CHAPTER 1 #4
It's like watching sheep suddenly finding themselves face to face with a two-ton grizzly. If I could laugh I would as each asshole turns and walks away, Mike and Dan faster than the others.
It’s taking every bit of control I can muster to keep from vomiting again as pain radiates from my jaw to my left ear. I still don’t know what condition Jake is in, but relief washes over me when he groans. At least he’s not dead.
Zane drops to a knee with kindness in his eyes and rests his calloused hand on my shoulder. “I’m real sorry this happened to you, Maddie. Wish I could’ve gotten here sooner. You okay?”
In a bit of a daze, it’s hard to process everything that’s happening.
Am I okay? He doesn’t wait for my answer as he lifts me by my shoulders in the gentlest way.
Once I’m on my feet, I can’t hold it in anymore and let out embarrassing sobs that make my whole body tremble. “Not really,” I manage to whimper.
Zane looks around, then calls out to his sister. “Lizzy!” She’s on the arched stone bridge with Cody, another cowboy we went to school with. If those two are dating, it’s news to me.
At the sound of his voice, she and Cody come rushing our way. She’s two years younger than Zane and me, and like her brother, she’s a cowgirl, a rodeo barrel racer and she’s always had a good heart.
“I missed the whole thing,” Lizzy huffs. “What happened?”
“That horse’s ass just clocked Maddie, and good. Can you take care of her, make sure she gets home, okay?”
Jake groans, rolls over, and starts to get up.
“Stay down!” Zane barks. “You hear me, boy?” There’s no mistaking his tone. “You can get up when Maddie is gone. I’ll let you know when.”
Jake does what he’s told and quickly flops back down, landing with his face in the dirt.
How pathetic. I think he just lost his man-card, and a slight grin wants to tug at my lips, but my face hurts too much.
Still, there’s something deeply satisfying in seeing him on the ground, humiliated beyond words.
He crossed a line and I can never trust him again, and as much as it hurts to admit, there’s no longer any hope for us.
Suddenly I’m nearly knocked over when Zane’s new bride, Chelsea, grazes my shoulder as she marches past me.
She stops and exhales a loud huff as she stands over Jake with a look in her eyes I can’t quite decipher.
Pity? Could she actually feel sorry for him?
I mull that over for a nanosecond when out of nowhere she kicks Jake in the ribs with a booted foot, and harder than you would think her tiny frame was capable of.
“You piece of shit!” she shouts before kicking him again, even harder this time. Jake groans as he curls up in pain. “You never hit a girl!” she yells, then goes to kick him again, this time in the face, but at the last minute, Zane grabs her by the waist and pulls her back.
“That’s enough, dear. I think he got the message.”
Chelsea still has a lot of fight left in her as she struggles to wriggle free, but her man’s grip is too much, so instead she spits on Jake’s face. “I should stomp your guts out, you hear me?”
Zane chuckles as he pulls his wife back another step. They got married two months ago. Everyone knew they would. They’re perfect for each other.
Zane turns to his sister. “I got a real hellcat on my hands. Can you take care of Maddie?”
The disgusted look Lizzy is giving Jake, like she wants to finish what Chelsea started, isn’t lost on me, and I wonder what she’s about to do, but then her gaze darts to her brother.
“You know I will.” With that, her expression softens as she turns to me with a calming tone, “Come on, honey, let’s go up to the house and get you cleaned up, then me and Cody will take you home. ”
Speechless at what just happened with Chelsea, not to mention how nice Zane and his sister are being, I’m a little emotional and all I can do is nod.
As she puts her arm around my shoulders and escorts me toward the rustic farmhouse, I don’t bother looking back.
Instead, with each step forward, I start to question everything.
How could this happen? Of course I was aware of his flaws, at least some of them, but who doesn’t have their faults?
I’m not perfect either, far from it, but I thought he cared about me the same way I cared about him.
I thought our feelings were mutual, that he loved me back.
How could I have been so wrong about him, like for four years I was completely blind to what he’s capable of?
Deep down, I know this will leave scars, the kind that never heal.
I hope I never see him again.
Everything hurts.
The thought that Jake thinks so little of me that he would try to force me to be his whore?
That’s a new kind of pain that hurts worse than my face.
But being blindsided by the revelation that he’s not at all the man I thought he was, the man I thought I loved, the man I would have done just about anything for… that hurts the most.
I feel a wall forming around my shattered heart. It’s made of bricks and cement and steel, an impenetrable shield that will never, ever let a man do something like this to me again. That’s the scar Jake left me with, not the bruises on my face. Those will heal. My heart? Not so much.
Zane asked if I was okay.
I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.