“ Always the hero aren’t you Car?” Jaime asks. Carter stares him down.

“ What the hell were you doing with her?” He asks looming over Jaime who seems unfazed.

“ I was gonna fuck her.” Jaime answers nonchalantly. Carter raises his fist and punches Jaime square in the jaw. He wrings out his hand and pulls Jaime up to him by the fabric of his shirt.

“ Why her?” He growls.

“ For the past 7 years, you have taken EVERYTHING from me. EVERYTHING. So I wanted to take everything away from you.” Jaime says as blood fills his mouth. Carter punches Jaime again. He falls to the ground. Carter walks up to Jaime and kicks him three times in the stomach. Jaime coughs up blood on my floor as he clutches his stomach. Carter punches Jaime again and he falls once more to the floor. He pulls Jaime up by his hair. Jaime groans.

“ Don’t ever. Touch her again. Or I swear to God Jaime. I will snap your neck with my bare hands.” He throws Jaime across the room by his hair and runs over to me. He peels the duct tape from my mouth and starts working on untying my hands. My sobs start again. Carter lifts his hand and wipes the tears.

“ Hey. Hey, it’s okay. It’s over. It’s all over. I’m here.” He shushes. He gets back to work untying my hands. He gets them free and I rub them to dull the redness. He goes to work on my ankles when he sees that my sweatpants are pulled halfway down. He tenses. He shakes it off and pulls them back up so he can untie my ankles. He gets my ankles free and hands me my shirt off the floor. I collapse into his arms and he holds me. Tightly. I pull his head down and crash my lips onto his. We kiss each other with such passion and need, I lose myself in the moment. His smell. His lips. His touch. He latches his hands on my hips and lifts me up.

“ Ah.” I wince. He sets me down quickly.

“ What’s wrong?” He asks frantically.

“ Nothing I’m fine.” I go to kiss him and he dodges it. He gives me a look.

“ I tried to fight him so he cut me.” I lift my shirt for him to see the cut. He looks at it and then to Jaime who’s groaning in pain on the floor. I’ve never seen such anger in someone’s eyes. He storms towards Jaime. I step in front of him.

“ Hey. Hey. Hey. No, no. Stop.” He looks down at me. “ Don’t kick him while he’s down.”

“ That’s exactly what he did to you!” He fumes. “ You should want him dead.”

“ What I don’t want is the blood to be on your hands!” I yell.

“ Fine.” He huffs. “ What do you wanna do?”

“ Just kiss me.”

“ Shay—.”

“ Kiss me.” He connects his lips to mine and everything feels right. His tongue grazes my bottom lip and I grant it permission. He moves to kissing my neck and I sigh. I tug at his hair. I start to remove my shirt. He stops my hands and pulls my shirt back down.

“ Not now. Not under these circumstances. You’re emotionally vulnerable. I will not take advantage of you.” I kiss him. My heart flutters.

“ At least get me out of here.” I say moving my hands up and down his biceps.

“ With pleasure.” He responds.

Part 10? What’d you guys think?? Please share any feedback you have about this chapter or any earlier chapters or the series as a whole! Thanks for reading another chapter! ❤️💕