When I came home late from the hospital, my husband slapped me hard and screamed, “Do you know what time it is, you useless b!.tch?

Leo raised his fist, curling his fingers into a tight ball, preparing to deliver a devastating punch to my face.

“I said get up!” Leo screamed, driving his arm forward.

But his fist never connected.

A hand the size of a catcher’s mitt—wrapped in dark leather driving gloves—shot out from the open doorway behind him. The hand gripped Leo’s wrist mid-swing with the crushing, mechanical force of a hydraulic press.

The momentum of Leo’s punch was halted instantly, his arm jolting with a sickening thud against the immovable object that had just caught him.

4. The General’s Justice

Leo gasped, a sound of profound confusion and sudden pain. He tried to yank his arm away, but it was caught in a vice grip of solid bone, sinew, and unyielding muscle.

Arthur stepped fully out of the shadows of the porch and into the warm light of the foyer.