Chapter 1 - The Swing He Never Finished
My palm drove upward into the underside of Gregory Hartman’s jaw before the aluminum bat could complete its second swing.
His teeth snapped together.
His head jerked back.
The bat loosened in his hands for less than a second, but a second was more than I needed.
I trapped his wrist, rotated my hips, stepped behind his shoulder, and stripped the weapon cleanly from his grip.
The bat clattered once against the carpet before I caught it.
Gregory staggered backward into the edge of the bed.
His expression changed so quickly it almost fascinated me.
Confidence.
Confusion.
Then fear.
I stood between him and the locked cabin door with the bat hanging loosely in my right hand.
The cruise ship moved smoothly beneath us, carrying us farther from Florida while the man I had married forty-eight hours earlier stared at me like he had just discovered he'd brought the wrong woman to sea.
“You lied to me,” he said.
I almost laughed.
“You came at me with a baseball bat.”
“You said you worked in corporate operations.”
“I do.”
His eyes dropped to my stance.
“You never said you could do that.”
“You never asked what I did before corporate operations.”
Blood appeared along the inside of his lower lip.
He touched it and stared at his fingers.
Something ugly returned to his face.
“You hit your husband.”
“You tried to break my ribs.”
“It was a lesson.”
The words landed harder than the bat had.
A lesson.
He actually believed that.
I looked at the weapon.
Old aluminum. Scratched barrel. Black tape wrapped around the handle. This wasn’t something Gregory had picked up at a sporting goods store before the wedding.
He had packed it carefully inside a custom leather suitcase.
His father had given it to him.
This is how my dad kept my mom in line.
My stomach tightened.
Gregory took one cautious step forward.
I raised the bat six inches.
He stopped.
“Unlock the door.”
“Ashlynn.”
“Now.”
“You’re overreacting.”
“That sentence only works when nobody is holding a weapon.”
He gave me the smile I had seen at charity dinners, business receptions, and our wedding rehearsal.
Warm.
Reasonable.
Designed for witnesses.
“There’s no reason to ruin our honeymoon because we both lost our tempers.”
“We?”
His jaw flexed.
“I was trying to establish boundaries.”
“With a bat?”
“My father warned me you’d be difficult.”
There it was again.
His father.
I kept my eyes on Gregory while reaching behind me for the cabin latch.
Before my fingers touched it, I heard a faint electronic vibration.
Gregory heard it too.
His face changed.
Not fear this time.
Alarm.
I followed his eyes.
His phone was standing upright against the champagne bucket on the desk.
The camera lens faced the room.
A red recording indicator glowed on the screen.
I stared at it.
Gregory moved first.
He lunged toward the desk.
I stepped into his path.
“Don’t.”
“That’s my phone.”
“And apparently my assault.”
His face drained of color.
That was when I understood something more frightening than the bat.
Gregory hadn’t lost control.
He had prepared this.
I moved toward the phone without turning my back on him.
The recording timer showed eleven minutes and forty-three seconds.
Long enough to capture him locking the door.
Long enough to capture the threat.
Long enough to capture the bat.
Gregory suddenly stopped pretending.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Ashlynn.”
“Who were you recording this for?”
His eyes flicked toward the device again.
The screen changed.
The recording ended by itself.
Then a small cloud icon appeared.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
Gregory whispered one word.
“Damn.”
I picked up the phone.
Before he could reach me, a notification banner appeared across the screen.
VIDEO RECEIVED.
The sender wasn't a cloud service.
It was a contact.
DAD.
And beneath it was a message that made every instinct I had learned in the Marines come roaring back.
May you like
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO MAKE HER SWING FIRST.
📖 Find out why Gregory’s father needed footage of me attacking first—and what Gregory tried to claim when someone finally knocked on our cabin door in CHAPTER 2. 👇
