Chapter 2 - The Iron Grip
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"Get your hands off me!" Travis grunted in shock, trying desperately to yank his arms forward, but his limbs felt like they were trapped inside a hydraulic press.
Standing behind him was Derek.
Mid-thirties, heavily built, and covered in military-grade tactical ink down his forearms, Lena’s uncle Derek didn't look like an ordinary family relative. He was an eight-year combat veteran who had spent the last five years running private maritime security abroad. To Travis, he had always just been the quiet, scary uncle who rarely came to family dinners.
Derek didn't yell. He didn't lose his temper. His breathing was dead silent, his dark eyes locked onto Travis’s jugular vein.
"Touch her again," Derek said, his voice dropping into an icy, terrifying whisper, "and you won't walk out of this house on two legs."
On the floor, Lena let out a shattered sob, curling her bruised knees to her chest. "Uncle Derek... he hit my arm... he wouldn't let me leave..."
Travis grimaced, his jaw tightening as he tried to use his body weight to push Derek off. "You don't know what she did, Derek! Stay out of this! This is between a husband and a wife in their own private home! You're trespassing!"
"Is that right?" Derek murmured coldly. With a sudden, surgical twist of his thick wrists, Derek wrenched Travis’s arm backward until the shoulder joint popped with a sickening crunch.
Travis shrieked in agony, his knees buckling as the wooden bat slipped from his paralyzed fingers.
Clatter!
The heavy bat hit the marble floor, rolling through the white ceramic shards before stopping against Derek’s combat boot.
Travis dropped to one knee, sweating profusely, panting through the pain. "You think you're tough, Derek? Call whoever you want! In this city, my father owns the district attorney! You touch me, and you spend the rest of your life in federal prison!"
Derek simply reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen was still on an active call.
👉 Who was listening on the other end of that silent phone call?
May you like
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