Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Jay was a good person,” my father bellowed.
My father was obviously trying to protect my mother…just like he always did.
Jesus Christ.
In between one breath and the next, my father was being pushed back by the big, scary man covered in tattoos. His name was Ghost, and he seriously scared the crap out of me at times.
Ghost pushed my father back until there was more than two feet of space between them, but that only made room for my mother to step in.
“He was my baby and that monster beat him to death,” my mother screeched, throwing her arm out and pointing toward Tobias.
Audrey took a step forward, but there Tobias was, catching her around the waist before she could get closer to the vile woman—IE my mother.
“You think that your son didn’t deserve that?” Audrey asked, deceptively calm. “Let me tell you something. Had my brother been there when I was raped, he would’ve done the exact same thing.” She was shaking in anger at that point. “Then again, maybe it’s okay in your book that your son raped a young girl for years. A girl around the same age as your daughter. Hell, it could’ve just as easily been your daughter.” Audrey pointed to the side of the room.
He did.
Those words reverberated in my skull.
I felt bile rising in my throat, and what little I was able to eat over the last half hour started to churn in my belly.
Ghost grunted in approval at Audrey’s words.
I felt like my eyes were bouncing everywhere, and I wasn’t sure where to look or what to do.
I let my eyes flit around the room when I heard all the gasps from the other diners. It almost caused me to miss the way my mother stepped forward and tried to slap her hand across Audrey’s face.
She would have, too, since Ghost was still blocking my father’s path.
I, however, did not miss it.
I was up off the floor and across the space so fast that my feet tripped over each other in my haste to get there before my mother could make a mistake that she couldn’t come back from. The moment I grabbed her arm, she swung. And due to my unbalanced feet, I flew with my mother’s momentum.
I was a small woman. Much smaller than my father and mother.
About five-foot-one if I wore my tennis shoes, and a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet.
Which happened to be why I went flying to the floor very ungracefully.
With her target out of her way, my mother then switched to a different objective.
She balled up her fist and let it fly.
Tobias took it. Didn’t try to step out of the way. Didn’t try to block it like I knew he could.
Her balled up fist hit his eye, and I knew instantly that it hurt just by the sound her fist made when it made contact with his skin.
His head didn’t even rock with the hit, but I could tell that my mother was proud of herself.
“I let you have that one hit for your son, Mrs. Shaw,” Tobias said very carefully. “But that will be the last one you get. Shaw—Jay,” he corrected since he knew my mother hated it when he called him Shaw, “was your son. I realize that, but what you don’t seem to understand is that he committed the ultimate act of violence against my sister. He did it repeatedly and right under my nose for years. I walked in on him in the act of raping her. Trust me when I say that he deserved what he got, and I’d never change what I did, even given the option. My sister’s gone. Your son’s gone. It’s time for you to stop acting like a raving lunatic over something that you know can’t be changed. I’m sorry that he did what he did and it led us to where we are now. I’m sorry that this happened to all of us. But it’s time to stop taking it out on me when you know in your heart that you’d have done the same damn thing had you been in my situation.”
My mother didn’t reply, but I could tell that she wanted to.
Her angry eyes were practically brimming with accusations that she wanted to scream at him.
But luckily, Ghost saved her from looking like a fool.
“It’s time to go. Cops are here.”
My mother’s head whipped around, and I gasped. I hadn’t even realized that they were there.
Bad Krisney. You know better than that, I scolded myself.
“Ma’am, sir,” said the cop, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. “I’ll be escorting you out now.”
“Why not him?” my mother hissed.
The cop looked to where she was pointing. “I saw you hit him, ma’am. I’ve already questioned a few of the patrons about what they witnessed, and they’ve told me that this man only came over here to defend his girlfriend.”