“And you could tell all that by just looking at her?” Braxton scoffed. “Give me a fuckin’ break. And butt out of my goddamn marriage.”
“You’re probably not going to be married long if you keep that shit up,” I grumbled darkly, following where I thought I saw the flash of red hair in the parking lot, disappearing deeper into the shadows.
“How about you let me worry about my marriage to my wife and get off my sac.” Braxton shoved hard.
But I was ready for him and whirled sideways just in time to miss the fist that he’d aimed at my face.
When he went off-balance, I continued to use his momentum to carry him across the parking lot to where I could now see Luce’s car.
I’d just rounded the side of a large SUV when I saw a foot disappear underneath a car.
My heart started to pound as I said, “Oh fuck.”
I started to run, only to find every last item Luce had carried out of the diner on the ground beside her car. Her cell phone was on with 9-1 dialed into the phone. The keys to her car were partially on the ground and partially in the grass behind the car.
But it was the shoe that had me seeing red.
Her small, tiny little shoes were scuffed and ripped, the sandals utterly useless now.
The sound of a scuffle and then a muffled scream had me moving toward the back of the lot, only to come to a complete stop when I saw a man with a gun pressed to Luce’s head.
“Oh great,” I heard my brother say behind me.
I didn’t dare take my eyes off of the man holding Luce at gunpoint.
“I’m out,” Braxton said fearfully, then took off like a bat out of hell across the parking lot.
Likely, he didn’t even bother to call the cops.
He was probably inside, shaking like the little leaf that he was.
“Don’t do this,” I said to the man. “Don’t hurt her.”
I didn’t know who he was.
I’d never seen him around town.
What was worse, I could see him freaking the fuck out.
He hadn’t expected to be caught.
Well, joke was on him.
Because I wasn’t leaving until he was more than caught.
“Never,” he said. “She’s my girlfriend. She wants to be here.”
I didn’t need to look at Luce to see the denial on her face.
Instead, I shifted to the side, hoping that the car beside us would do what I expected it to do when I did what I did next.
With a fisted hand, I slammed it on the car beside me, causing it to start screeching and honking at the perceived threat.
The guy holding Luce whipped his head toward the car and that’s when I made my move.
Within two steps, I was on the guy. Luce violently went down, but luckily she had the wherewithal to continue to roll out of the man’s reach.
Once she was safe, I used my fist to beat the shit out of the guy, holding him on the ground by his shirt with my knee in his stomach.
I threw six punches total.
The sixth one killed him.
“Holy fuck, son. You got it,” I heard my dad reply. “He’s dead.”
Was he?
Good.
Motherfucker.
“Good,” I heaved, pushing myself off the dead man. “Holy fuck, Luce!”
Luce was on her knees, bent at an awkward angle, as she leaned against the van that I’d beaten on to distract her stalker turned almost killer.
She held up her thumb in an “I’m okay” gesture, but I saw the pain on her face.
There was also a line of blood falling down the length of her temple.
I crawled toward her, my legs not supporting me, as I pressed my hands against the side of her face and turned it away from me.
There was a black, oozing blood mark on the side of her temple.
“Holy fuck,” I breathed again. “That was close.”
“You saved me,” she breathed.
At the same time, I heard my brother say, “My brother did it. He murdered him with his own hands. On purpose. As in, excessively and without restraint murdered him. I did the right thing by going back inside to make sure that there wasn’t another victim.”
Luce’s eyes went wild as she said, “I’m going to fuckin’ murder him.”
My eyes caught on hers and for a moment in time, I pretended that she wasn’t his.
I slammed my mouth down on hers.
She returned the kiss.
Then I was taken away in handcuffs.
And later? I was charged and convicted with murder.
• • •
“You’re telling me your brother told the cop that you were excessive,” Sunny blinked. “That your brother’s eyewitness testimony on how he perceived your actions that night were used against you?” He hesitated. “That’s why you got prison time for that. Because of what your brother did and said.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m trying not to think about how my brother threw me under the bus. I try to look at it as if he was scared and couldn’t comprehend what his words would do.”