I saw red.
Horror engulfed me like the sweeping wave of a fatal tsunami, ridding me of sensible thought and I yanked one final time on my restraints with a fury that was almost blinding.
What remained of the rope snapped helplessly in two.
My body responded, working too quickly for my brain to catch up. I leapt forward, grabbing the club that lay forgotten before me on the wooden floor.
Colton Hunt only had time to glance up from his son's limp body. For one split second, his eyes met mine and the blue orbs widened in horror, right before the club pummeled into the center of his face.
The force of it sent the bastard flying backwards and off his son. He lay in a mangled heap on the floor, hands clutching his face in absolute immeasurable agony. He struggled to stand, failing as his head swam and his world tilted. Crimson blood trickled down the sides of his head in endless gorgeous streams and more smothered his face like soap on a dirty sponge.
"I'll fucking slit your throat, you whor-."
The club had slammed into the side of his head before he had finished his sentence.
"The only throat that'll be slit tonight is yours, I promise," I didn't realize the cold words had slipped past my own gritted teeth till I had pounded the three feet long club into his shoulder with all the strength I could muster. His body arched in response, his mouth opening reflexively in a silent scream of agony.
It filled me with satisfaction, but the awareness of the limp boy that still lay motionless beside me, cut it short.
I raised the club above my head.
In an instant, Colton scrambled away. Fear and fury danced in his eyes as he stumbled to his feet; he blinked dazedly as the world suddenly spun and gripped the wall desperately to regain balance.
Anger filled my every cell. I lunged forward without thinking, club swinging towards its target.
This time, he caught it mid-swing. I struggled, pushing against the force of his hand that gripped the weapon. I yanked, needing to free myself, retract. The club didn't budge. Colton's stony blue eyes met mine. His lips curved into a smile; teeth, that were drenched in crimson, glinted murderously in the light as he did so.
In one final move of desperation, I ditched the club. I lunged for him instead. Before he had realized what had hit him, hands gripped his gaunt face and my legs coiled around him like a python, squeezing the life out of him with everything I had, crippling him to the floor.
My fingers pressed mercilessly into the pretty blue orbs of his eyes.
I seeked the satisfying squelch of it beneath my fingertips.
But Colton Hunt reacted with lightning speed. He grabbed my hands in an instant, prying them off him with a force that nearly detached my hands from my forearms. And then he had grabbed me, hands gripping hair and yanked violently.
The strength of it sent me hurtling off him like a weightless golf ball and I bludgeoned into the floor, shoulder breaking the fall in a blow that sent pure agony rocking through my body. Before I had so much as blinked, I was being pinned to the floor effortlessly beneath the weight of his body. I struggled against him.
Colton Hunt stared down at me, eyes wide and brimming with a chilling amalgamation of hatred, fury and unrefined madness. I saw the unmistakable intent to kill dance in his eyes and the sight filled me with a dread so deep it chilled my heart and caused my body to turn paralyzed with fear.
His fist drew back before it planted itself in my face. Colton didn't take a moment to breathe. He struck me, over and over again. He didn't speak, didn't stop, not even as burning pain overflowed my senses and rendered me numb, not even as my feeble struggling against him died away.

YOU ARE READING
How to Kill a Man in Thirty Seconds
Mystery / ThrillerSince her father's sinister murder three years ago, Charley Green's life has never been the same. She finds her family shattered and frozen in the tragedy that derailed their lives that fateful Christmas morning, in which her father's lifeless body...