Wanting To End Him

An hour into our sky watching, my watch beeped, alerting me to someone at the gate. I raised my arm above my face to see who was at the gates. I eyed the strange man and woman on the watch’s small screen, frowning deeply. Leah whimpering as she scrambled away from me tore my attention away from my watch and to her. The fear on her face had me sitting straight up, and reaching for her.
“Leah? What’s wrong?” I asked as I gently tugged her back over to me so I could hold her.
“T-that’s Will. And the woman he’s with is D-Darcy,” she stammered.
I tensed under her, my hands immediately stilling on her back. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
She tried to pull back at my outburst but my arms tightened around her, keeping her in place. She looked up at me miserably as my watch beeped again. I kissed her lips softly.
“I want you to go back to your house, Leah. I need to deal with this.”
“A-are you going to send me away w-with him?” She whimpered.
“NO!” I took a deep breath. “No, sweetheart. I just want you somewhere where you feel safe and Sugar is at the house.”
She gripped my shirt. “Please, don’t send me away.”
I placed my forehead against hers. “I’m not. I promise.”
She hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Okay,” she whispered.
We got up, and she walked close to my side until we got to the fork in the road that led to both her house and the front gate. I tugged her into my arms, holding her against my body for a moment before kissing her softly.
“I’ll be over as soon as I can. Stay inside and lock the door,” I told her.
She swallowed hard, nodding her head vigorously. “O-okay.”
I watched her walk off toward her house. Once she was out of ear shot, I lifted the watch to my mouth. “Rosemary?”
“Yes, R. H. M?” She answered immediately.
“Please go to Phoenix’s house and stay with her until I arrive,” I requested.
“Yes, R. H. M.”
I tapped the gate control app on my watch, telling it to open as I finished the short 100 yard walk to the gate. I crossed my arms over my chest as I exited Eden to speak to him, not wanting him anywhere near Leah.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
He reached behind him to pull Darcy forward. “My name is William Adam’s and this is Darcy,” he said, shoving her toward me, making her stumble. “She’s gotten disobedient. She needs to be taught how to obey.”
I looked down at the woman I caught to keep from falling to the ground. “Hello, Darcy.”
She lowered her head. “Hello, sir,” she greeted me back politely.
When William yanked her backward away from me, she cried out and the fear that I saw in her eyes was the exact same fear I had seen in Leah’s eyes. I couldn’t in good conscience let her leave with him. Who knows what would happen if I allowed him to keep abusing her. I clenched my jaw as I nodded.
“The program runs 6 weeks. When she is returned to you, I can guarantee you 100% obedience with the things that are listed in your training plan. Is there anything else you want done?” I inquired.
“No! Just fix the whore!” He snapped before pushing her back over to me.
I nodded. “I will.”
I gripped Darcy’s elbow, frowning deeply at William as the urge to beat the shit out of him for hurting Leah surged so strongly in me that I actually took a step forward before I managed to get myself under control.
“I will contact you when her training is complete. But just so you know, this is not the way to come to my community. You do not show up without informing of your arrival 72 hours before you arrive. The next time you do so, I will shoot you,” I threatened him, praying that he would show up unannounced so that I could put a bullet into him.
He rolled his eyes. “She’s here now. Just do what I paid you for,” he snapped before turning around to go back in his truck. “I want her broken when I get back. If she’s not, you will be.”
I narrowed my eyes on him as my control snapped. I stormed over to him, grabbed him around his throat, and pushed him into his truck, where I slammed my fist into the door beside his head.
“I am not someone that you can order around! So, don’t even bother trying to! You come to my land and disrespect me?” I scoffed. “I could shoot you and no one would ever know that this was the last place you showed your Goddamned face.” I pulled him away from the truck to slam him back against it, denting the door a little. “You are just a little bitch who hits women! Consider this your warning. If I see you cross onto my land again, I will shoot you. Now,” I said, stepping back to straighten my shirt. “Get the fuck out of my sight!”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “Get in the truck, Darcy. You’re not staying here.”
I stepped into Darcy’s path, keeping her away from the truck. “Too late! She’s mine. Get in your fucking truck and leave!”
“DARCY! I SAID GET IN THE TRUCK!” He roared.
I spun around, purposely crowding her back against the gate where I reached behind her for the almost invisible leather handle to restrain her to the wall before grabbing the hidden gun that was there. I spun back around, raising the gun to train it on William, aiming it directly between his eyes. He glared at me, seriously testing my patience.
“Get off my land!”
“You won’t shoot me! Give her back to me and I will leave! SHE IS MY PROPERTY!” He yelled.
“Yeah, bet you said that about other women too,” I snapped before lowering the gun to shoot him in the thigh before aiming it back at his forehead.
When my hands flexed around the grip of the gun, he pulled himself up into his truck, revving it threateningly. I switched the gun’s direction, letting him know that I would shoot his windshield out before he could even try anything.
“BE SMART, WILLIAM!” I called.
He revved the truck again before speeding backward, shouting, “THIS ISN’T OVER, ASSHOLE!”
When he was out of sight, I quickly flipped through cameras on the route out of the community to make sure that he actually left. Once he drove through the outer gate, I pressed a few buttons on my watch to close it before turning to look at Darcy who was watching me fearfully. I replaced the gun on the wall before unhooking her, cursing at myself silently. What in the hell was I going to do about her? We didn’t have any extra houses at the moment and I really didn’t want her in the same one as Leah, but what choice did I have? I nodded my head toward Eden.
“Come on. I’ll get you situated,” I told her.
I led her inside the gate, tapping a few more buttons on my watch to close the gate behind us as I led her down the street. When I got to Leah’s house, I knocked on the door, shifting my weight anxiously as I waited for her to answer the door, but it wasn’t her that opened it. It was Rosemary. I let out a relieved breath, thanking the Lord above for the common sense to have her sit with Leah while I handled the whole William thing. I nodded my head at Darcy.
“Can you sit with her while I speak to Phoenix?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
I stepped past her to find Leah in the living room, cuddled up on the couch with Sugar laying in front of her. She raised her tear-stained face to mine.
“Is he gone?” She whispered almost silently.
I nodded as I sank to my knees beside the couch. I reached out to gently wipe fresh tears off her face. “Yes, Leah,” I told her softly. “But Darcy didn’t leave with him.”
She sat up, shaking violently. I shifted positions so that I was sitting on the couch next to her, running my hands up and down her arms, trying to soothe her.
“W-where is she?” Leah asked.
“Waiting outside to get settled in,” I told her.
“SHE’S STAYING HERE?” She cried.
“Listen to me, Leah. She can stay here, but you don’t have to,” I murmured gently.
She scrubbed her hands down her face. “Where am I going to go?” She sobbed. “You promised not to make me leave.”
I tucked her face into my neck as I began to rock her. “I’m not making you leave, princess. You can stay with me. At my place.” I sighed as I leaned my cheek against the top of her head. “I mean, if you wanted to.”
“What about Sugar?” She whispered.
I closed my eyes as I ran my hands up and down her back. I hadn’t had a dog in my office before, but if it meant having her close, there really wasn’t a choice. My decision was already made.
“Bring her.”