Life next to him 2 - H&T

Chapter 16 - Pooling View

Hardin

The banging on the door is loud enough to fill my guts with worry. I immediately sent Tessa upstairs before grabbing my gun. Carol is shifting in her sleep, as I approach her to wake her up.

"Carol... Carol. It's me. Wake up" I silently shake her shoulder. Her eyes are slowly opening but get wide right away.

"Hardin. What's wrong?" she rests herself on her elbows before another bang, makes us both turn towards the door.

"Go upstairs. Now!" I demand from her. Even though I hate using this tone with Tessa's mom, I have no idea who it might be so I need her safe and sound upstairs. She frantically nods before grabbing her sweater and dissappearing upstairs with Tessa. I'm thankful that the baby isn't making any noises so I can deal with whoever it is, without destructions.

I load the gun and close my eyes for a few seconds, forcing my adrenaline to come forward instead of my anxiety which is killing me inside. I take careful steps to the door, before opening it wide open with one shift move, my left hand never lowering the gun.

There, standing in front of me is Tessa's sorry excuse of a father. He doesn't look bothered, not one bit. As if he was expecting my "warm welcome". He only chuckles when placing his eyes on me. His face holds a mocking appearance and I want nothing more than to hit his ugly face repeatedly.

"Look what rolled out of the trash" I mock back with my words, returning the sly smile.

"Come on now Hardin. No hard feelings right?" he waves his arms and takes a step towards me.

"Take one more step, and I'll blow your head up"

"Took me a while to find you at first but here you are. I was hoping you would return the messages but no luck. How's my baby Tessa doin?" he asks, leaning on the door.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Honestly? You took a few things from me Hardin. How about I make you a deal?" he asks and chooses to walk inside. This time I let him, but the gun keeps on aiming on his head.

"You are in no place to make any kind of deals. You fucking ruined your family man, almost murdered them and let... Let shit happen to your only daughter..." I'm sobbing at this point. Moving the gun closer to his face with every word I say to him, spitting venom." How could you?"

"It's life Hardin, we all have priorities. Yea, I've made some bad choices because of my work but hey, they never had to ask for anything. I took care of them until you came along and ruined everything"

"No... No... That's not what family is about! I came along and fixed them."

"You aren't innocent here either. You were involved in the same deep shit so cut the crap with me" he says standing up from the armchair.

The tension in the air is evident, but I know that if I kill him right now, I will end up to jail without a way out of this mess. I need to think of a clever way to get rid of him once and for all.

"You said you were here for a deal. Spit it then" I say averting his attention.

"Your last stunt of bravery cost me a few millions, but I'm going to let this slide. All I'm asking is my family back, simple as that" he shrugs.

"You are kidding me right? You don't even care for them. What makes you think I'll give them up so easily?"

"That's the good part. Your parents have already suffered a loss... It's terrible" he says faking a sad smile. How does he even know about them? "Killing you isn't gonna help my case much. But killing them infornt of you... now that's fun" he smiles and I can't hold my self any longer.

I throw the gun away and lunge at him. I grab him by the collar and slam him down the ground. I'm almost certain I can hear screaming from upstairs and my heart aches for them. I'm all they have now, and if he takes me down, it's game over.

"I'll kill you, motherfucker" I spit throwing punch after punch. Even though I had an advantage at first he is quick to gain control and roll us over full force. I try to protect myself but with no avail. I partially welcome the pain, feeling as if this is my own punishment for being involved in the shit I was in the first place.

"It's a shame really" he breathes, spitting blood on my face. He has me pinned down, and his arms hold my throat in place making it difficult for me to move. "My precious daughter won't get to witness me slitting up your throat" he smirks, and then brings up his hand holding a sharp pocket knife against my neck.

God damned

I try to wiggle off him but he is stronger than me, I feel the tip of the blade around my neck, stinging it's way inside. I shut my eyes before of the excruciating pain, when all of the sudden, a loud thud halters his movements from above me and next thing I know he is been shot dead.

Everything happens in a split second, as I watch his face collapse on my chest, blood pooling everywhere and it sickens me to my core. Pushing him off me, I see two police men coming closer, trying to help me up.

"It's alright, we came just on time" one of them tells me, while the other one is asking for back up.

"How did you even..." I trail, but when I see Tessa running down the stairs and practically knocking me down, all my questions are answered. I hug her tight in my arms, letting the tears fall freely down my face. I don't even care if her dad lays there dead, I have her safe in my arms.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I ask smiling in her hair.

"I heard his voice. I knew he came here to put an end so I immediately called. I got scared, so scared Hardin"

"I'm right here baby. Let's go out for a while yeah?" I urge her to follow me. I don't want her to see them taking out her father's corpse. I feel a slight easiness in my gut, knowing that I wasn't the one ending his life , but even if it was me, it would have been self defense.

"Did he cut you?" Tessa asks, tilting my head to take a better look at my neck.

"I'm fine, don't worry. I'll put a plaster on and it's good as new" I smile gently at her, still holding her tight. I watch as the officers take out Richard, along with the medical crew and I take a deep breath I didn't know I was holding. This shit is over. He won't ever bother us again.

"How's your mom? And Bella?"

"I told them to stay upstairs. I know she heard it... but I don't have the guts to tell her. I know she still loves him Hardin, and I can't blame her"

"I know baby, I know" I kiss her and turn us around to go back inside"We can't choose who we fall in love with"

After talking a little with the officers and filing quick statements, I'm happy the extend of this thing ends here. They don't know shit about my past or Tessa's, so when we make it look like a family - hating - abuse kind of thing, they don't question us further. At least for now.

"Go check on your mom baby, I'll try to clean up this mess" I tell her and she nods. I take a minute to collect myself before grabbing a cloth and a bowl of warm water to clean up.

The place here is a gruesome thing to look at. As if someone killed a few pigs and tossed them aside. I've seen so many dead people, hell even killed a few, so this whole thing isn't going to scar me for any reason. But I don't want Tessa to get used of these things, nor Bella. Hell, nobody should. I just want a normal life with my family, no drama, no fear no nothing.

For the first time in my life, I feel joy and happiness for cleaning blood off my damn floor. As if the floor in my life and I give it a "fresh" start.