“Mickey!” I whip toward the sound of Bella’s shrill cry, and I see red.

Another guy—one I didn’t fucking see—has his hands around Bella’s neck and a gun aimed at her head. Tears stream down her ghastly pale cheeks, and her bottom lip quivers violently.

“You stupid motherfucker!” he snarls, throwing Bella to the side and aiming straight at me.

I drop to my haunches and lunge. A shot fires, missing me completely. Half a second later, my shoulder collides with his gut. He brings his knee up at the same time, kneeing me in the stomach, but his lack of balance has us both on the ground, grappling for the upper hand. A-fucking-gain.

First, the fucker who followed my Bella, now him?

The guy’s bigger than me, so he has me under him before I can do shit. My head swings to the side as pain splits through my jaw from the force of his punch. But he made a big mistake. He brought a fist to a knife fight.

I grab the switchblade from my pocket and bury it into his side just as he lands another punch. The bigger ones are always slower to react.

He rears back, grunting in pain, but he doesn’t stop trying to hit me. Removing my knife, I jam it into his side again.

Crimson warmth pools on my stomach, but I don’t get the chance to stab him a third time before he’s whipped to the side. Standing beneath the fading light of the sun is my very own saving grace, holding a spare wooden plank in her hands.

He reaches back to grab her, but she swings again, this time making us both grunt as a splinter lodges itself into my arm. She screams when he attempts to grab her in his disorientated state. Then I’m on him, ignoring the pain in my arm as I sink my blade into him over and over again.

I lost count at six stabs. I can still picture the gun pressed to Bella’s head—my Bella—and the fear in her eyes that she might be the next one to have a bullet in her.

The asshole falls onto me, limp, but I’m not done.

“He’s dead,” Bella cries.

I shove him over and keep stabbing and slicing. Chunks of flesh peel away from this pathetic man’s body. All there is—all I see—is red. Blood. Rage. It isn’t enough.

He put his hands on her. He was going to kill her. He was going to take my Bella away from me.

“Mickey, stop,” Bella sobs, dragging my attention away from the carnage.

Her big brown eyes dart around, from the blood all over me, to the knife, to the two men and the fallen gun. Over and over and over. Each time she does the rotation, the air grows thicker with her terror. She steps back when I step forward.

No. Not this shit again.

She keeps stepping back, though I don’t let her get far. There’s no way I’d let her out of sight after what we did today. She accepted me. She chose me. I’m not going to let her forget that.

I can’t lose her. I won’t.

The knife clatters to the ground as I grab her hand and root her to the spot before she can go any further.

“Bella.” I grip her chin and force her to turn away. “Look at me, okay? Not at him. You did such a good job hitting him.”

“You—” she gasps for breath, glancing down at the blood covering me with wide, frantic eyes. “You—you slaughtered him. Just…” Her eyes dart around like she’s trying to figure out what to say. “Just like you did to Greg and Marcus.”

I sink to my knees before her, feeling the wet earth seep into my pants as I tug her hands to my chest, ignoring the way the splinter digs deeper into my skin. “Do you see what I’d do for you? You drive me crazy—I’m fucking crazy. For you. Only you. Tell me you get that. Tell me you get that?”

She shakes her head slowly.

No, no, no, no. She can’t look away from me. She has to see me, see that there isn’t a line I wouldn’t cross for her.

“I did this for us, Bella. For you.” I try to pull her down with me, but she refuses to move. Refuses to pull her attention away from the corpses. “Look at me.”

“How many?” she shudders out. “When will people stop dying around us?”

“No one else was meant to die.” That you needed to know about. “I don’t know how they got here or why they were here. You have to believe me. This wasn’t part of the plan. I didn’t tell anyone about this place.”

She tries to snatch her hands away, but I don’t let her. “What is the plan then, Mickey?”

“To stay here.” Just until we figure out what we want to do. The place needs a lot of work, and I didn’t have time to fix everything before I got here.

“And then what?” she snaps.

“We’ll figure it out.” Leave, go somewhere new, get a fresh start.

She looks at me blankly, fear gone from her eyes. “We’ll figure it out,” she echoes. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath. “So you’re telling me that you planned to do up a house, break into my house, torture and kill Marcus and Greg, then tie me up and kidnap me, but not what to do afterward?”

I can’t help it, I grin. Those were all greatly executed things she listed. “Well, I didn’t plan on tying you up. That was just an added bonus.”

Wrong thing to say.

That was definitely the wrong thing to say.

I’m pretty sure there’s steam coming out of her ears. She’s so cute when she’s angry. Her face goes red, and she does this little scrunch with her nose, always cocking her hips, all sassy. The best part? Her attention is completely on me. Score.

“An added bonus,” she says slowly, wrapping her tongue around each syllable like she’s making sure she says it right. “An added bonus?” There’s a flare with how she says the words. And now, cue the fireworks. “An added bonus? You—”

“Baby, you’re so good at repeating things.”

At this rate, she might shoot me. I could blame my stupidity on the combination of post-coital bliss, blue balls, and bloodlust. I said she’s cute when she’s angry, right? Because shit, even the way her eyes light up is adorable. Bella’s like a mad little puppy that, though she can be mad all she likes, she’s stuck with me.

For the second time, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, muttering to herself, “No, nope. I’m not going to go there.”

I nip her finger, and she snaps her eyelids open. “Let’s go there, baby.”

“No, Mickey, we will not be going there. So, pray tell, what did you see as the exit plan if and when someone came knocking on the door, and you had to kill them.” She’s practically vibrating with barely restrained anger. It’s kinda hot, but I don’t like the tone she uses. It reminds me of a teacher telling a kid off.

Rising onto my feet, I attempt to wrap her arms around my neck, but she refuses to comply. So instead, she stands there, stiff as a board, while I hold her waist. But she doesn’t lean back when I close the distance, so there’s only an inch between our faces.

“I guess we’re going to Mexico, baby.”

Her jaw drops, completely floored by my response, and suddenly, she’s all wiggle-and-fight-Mickey again, slapping my arms and shrugging out of my grasp.

Fine, I’ll let her have this little victory.

I let go, and she goes flying back, crossing her arms with a crazed expression. “My mother almost died trying to get out of that country, and you want us to go there voluntarily.”

I squint at her, considering her point. “You’re right. Well, I hope you like maple, mooses, and mountains then. Canada, here we come.”

“Moose,” she corrects. “The plural of moose is moose.”

“You’re so sexy when you get all nerdy on me.” I wink.

Narrowing her eyes, she does that cute nose scrunch. “How do you expect us to go there? I’m probably on the missing persons' list right now—there’s probably an ABB on me! Not to mention, we have no money.”

“It’s APB. And, Bella, you can question a lot of things, but don’t doubt my ability to make you happy.”