chapter thirty four

tatums left foot quickly and urgently began tapping against the floorboard of his sedan as he briskly weaved through the beginning of lydias neighborhood. he knew that this is where she would go, but he knew that it was to no avail. her mother and father were in washington, as that is where lydias birth parents resided.

tatum thought it was funny, really. lydias parents never told anyone that she was missing, it would've been too much of a neighborhood gossip show for their household. so instead of getting the police involved in the search for their daughter, they flew to the only place they thought she could've been. he found her parents to be stupid, as there would be no way for lydia to know about her parents. she wouldn't have any possible way to know unless the only other person that knew about the situation, being tatum himself, told her. and there was no way he would be telling her anything related to that.

his job was to protect her, not to destroy her.

tatums heart fluttered in his chest as he approached his littles house, gleaming at the thought of her being in his reach again. she was all he needed in order to be calm, and not that fucking medicine. without her his brain refused to stay quiet for longer than a brief moment, and his stomach felt as though it was being stabbed. and although he was unaware, he would become a lot more familiar to this feeling.

that's the only thing that went through his head, beaming loudly off the walls of his brain. he felt like he couldn't see straight, and not including the liquor, he couldn't. tatum didn't know it, but he was going through an episode. hell, the moment he set eyes on the two in front of him, he began to unknowingly experience an episode.

the two stood closely together in the doorframe of the large house, sending staggers of anger through tatums spine. he knew exactly who his little was with, and he wished for nothing more than punching him in the jaw the first time he saw him with his little. tatum still hadn't figured it out, who was this boy? he didn't care. all that ran through tatums mind was death, and he wanted it nothing more than to happen now.

quietly stepping out of the car, tatum approached the two. his footsteps were unheard to the two in front of him, due to the fact that he had left in such a rush he had only been wearing socks. he was grateful for this in the moment though, as it had made him almost undetectable. with slow breaths, tatum watched them calmly. his little seemed uninterested in the contact with the boy, which eased tatum a bit, but not much at all. she was being such a good girl.

however, the slow movement of her hand to the boys back sent tatum absolutely over the edge, and he decided that he simply could not wait to end what was occurring in front of him. walking into plain sight for the couple to see, tatum rose his firearm in the air towards the two.

he growled through gritted teeth.

and without second thought, tatum unlocked the gun and slammed his finger against the trigger. a sudden scream was followed by the drop of the heaviness of a body, and tatums mind became red. he couldn't bring himself to stop firing, so he didn't. in fact, the only thing that brought him to stop in his rage was the thought of his sweet little. and with this, he had realized what he had done.

with the faint sound of small sweet whimpers, tatums head shot up to the girl shaking in fear in front of him. he had no second thoughts, he had no time to make second thoughts. with a swift swipe of his arm, he picked up his sweet girl by the waist.

he cooed.

the girl flopped motionless in his arms as he made his sprint to his vehicle with her in hand, which was followed by the quick buckling of his little's seatbelt. after slamming the passenger side door with lydia inside of it, he ran to the driver side of his car with ease. he wasn't even taking the time to process what he was doing, he just knew he needed to leave. and with the quick push on the gas, that's exactly what he did.

-

"you're okay baby, you're not hurt. i wouldn't hurt you, little." the boy standing above her quietly hummed into her ear. lydia looked around confusingly, taking in her surroundings.

"w- what's going on?" she questioned softly, slightly grabbing a grip onto the tall boys hand.

"you fell, baby. daddy took care of it, my love." he stammered, roughly gripping her hand back in response.

and when lydia softly nodded in response, he relaxed. tatum couldn't stand the thought of his little remembering anything that had to do with the nature of the last twenty four hours. do you know how scared she would be of him? she couldn't know. so in return, he made sure she didn't.

on the way home from the incident, tatum took extreme notice to the motionless daze his little was under. he had never seen her like that before. the small girl sat silently, gazing in front of her, sitting still as a rock for the entire drive. tatum didn't feel bad for what he did for river, he did however feel bad for doing it in front of his little. he knew she wasn't fit to see things like that, as she didn't even like turning away from simple butterflies.

so tatum did what he did best, he helped his little.

once the two had arrived back at his home, he sat his little down on the couch. she was still unresponsive of course, but that was okay with tatum. in fact, he needed her to be like this for the moment. tatum mixed lydias favorite drink, apple juice, with benzodiazepines mixed into the rims. this would ensure drug induced amnesia for the girl, which is exactly what it did.

"good girl, baby." he cooed into her ear as she drank from the glass he held up to her mouth.

lydia would then fall asleep, and would not be heard from for the next hour or two. and so when she woke up with a confused gaze, tatum was relieved beyond expression. her little brain was worth salvaging, he felt that his was not.

I LOVE HOW EXCITED U ALL WERE WHEN I UPDATED IT MADE ME SO HAPPY TO HEAR FROM U GUYS AGAIN

working on the next update rn don't u worry