Chapter 1.

The banging on the wall and terrified screams jerked Mona out of the first good sleep that she'd had in weeks which annoyed her. Very badly, and this time Mona wasn't going to be the nice girl about it.

Shoving back the thick covers , she rolled over and looked at the red numbers on the bedside alarm clock. 2 a.m.

"I can't effing believe this." Mona got out of the bed, slipped her feet inside leather slippers and started outside, but then she stopped and thoughtfully looked at the guncase on the dresser but changed her mind.

Instead, she grabbed the Louisville slugger from the closet and hefted it once to gauge it's potential strength before letting herself outside her apartment.

The hallway light was flickering, as usual, because the landlord hadn't gotten around to changing it like he'd promised two weeks ago and the area smelled very strongly of urine and burned cabbage.

This building had been constructed in the 1940's but now it was a sad replica of it's former glory just like the neighborhood.

The paint was peeling from the walls in giant flakes, the hallway carpeting had been ripped up but instead of doing something worthwhile to the natural hardwood floors the landlord had let it become dull and stained with ground in filth.

Mona lived in 2C, right next to the Sanchez family in 2D and now she banged on their door with the bat, sincerely hoping that it was Mr. Sanchez who answered the door because that idiot was nothing but a big, bully who liked to beat up his wife and teenaged daughter.

A second later, there was the rattle of chains and the click of the lock being turned and then the door was snatched opened by a frightened Maria Sanchez, their daughter.

Mona's eyes narrowed as she searched the girl's face for signs of fresh bruises and blood and finding none, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"He's beating mom." Maria said in a trembling voice full of fear and worry. She was seventeen years old although very small for her age.

Her big, brown eyes reminded Mona of those big eyed girl paintings and the sadness in them cranked up Mona's protective instincts.

"Where?" She asked.

"The bedroom." Maria said, pointing toward the back of the house.

"Call the cops." Mona said and stepped inside the messy house where broken furniture littered the front room.

Obviously the fight had started here first, probably earlier in the day too judging by the severity of the ruined furniture and over turned tables.

As she neared the bedroom, Ella Sanchez's screams intensified mixed in with the furious bellows of her husband, Carlos Sanchez, and Mona wondered if the bat would be enough and regretted leaving her glock nine millimeter behind in the gun case.

The bedroom door was wide opened and there was Carlos, bending over his cowering wife with his fist raised to finish bloodying her face. Mona had time to note that he was still in his blue uniform that had the name of the car garage where he worked written across the back, however poor

Mrs. Sanchez was naked and laid out on their bed like a sack of meat, her long, black hair was falling around her face as she feebly attempted to protect herself against her enraged husband.

Anger and fright for the woman nearly made Mona breathless but then the anger blazed forth and her eyes glittered like diamonds, raising the bat she yelled in her most commanding voice,

"Leave her alone, Carlos!"

At the sound of his name being yelled, the big man wheeled around in shock and then the shock was replaced with contempt as he saw who had said it.

Slowly lowering his fist, he rubbed the skinned knuckles and looked Mona up and down before his eyes registered the bat which made him laugh.

"What are you going to do with that thing?" There was a total lack of fear in his heavily accented voice as he straightened up and glared at her. "And what the eff are you doin' in my house puta?"

"I'm here to stop you from making a bad mistake Carlos." Mona's tone was grim, and her eyes were cold. "Now step away from your wife. Better yet, why don't you just do us all a favor and leave."

"This ain't your business." He said. "That's the problem with you lesbians, you can never mind your own business. What? You wish you was a man so bad? So you wanna be a man?"

While speaking, he slowly and menacingly approached her and began rolling up his sleaves as if getting ready to rip her open a new one.

Mona knew that if she showed one instance of fear, Carlos wouldn't even have to touch her, he'd already won the battle. So she widened her stance, tensed her shoulders and firmly wrapped her fingers around the grip of the bat.

What this jerk didn't know is that amongst other things, Mona had batted for a women's baseball team regularly before deciding to go into the personal security business.

Carlos charged at her at the last second, hoping to catch her off guard which didn't fool her because he'd telegraphed his intentions and now Mona

swung the bat, aiming for his right thigh instead of his head because she didn't come over here to kill this jerk even though he more than deserved it for what he was doing to his wife.

The bat connected with a meaty, thumping sound, and there was a crack as something inside of Carlos's thigh let go and that side of his body went limp and he stumbled and finally went down.

Mona felt the jolt from hitting him, running from wrist to shoulder and a second later a tingling set in but she held onto the bat just in case Carlos didn't stay down that first time around, but he did stay down.

Hard.

The floor actually shook from the impact of his 6ft 3 and nearly three hundred pound body crashing onto it and he spent a long moment rolling around on the floor, holding onto his leg and screaming in pain.

"Ouch! You stupid b#tch!" He roared, glaring at her from the floor with wet and furious eyes.

"Carlos? Do me a favor and don't try to get up." Mona's voice was shaking only a little, although she was breathing hard.

"How can I get up? You just broke my entire right leg!" He moaned, beginning to pant from the intense pain. Sweat stood put on his dark face and rolled into his thick beard and grimacing, he held onto his thigh as if trying to put it back together again like it was a child's Lego toy or something.

Mona felt zero sympathy for him. He didn't deserve sympathy, a long time in the deepest, darkest prison didn't even seem like a good enough punishment for an abusive slug like him.

There were very few things about human kind which Mona hated, however a woman abuser ranked right up there with animal cruelty and child abuse.

"The entire leg isn't broken and even if it was, you'd live." Mona said crisply and then cautiously stepped around him, giving herself room to avoid him if Carlos tried to grab her, she walked over to the bed to see about his wife who had either fainted or ...died.

Lord, she hoped not.

"Mrs. Sanchez?" Mona said, anxiously peering into the bloody mess that had one time been a normal and very pretty face.

A soft moan escaped the swollen mouth and Ella painfully opened her eyes and tried to sit up.

"Please, just try to relax. Don't move around so much, Okay? " Mona said quickly.

"Where...where's Maria?" Mrs. Sanchez asked weakly.

"She's okay." Mona said, happy to have something positive to tell the poor woman and it was at that moment when the young woman rushed inside the room saying, "The cops are on their way."

Mona quickly moved away from the bed, saw Maria staring at her father with wide eyes and then she grabbed her by the arm and lead her outside the bedroom.

"Listen, everything's going to be okay now, but it won't be if your mom decides to stay here. You're gonna have to be the strong one, Maria, because I don't think that your mom will leave him."

Fresh tears seeped from Maria's eyes as she listened to Mona. "I really, really wanna leave." She sniffled, and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "But you're right about mom, she always takes him back."

"Well, I don't know why some women are like that, but they are. You're going to have to help her see that the next time, Carlos might go to far.

He could kill her, do you understand me? There are people that you can talk to. The police will tell you more about it when they show up."

"Are you leaving?" Maria asked because Mona was going towards the front door and now she turned back and flashed a smile, "No. I'm just going to check and see if the cops are here."

"Thanks, so much for helping us." Maria said when Mona had returned. "You're so brave, Miss Mona. I could never be as brave as you."

"Yes you can." Mona said swiftly. Carlos began to yell curses from the bedroom and Maria looked back down the hall, terrified of him. She was shaking, and nervously rubbing her arms.

"Can I please come live with you, Miss Mona?" The girl asked.

"I think it's best if you stay and help your mom, she's really going to need you. But I'll always be right next door if you need me.

Hey, don't worry so much about Carlos. He's going to jail this time."

Mona said firmly and then she walked over and hugged the girl really tightly until the cops arrived.