Chapter Twenty-One
Once home, I stumbled into the house on shaky legs and headed straight to the downstairs bathroom where I stood in front of the sink. I didn’t need to flip on the overhead light to see the injuries marring my face, but I did it anyway.
My busted lip had stopped bleeding on the way home, but my bruised cheek was still swollen and throbbed like the dickens. Dirt and gravel dust covered my torn clothes, and tear stains streaked my cheeks. To put it mildly, I looked terrible.
Fresh tears welled in my eyes as I leaned back against the bathroom wall, unable to keep the horrible memories from flooding back. It had been twenty years since the last time I’d seen a woman’s face looking so battered and bruised. But that time it had been my mother who had taken a beating, and she’d only done so because she had been protecting her only child from harm.
My knees buckled, and I allowed myself to slide down the wall until my butt hit the cold bathroom floor. I wrapped my arms around my bent legs and buried my face into my knees, sobbing uncontrollably. I hated that I could still remember that horrible night so vividly.
That night, my dad had come home drunk once again and had gotten upset that I had left my bicycle in the driveway. He’d run it over to teach me a lesson, but that hadn’t curbed his anger any. He was still raving mad when he had come inside, and I’d heard his ranting all the way up in my bedroom.
When he started up the stairs to take a belt to me, my mother blurted out that she had left the bike in the drive, not me. It was a lie, and he knew it. But he beat the hell out of her anyway, saying that if she wanted to take a beating for me, then he would give her one to remember. And he had. While I had hidden in my closet and waited for the silence to return.
When the sounds of him yelling and her crying finally died down, I’d slipped from my room and crept downstairs. There, I’d found my mother slumped on the floor, barely able to see me out of her swollen eyes. He had hit her so hard that her bottom lip had split almost in half and it trembled relentlessly as she lay there helplessly watching her eight-year-old daughter call the police on her own father, all the while worrying that he might walk back into the room at any moment and beat on me, too.
The cops had arrived shortly after and found my dad passed out on the bed in nothing but his plaid boxers. He’d left my mother lying helplessly on the floor like an injured dog while the bastard climbed into the comfort of their bed to sleep off the drinking binge he’d went on. It hadn’t been the first time.
As the sheriff deputy led my dad out of the house in handcuffs, I’d stepped in front of him and told him in no uncertain terms that I would put rat poison in his food if he ever came near my mother again.
Though it was the last time we ever saw him, even now I wasn’t dumb enough to believe that a threat by a little girl would’ve kept him away. But the restraining order my mother placed on him the next morning and the amount of jail time he served after that had done the job.
A sound came from the other room, and I lifted my head peering at the open doorway. Urgent footsteps swept through the house, as if someone was swiftly running from one room to another in search of something. My heart rate increased, and I stilled.
I wasn’t concerned that Jeremy had followed me home. Even he wasn’t that stupid. Not only had I installed video cameras outside my home, but he knew damn well that I owned a gun that I kept safely tucked away for protection. It would be suicide for any man to come at me like he had earlier while I was in the vicinity of my weapon. Mostly because I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. Jake, Cowboy, Ox, and Judd had made certain of that years ago.
But what had me freezing in place was that I knew the sound of those footsteps, since they’d grown so familiar over the past few months. But unfortunately, they belonged to the one man I didn’t want to find me looking like this.
Seth.
I propped my elbows on my knees and rested my forehead against my hands, waiting for the inevitable. Seconds later, the footsteps grew louder until they came to a stop in the doorway of the bathroom I was in.
Seth released a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Please, Bobbie. Just hear me out, okay?” When I didn’t respond, he continued. “I’m sorry, baby. I never meant for any of this to happen. If I had known my presence in your life would’ve put you or Austin in danger, I would’ve stayed away. You have to believe that.”
I closed my eyes. “I do,” I whispered.
“Good. Because it’s true. But I want you to know I’m going to fix this. I promise I’ll keep both of you safe. You won’t have to worry about Bishop getting anywhere near Austin.”
Though he couldn’t see it, a tear rolled down my cheek. “Or Jeremy,” I whispered.
Seth grunted under his breath. “I could scalp that bastard for letting Austin out of his sight. What the hell was he thinking? What kind of father neglects his child like that?”
He paused, as if he was waiting for an answer, but I didn’t speak.
Though my son was safe for the time being, I knew Seth and I were not out of the woods yet, figuratively speaking. Going to Jeremy’s alone to confront him when he’d been drinking hadn’t been the smartest move on my part. And Seth was going to go nuts when he realized what had come of it. But it wasn’t like I could keep it from him. One look at my face, and he would see the evidence of what had happened to me.
“Bobbie?” His tone carried a note of concern.
Before I could answer him, he moved forward and kneeled down on the bathroom floor next to me. He was so close that his leg brushed against mine, but I kept my head lowered as I tried to stop the tears from leaking out. It wasn’t working.
He must’ve spotted the red marks on my arms and the bloody scrapes on my elbow because suddenly his fingers were grazing lightly over each of them. Then he carefully slid one finger under my chin and slowly turned it toward him until my gaze lifted and met his.
One glance at my face in the dim light and his eyes narrowed, darkening with intense rage. “Did Bishop do this to you?”
I shook my head.
“Tell me who.”
I swiped the tears off my cheeks and released a hard breath. “I…I went by to see…Jeremy.”
“That sonofabitch.” Seth’s brutal gaze took in my torn clothing, and his lethal eyes went wild. “Did he force you to…” He paused, took a deep breath, and steeled himself to start again. “Did he force himself on you?”
I believe he was trying to soften his tone, but the hostile strength in his voice still sent a shiver up my spine. “No,” I told him, wincing. “B-but he…tried.”
His body erupted off the floor like an active volcano, and he shot into a standing position. “That bastard. I’m going to saw his goddamn head off.”
“No, don’t. I’m going to take care of this myself. I’m going to file a police report and get a restraining order on him.”
“Don’t bother. That motherfucker isn’t going to live long enough for you to fill out the paperwork.” He turned to leave.
I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and struggled to my feet. “Seth, stop. You can’t go over there flexing your muscles and acting like some tough guy. That’s exactly what he wants. Just leave it alone.”
He turned back to me. “If you think for one second that’s what I’m about to do, then you obviously don’t know me very well.” Seth stormed out of the room.
I waited a moment, resting against the door. But the overwhelming silence disturbed me. There was no telling what he would do. So I finally went after him and caught up with him just as he was coming out of his room with a knife in his hand. He had changed his clothes and stopped long enough to thrust it into his boot.
Oh shit. “Seth, what are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he snarled, taking giant strides toward the door. I tried to get in his way, but he moved me aside with ease. “That’s not going to work. He’s not getting away with putting his hands on you. Not this time.”
“Please stop. You can’t go over there.”
But he was way past the point of listening to reason. “Stay here and lock the door behind me. I’ll be back soon.” With fierce determination shining in his eyes, he darted out the door and headed straight for Junior’s truck.
I just stood there. Seth didn’t know where Jeremy lived. Then again, Liberty was a pretty small town, and he was determined and resourceful. He was bound to find the place sooner or later. Probably sooner, if Junior told him where he could find him. And chances were good that he would the moment Seth told him that Jeremy had attacked me.
I broke the promise I’d made to myself by running to my phone and punching in Jake’s number. I hadn’t asked a single person for help—well, not counting tonight with Austin—since I’d bought this old house, and I hated doing it now, but I didn’t have a choice.
Seth wasn’t someone to be reckoned with. He meant business and was out for blood. Jeremy’s blood, specifically. The only chance I had of stopping Seth from killing the idiot was to call in reinforcements.
…
I must’ve pulled into the driveway only moments after the rest of them because I got there in time to see Jake, Cowboy, Judd, and Ox forming a line in front of Seth under the security light in the front yard. They were blocking the furious path Seth was blazing up to Jeremy’s house. Thankfully, I didn’t see Jeremy anywhere, but I threw open my car door and hurried to get out, anyway.
Jake held up a hand up to Seth to halt his forward progression. “Whoa, stop right there. What’s going on, Seth?”
“I’m going to kill the sonofabitch, that’s what going on.” Seth tried to maneuver around Jake, which had him and the rest of my boys shifting their positions to keep Seth from getting through their barricade. “Get out of my way,” he growled, a hint of violence coloring his tone.
“Not until you tell us what happened.”
Jeremy must’ve heard all of the commotion of the vehicles pulling up outside because he stepped out of the house and onto the dirt path leading up to his front porch. The demented bastard knew exactly why Seth was there, and Jeremy stood there smirking as if he found all of this comical. As usual, he was getting off on the drama he’d caused.
Seth caught sight of Jeremy and immediately reacted. He bum-rushed the boys to get through their blockade, and damn it, he almost made it. But they somehow managed to hold him off and keep him from getting through. “Get the fuck out of my way,” he said through gritted teeth as the fury all but cascaded off his trembling body.
Jake shook his head. “What the hell is this about, Landry?”
Seth scowled. “It’s personal. This is between me and him,” he said, nodding to Jeremy. “That’s all you need to know right now.”
Cowboy shook his head. “Well, there has to be some good reason as to why you’re here ready to kick the shit out of—” The moment I walked up, he took one look at me and stopped talking.
All four of my boys stared at my battered face and torn clothing in stunned silence as the pieces of the puzzle finally clicked into place. Jake gently grasped my chin, turning my damaged face from side to side to see how badly I was injured. “Bobbie?” he said, as if he was asking some unknown question.
Tears welled in my eyes, and my voice cracked. “I’m f-fine.”
Jake dropped his hand and cast a furious glance over his shoulder at Jeremy, then back to me. “He did this to you?”
I sniffled a little, and then bit my lip and nodded. A lone tear escaped and ran down my bruised cheek, but I quickly swiped it away and lifted my chin. “I’m fine,” I repeated.
Jake continued to stare at me for a moment, and then he twisted his head toward Seth. “Kill the sonofabitch for all I care.” Without hesitation, Jake stepped aside, moving out of Seth’s path.
My heart pounded against my rib cage as the other guys followed Jake’s lead and all of them took a neutral step back to allow Seth to pass through. And he didn’t pass up the opportunity. Almost immediately, Seth headed in the direction of his target.
Hot panic flashed through me. “Seth, no! I’m begging you not to do this. Please!”
But it was too late. Seth was already stalking toward Jeremy like a predator zeroing in on his prey. Nothing short of a tranquilizer gun was going to stop him now.
“Jesus. You guys can’t stand there and let him do this.”
“The hell we can’t. That asshole put his hands on you,” Ox said, glaring across the yard at Jeremy as Seth closed in on him. “If you ask me, he deserves whatever the hell Seth does to him.”
“God, you don’t get it. He’s going to kill him.”
That didn’t seem to bother them much, if at all. Maybe they thought he wouldn’t really do it, but I knew Seth too well to think for one second that Jeremy would walk away from this encounter alive. And that scared the hell out of me.
Either Jeremy didn’t know that he was in grave danger, or he didn’t give a shit. “I’ve been waiting for you to show up. I figured you would stop by to defend the little cocktease.” He didn’t even wait for Seth to throw the first punch. Instead, Jeremy aimed a blow directly at Seth’s head.
With surprising speed, Seth deflected it and landed a solid punch across Jeremy’s jaw that knocked him backward onto the ground. He tried to sweep Seth’s feet out from under him, but Seth managed to maintain his foothold and grasped Jeremy by his shirt before delivering several quick, sharp jabs repeatedly into his face with perfect precision.
My eyes pleaded with Jake to end it all. “You have to stop this.”
Unfortunately, it was like talking to a brick wall. Jake shook his head, making it clear that he wouldn’t budge from his position. To all of them, this was Jeremy getting what he deserved. But what none of them understood was that I wasn’t trying to protect Jeremy. I was trying to protect Seth.
The last thing I wanted was for him wind up in prison for killing someone all because he was defending me. My stomach tied into knots.
Jeremy got a hit in, but Seth didn’t even flinch. The man was like a runaway freight train that couldn’t be stopped. But when Seth planted his boot into Jeremy’s ribs and the cracking sound vibrated through me, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to do something. Anything.
So I did the only thing I could think of. Panicking, I blurted out, “Leprechaun.”
Jake, Cowboy, and Ox looked at me as if I had lost my mind, while Judd glanced to the ground, as if he’d expected to see a little bearded man dressed in green with a pot of gold running by. Of course, none of them knew the meaning behind the word, and I didn’t really give a damn to explain it. The word was meant for Seth, and thank God, it had done the trick and given him pause to contemplate what I’d just said.
Frozen in place, Seth’s hostile eyes turned onto me. “What did you say?”
I tried to slow my erratic breathing as I raised my voice. “You heard me. I said Leprechaun.”
His mouth pursed as his furious eyes narrowed in my direction. He shook his head. “No. You don’t get to use that here.”
He was pissed, but I didn’t care. “Bullshit. You said I could use it anytime I wanted. You swore to me that you would stop whatever you were doing if I said it, no matter what.”
“I know, but—”
“No matter what, Seth. You promised. Are you going back on your word?”
He glared at me in silence, then his eyes shifted back to Jeremy. He fisted his hand tightly, and for a moment, I thought he was going to punch him again. But instead, he lowered his head. “No.”
Thank God.
But before he walked away, Seth pulled Jeremy up roughly by the collar of his shirt. “She saved you this time, shit-for-brains, but if you ever lay another hand on her, there won’t be enough fucking people in this town to save you. You hear me? Nothing will save your sorry ass.”
Jeremy spat blood onto the ground. “You want her? You can have her. I’m done…with all of you.” He twisted his head toward me. “You want me to sign away my parental rights? Fine. Consider it done. I never wanted that fucking kid anyway.”