was more of a reminder to himself than it was to her. He’d just made it in time.
“You!” Arthur roared, pointing an accusing finger at Julian. “You should be dead! Where are my men?”
“Oh, them?” Julian smirked at him while holding Sia tight to his chest. “I think I might have knocked them out on my way here.”
“How dare you—”
“Oh, that’s not all,” Julian continued, deliberately provoking him. “Martha, Abhay, and Sia’s son are already out on their way to the hospital. In fact, if my calculation is correct, they might already be there.”
“You bastard!” Arthur yelled, fuming. “I’ll kill you for this!”
“Not if I can help it.” With that, Julian pushed Sia behind him and stepped forward for the final match.
It was now or never.