Love Under Construction (The Love Under Series Book 1) (21 page)

I was halfway back to the hospital when my cell phone chirped. I pulled it out, and Uncle Mike's text flashed across the screen.

Uncle Mike: Come back. We got the bastard.

Me: On my way.

Uncle Mike: Meet us at the feed shed.

Flipping a U-turn, I hauled ass back to the ranch. I wanted more than a piece of him. I wanted every mark to match what he doled out and then some. My fury grew, and I gripped the steering wheel to focus on my driving tearing up grass and kicking up gravel making a beeline to the feed shed.

The feed shed held bedding, plant cuttings, some kitchen compost, irregular crops farmers donated to help feed the animals, and the regular kibble feed and horse treats. The hogs loved the blend of fresh veggies and feed. For the most part, they would eat just about anything. Their pen was next to the feed shed. Bill was tied with his arms behind his back on his knees already bleeding from the nose and mouth as Carlos and Danny took turns kicking him with their knee-high muck boots on each side of him.

Carlos was loyal to my Uncle Mike. He gave him a chance and hired him with a felony when no one else would. Carlos was half Mexican and half Native American. He was a citizen but didn't have tribal benefits, and with a felony, no one would touch him. Uncle Mike hired him and since then carried out any and all tasks without question and complete obedience. 

Danny was a veteran with a sketchy past. He was discharged from the Army, not exactly honorably, but not an official dishonorable discharge, either. It was more of a “please go quietly and don't come back” situation. Those two men my uncle trusted with his life. Bill was not getting out of there in one piece. 

"Take a break, boys, Max is here," Uncle Mike called out. Bill swayed in the mud, but Carlos and Danny alternated nudging him upright with their heels. 

I leaned over to the passenger side and pulled my leather work gloves off the side of my tool belt, tugging them onto my hands before handling Bill's gun again. I joined Uncle Mike and the guys in the pig pen.  

"This is the animal that beat up Suzie?" I spat in Bill's general direction. 

He looked up at me through the slits of his swollen lids and let out an evil cackle. "Let me guess? You're the swinging dick that whore is fucking these days. Boy, she is really dredging the sludge to find a bottom feeder like you."

The steel toe of my work boot met his jaw with a crack, and he landed face down in the mud. Carlos and Danny pulled him by his armpits back upright. 

"You can pick on little women. Well, now you can take a beating like a man, punk."

I kicked him in his dick, and he doubled over but wasn't able to fold over with his hands tied behind his back so he fell over onto his side. I stomped his face until he was unrecognizable. Gurgling, he spat out his front teeth trying desperately to gasp for air. I went back to my truck, threw the gun on the seat and grabbed my wire cutters and a pair of pliers off my tool belt. 

"You will never touch anything ever again. Get his shoes off." Carlos yanked one of his legs from under his pulling his shoe off with the sock. One by one, I cut off his toes with my wire cutters at the knuckle starting with the pinky toe. Bill screamed and gurgled, and by the time I reached his big toe, he passed out. Danny kicked him in the face to rouse him.

"Wake up, asshole. You don't get to sleep through this," Danny yelled in his face. Uncle Mike walked calmly to the feed shed and returned with a metal pail and set it beside me. I looked up, and he gave me a nod. 

Carlos removed his other shoe and held his foot while I snipped his toes one by one before taking his fingertips too. I scooped up his digits and dumped the bloody parts into the pail. Danny held him by his hair, and Bill's mouth hung open. 

"Oh, now you're being a good boy. Well, it's too late. You should have just left Suzie alone." I dropped my wire cutters into the pail and switched them out for the pliers. I stuck them in his mouth and ripped his teeth out with quick twists, and the crackling of his jaw releasing his teeth mingled with his gurgles were the only sounds in the pen. I picked up his front teeth that were victim to my boots and deposited them into the pail as well, his teeth clinking against the side of the pail. 

His limp body hung by Danny's fist as he lost consciousness again. 

"Wake his ass up. I'm not done. Carlos, grab his pants." Carlos obeyed and unfastened his belt and bloody, mud-soaked khakis, yanking his pants and discolored white briefs down his thighs. 

"This is for Jenny." I grabbed his limp cock and bore down with my wire cutters at the root. Bearing down twice more, he would never use his cock again. Not that he would need it anymore.

Uncle Mike pushed himself off the fence and grabbed the pail. "It's done. We will take care of the rest. Strip, hose off, and get outta here. Go see your girl."

In a daze, I stripped down to my boxers and Uncle Mike walked around me checking my shorts for blood. "Go wash your arms and face with the hose. Go." As I walked around the side of the feed shed to the spigot, my uncle whistled and the snorts of the hogs grew louder. "Let'm at him. Go grab some scraps from the shed. They eat good tonight." I hosed off my arms, face, and washed off my boots then took a long drink from the hose before leaving. 

Leaning on the bed of my truck, I tried to keep my shit together. I reached into the tool chest and pulled out a Brewer Construction logoed work shirt and my white painting pants. It would have to do. I yanked my wet boots back on, hopped in the driver's seat, and headed back to the hospital as my uncle set the metal pail ablaze.

"Aubs, it’s so good to see you." 

"I wish I could say you look awesome, but you know I'm not a liar."

"Don't make me laugh, it hurts." I held one of the extra pillows against my ribs trying not to laugh. 

"If I could find an unmarked spot, I would kick your ass myself. How could you keep this from me? This monster has been after you all this time and you didn't say a word?"

"I didn't know. I wouldn't lie. I thought it was over."

"My dad found his texts on your phone going back weeks."

"They had stopped, those were old. I had blocked his number so I wouldn't even get any new messages."

“You still should have told me.”

I fiddled with the seam of the sheet as her eyes bored down on me from the side of the bed. 

“I'm sorry. I didn’t want to bother you. You have done so much for me already.”

Her face softened, and she leaned down to hug me then stopped not knowing where to touch that wouldn’t inflict pain. 

“You are never bothering me. I love you. You’re family.”

I reached out my hand, and Aubs gently held it in hers. Our bear hugs would have to wait until some of the pain subsided. 

"Max stayed with me.”

“I thought you guys weren’t speaking?”

“We weren’t. Aubs, he saved me.”

“What do you mean?” She looked puzzled.

“While Bill was beating me, all I could think of was Max. I just had to hang on a little longer so I could see him again.”

“My cousin is a jerk.”

“He might be, but, Aubs, I think I love that jerk.”

"I have never seen my cousin with anybody. So that has to say something.”

“Who said something? Did the doctor say something?” I kicked myself for leaving. I didn’t want to miss anything. I was gone too long. 

“No, nothing. I’m still broken.” Suzie gave a meek smile, wincing at her cracked lips. Aubrey dug in her purse for some lip balm and gently applied it on Suzie’s lips before tucking it next to her hip. 

“I’m gonna let you get some rest.” Aubrey held her cheek next to Suzie's and walked toward me. “You hurt her, and I will castrate you. Got it?” she whispered, glaring at me. Due to the night’s events, I knew what it was like to hold a severed human dick in my hand; I never wanted it to be mine. 

“Got it.” I had no doubt Aubrey could do it too. I had seen her in action on the ranch; she was quick and lethal with a castration bander.

I approached the bed, and Suzie reached her hand out to me. 

“You came back.”

“Aunt Kelli sent you some food. Hopefully I smell a little better too?”

“I wish I did. I just can’t move enough without hurting to take a shower. Everything hurts.”

“Maybe they can give you a sponge bath?”

“That would be nice. I feel gross.”

“I will go grab a nurse.” She grasped my hand tighter in protest. 

“No, I’m okay for now. Just sit with me.”

I pulled the chair up the side of the bed and continued to hold her small hand. 

“I’m sorry for being so hard on you. Everyone told me that Jenny was a liar,” Suzie whispered.

"That's in the past. I just want you to get better."

"I won't feel better until Bill is behind bars. Did they find him yet?"

"They will never find him. I know you don't like Jenny, but he assaulted her too."

"Is she okay? Why would he do something like that?"

"I think he thought it was you. She was at my new house. There were liquor bottles everywhere. He was probably nowhere near coherent."

"I want to press charges. This time he went too far. It was okay when it was just me, but now he is hurting random people."

My blood instantly boiled, and I raised my voice, "It is never okay for anyone to hit you. None of this is okay. He should have been stopped a long time ago. Don't ever think any of this is your fault." My chest was heaving as my fury for the douchebag grew. I couldn't believe Suzie thought this was her fault. 

Her eyes were wide, and she was trembling. I didn't want her to be scared of me too. Not when we were just reconciling.

"Baby, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice. I just don’t like seeing you like this, and why on Earth would you think you deserved this abuse?"

"I could never do anything right. I wasn't good enough."

"What didn't you do right?"

"The dishes weren't put in the right spot. His shirts weren't pressed right. He didn't like me talking to other men."

"That's just crazy, Suzie. There was something wrong with him, not you. You are perfect."

"I'm not perfect and look at me now. I'm all messed up."

"You will heal. To me, you are perfect. He didn't deserve you. Hell, I probably don't deserve you, either, but I can't imagine life without you."

I planted a chaste kiss on her lips. I didn't dare even press hard as her lips were still cracked and chapped. 

"I missed you, Max."

"Well, you don't have to worry. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

My cell phone rang and it echoed against the glass walls of the ICU room. The charge nurse promptly appeared in the door. 

"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't have your cell phone on in this wing. It's hospital policy. It effects the monitors," she said. 

"I'm sorry." I ignored the call, but a few moments later my screen flashed with a text message. 

Uncle Mike: Stay with Suzie.

Me: Don't forget to return the truck.

"Suzie, you don't ever have to worry again. He won't ever bother you again."

"I'm still gonna have to see him in court. Then what if he gets out and comes after me again?"

"Trust me. We will never see him ever again. Get some rest."

I kissed her forehead and sat down next to her and waited for her to fall asleep.