Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
One hour earlier…
Deanna
I finished my work for the day. The medical billing and transcription I do from home is literally the only thing keeping the wolves from the door. God knows Kyle hasn’t paid a dime of the child support he’s supposed to. Not that I want it. I don’t want anything from him. And if not taking his money means he’s more inclined to stay the hell out of my kids’ lives, then so be it. Still, it’s nice to have that little chore done and know that the rest of the afternoon is mine.
Addie is with Britt and Karli, Malcolm and his friends are shooting hoops with Luke and some of the others. And I have about forty-five minutes to do nothing except what I want.
I settle onto the couch and grab the remote, flipping through the different streaming apps until I get to the one I want. It’s absolute trash TV. Reality show melodrama with designer clothes that cost more for a single outfit than I’ll make in a decade—but it’s my drug of choice.
Five minutes into the show, my stomach starts to growl. I have this forty-five minutes because I worked straight through and didn’t bother to eat lunch. I hit pause and head for the kitchen and one of Addie’s Lunchables. It’s not exactly the most nutritious or filling, but it’s quick and requires zero effort.
Standing there, staring into the fridge, I hear something that is just wrong. Malcolm’s bedroom door rattles terribly, but he’s not home. I’m alone. There’s no reason for that door to open and close. Unless…
I drop the Lunchable and reach into the fridge to grab one of Luke’s beer bottles. When a hand lands on my shoulder, I don’t hesitate. I grip that bottle as hard as I can, spin around, and smash it right across the bridge of Joe Stevens’s nose.
He staggers back, blood running down his face.
“You bitch!”
I’m not even paying attention to the names he’s calling me or the string of curse words. My eyes are on the other person who tried to sneak in. Kyle. He’s standing in the middle of my living room, that familiar sullen look on his face.
“Didn’t take you long to shack up with the cop, did it? You were probably fucking him before we ever split,” Kyle says with a sneer.
I don’t answer him. I don’t owe him an answer.
Grabbing a kitchen knife from the counter, I hold it the way Luke showed me. It wasn’t part of the regular self-defense curriculum, but he definitely gave me some added pointers. With my other hand, I grab a heavy cast iron skillet off the stovetop and work my way past Joe. I don’t want to get boxed in by them.
“Look at her, Joe! She thinks she can fight back,” Kyle says, laughing the way he always did just before he’d kick me while I was down. “Put that shit down, Deanna. You don’t have the guts to fight back. And if you do, we’re just going to make it worse for you. That’s what disloyalty gets you… an ass beating. I went to fucking jail because of you!”
“You went to jail because you’re the dumbass who shot a cop,” I snap.
That’s all it takes. Kyle charges toward me. I sidestep and he goes hurtling past me to the floor, his head connecting with the corner of the dresser there. But I can’t count Joe out. Not just yet. When he comes rushing at me, I’m ready. I pivot, swinging the cast iron skillet until it smacks the side of his head, and he just slumps to the ground.
I don’t wait around for Kyle to or Joe to pick themselves up off the floor. I grab my phone and sprint toward the door, pressing the emergency button as I go. I’m almost out, my foot on the first step, when a rough hand grabs my hair and yanks me backward. The phone goes flying, bouncing down the steps. I don’t know if the call went through or not. It doesn’t matter, though. I’m on my own right now.
I’m shoved against the railing, and when I turn, it’s Kyle who is in front of me. There’s a big-ass goose egg forming on his forehead. Joe’s nowhere to be seen. The cast iron skillet either knocked him out cold or finished him off.
Kyle’s face twists with fury. “You called the goddamn cops on me that night! I wouldn’t have had to shoot Troy James if you hadn’t been such a goddamn waste as a wife.”
I just let him rant. I don’t say anything because I’m not giving him ammunition. Instead, I just watch him pacing back and forth. When he turns on me, I’m ready. He charges, hands out-stretched like he means to choke the life out of me—again. I duck down, drive my shoulder into his gut, and let his own momentum carry him over the railing.
In the distance, I can hear sirens.
—-
“Goddamn, Deanna. You’re like the Terminator!”
I look up at Troy, my expression telling him just how I feel about that comparison. “If I was the Terminator, Kyle would have more than a broken arm and Joe wouldn’t be regaining consciousness in the back of an ambulance now. I was lucky, Troy. Damn lucky.”
He shakes his head. “No. You were damn skilled. Luke made sure of it. He taught you to defend yourself and you did it… not for pretend, not for practice. You did it when it fucking counted. Don’t you forget that.”
He starts to walk away then stops, turning back to me. “I can’t tell you exactly what Kyle and Joe had in mind, Deanna, but there was a duffle bag filled with ropes and duct tape, and there was a shovel in the trunk. I may not be able to swear to it in court, but everything in me believes they didn’t intend to just rough you up here.”
A shiver races through me. I never thought that was all he wanted. If it had just been about knocking me around, Kyle would have come alone. The fact that Joe was with him told me from the get-go that they had no intention of leaving a witness.
Tires screech as another vehicle careens into the parking lot of my apartment complex. I don’t even need to look up to know that it’s Luke. When he rushes toward me, it’s all I can do to keep it together. Even then, I let him wrap me in his arms, and it feels so fucking good to be there. It finally feels like the world has righted itself again.
“You’re a badass,” he murmurs.
“I had a good teacher,” I whisper.
“Never again. You will never again have to defend yourself this way,” he says, the words ringing like a solemn vow.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You can’t control what other people do, Luke. But I’m not scared anymore… because I know now that if I have to defend myself, I not only can, but will. And that’s all because of you.”
Troy clears his throat. “I’m just gonna be over here.”
Luke barely spares him a glance. His gaze is locked with mine. “I had great plans for this weekend. It was going to be super romantic. Everything just perfect. But I don’t think I can wait.”
“Wait for what?”
He reaches into the pocket of his jacket and pulls out a little velvet box. “I’ve been hanging on to that for a while—waiting for the right time. I figure taking down two would-be attackers entirely on your own makes this a pretty special day. Might as well keep it going.”
I lift the lid on the box and stare at the sparkling ring inside it. The stone glints in the sunlight and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “I want to, Luke, but the kids?—”
“Malcolm gave me his blessing. And while I don’t formally have Addison’s, I’m told she’s a lock. So marry me, Dee. Marry me and let’s put all this ugly shit behind you once and for all.”
I can’t make the words come out past the lump in my throat. So I just nod. I nod and then I hurl myself against his chest, burying my head there and clinging to him. No. We’re clinging to each other. And I don’t want that to ever change.