Touch My Daughter, and You Die

Chapter 008

"Don't listen to her nonsense. I'm just an ordinary soldier."

"Maybe it's because I served up north, or maybe she just thinks I'm handsome enough to deserve the title."

Wyatt quickly searched for something to say. His situation was still too complicated, and no matter how much he wanted to be honest with his father and brother, he couldn't tell them everything just yet.

"You're a good-looking guy, though. Back in Harborcrest, there used to be an annual poll for the city's most handsome men, and you always came out on top." Caleb gave Scarlet an approving thumbs-up before flashing her a mischievous grin. "I have to say, you've got great taste. So, Scarlet, when are we supposed to start planning your wedding?"

Caleb had always been a lively, sharp-tongued guy who loved teasing people. Years of hardship had forced him to hide that side of himself, but now that Wyatt had brought him and their father back from the brink, his old personality was gradually making a comeback.

"S-Scarlet..."

A deep blush spread across Scarlet's cheeks.

She had worshipped Wyatt for as long as she'd known him, admired him in a way that bordered on something more, and there had been moments when she let herself imagine it. But every time the thought crept in, she reminded herself how impossibly far apart their standings were, and she shoved the fantasy back down before it could take root.

"Don't talk nonsense. We're comrades, nothing more." Wyatt reached over and patted Caleb's shoulder, the gesture fond and careless.

The casual touch tore a yelp out of Caleb before he could stop it.

"What's wrong?" Wyatt's head snapped toward him, alarmed by the raw agony twisting his brother's face.

"I'm fine, Wyatt... really, I'm fine..." Caleb forced the words through clenched teeth, even as beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down his forehead one after another.

"Don't move."

Wyatt had spent years on battlefields. He knew what serious injury looked like before anyone had to tell him. He reached out and yanked back the fabric covering Caleb's shoulder.

What he found underneath was a ruin of torn flesh, the wound weeping and rotting, giving off a stench of decay, with pale bone showing starkly through the mess. This wasn't a single injury. It was the same wound, broken open again and again until the shoulder looked like this.

He turned immediately to his father and tore open his collar as well.

The wounds on Edmund were, if anything, worse than his son's.

"Tell me who did this."

Wyatt's eyes had gone bloodshot, his gaze sharp enough to draw blood of its own.

"Wyatt, it's enough that you came back to us. These people are not ones we can afford to cross. Before they realize what's happened, let's just go, quickly." Years of torment had hollowed Edmund out, leaving nothing behind but a quiet, settled despair. He'd listened to his sons talk and joke a moment ago without interrupting, simply because he hadn't had the heart to cut their happiness short.

"Tell me who did this."

Wyatt said it again, each word flat and final. All he wanted now was to find whoever was responsible and tear them apart piece by piece.

"That would be me, you got a problem with that?"

A man's voice, rough and booming, cut through the air from somewhere nearby. A moment later, a heavyset man with a thick, unruly beard came strolling toward them, flanked by seven or eight hulking thugs.

"The Calloway family really is useless. Can't even keep two prisoners locked down." The bearded man raked a scornful look over Edmund and Caleb as he approached.

"Wyatt, that's him!" Caleb's voice shook with a mix of fury and something closer to fear. "His name is Bruno Kessler. He's with the Greataxe Syndicate."

The years of torment he and his father had endured at this man's hands came rushing back the instant he saw that face, and Caleb's hatred flared even as an old, instinctive dread crawled up his spine.

"Your brother, is he? So you're the famous Wyatt, the one who ran off and vanished from the Hale family." Bruno's eyes lit up with something close to delight. "Well, isn't this convenient. All three of you, father and both sons, gathered in one place. Couldn't ask for better luck than this."

Plenty of factions across Harborcrest had been hunting for Wyatt these past years, all of them eager to wipe out the last of the Hale bloodline and remove any future threat for good. Bruno could hardly believe his own luck, that this very prize had simply walked into his hands. Hand him over to the crew leader, and there would be a reward worth celebrating.

"Boys, fresh meat just walked in, and a pretty little piece to go with it. Looks like we're having ourselves a good time tonight." Bruno turned to his men, grinning.

At his words, the thugs' faces lit up with excitement as their eyes roamed over Scarlet with undisguised, lecherous hunger.

Scarlet glared at them in disgust and stepped forward, ready to teach them a lesson, but Wyatt stopped her before she could make a move.

"Let me handle this," he said, stepping in front of her.

These were the bastards who had spent years torturing his father and brother, reducing them to little more than broken men. Wyatt wanted to make sure they paid for every bit of suffering they had inflicted, and nothing short of dealing with them himself could quench the rage raging inside him.

"Oh? Think you can make the first move?" Bruno's surprise lasted only a second before he barked at his men. "Get him!"

The seven or eight thugs surged forward at once.

Two sharp cracks tore through the air, then a string of wet snapping sounds followed, one after another, as the men dropped where they stood, collapsing into limp heaps that barely resembled human bodies anymore.

"That's the way to do it, Wyatt!" Caleb watched with fierce satisfaction. He'd dreamed of a moment like this more times than he could count, and now it was finally happening right in front of him.

"This... this can't be..."

Bruno's mood, however, had curdled fast. Each crack of breaking bone felt like a needle driving straight into his chest. He couldn't understand how Wyatt was doing this. Those were bones, solid human bone, snapping as easily as dry twigs under his hands. Bruno knew enough about fighting to recognize what he was seeing: most of his men's skeletons had just been shattered beyond repair. The ones still breathing would spend the rest of their lives as vegetables.

"Oh hell."

Watching his men fall one after another, Bruno clutched his head and bolted. If he didn't run now, he'd be next.

"Think you're leaving?"

Wyatt grabbed the nearest fallen thug, hauled him into the air, and sent him flying with a single kick. The man's body, well over a hundred pounds, slammed into Bruno at full force.

A wet, choking sound tore out of Bruno's throat as he crashed to the ground, blood spraying from his mouth. Wyatt closed the distance in an instant and planted his foot squarely on Bruno's chest.

"Mr. Hale... spare me... please..." The pressure on his chest felt like a boulder crushing the air out of his lungs, leaving him unable to draw breath.

"Filthy dog." He shifted his weight and brought his foot down on Bruno's shoulder, and the thick bone shattered with a crack.

"Ahh!"

"Mr. Hale, I'm a dog, I admit it, I'm nothing, just please spare this worthless life! I was only following orders, my boss told me to do it, I swear!" Bruno's scream came first, raw and pig-like, and then the begging poured out of him in a desperate flood.

"Fine, I'll let you keep breathing a little longer. Take me to your boss."

Wyatt finally lifted his foot.

"Scarlet, take my father and brother somewhere safe to rest. Stay with them. Don't leave their side for even a moment." He gave her the instruction without waiting for a response, then dragged Bruno like a sack of potatoes and tossed him into the car.

By the time Edmund and Caleb had gathered their thoughts enough to react, Wyatt had already started the engine and driven off.

"What are we going to do? The Greataxe Syndicate is not an organization anyone wants to provoke. I pray nothing happens to him..." Edmund stared after the car, his face tight with worry.

"Do you have my brother's number? Call him, tell him to come back right now." Caleb had steadied himself enough to turn to Scarlet, worry for his brother plain in his voice.

"There's no need for that." Scarlet's expression stayed calm, almost serene, as if the question itself were strange. "Harborcrest is far too small a place for anyone here to lay a hand on him."

"What..."

Both Edmund and Caleb stared at her, stunned.

Wyatt had walked off alone to take on an entire crime syndicate by himself. Surely this girl's faith in him had tipped over into something closer to blind devotion.