Chapter 27 #2
Pink splotches blazed across Lori’s chest, and her gaze darted away from me.
Oh yes, this totally had to do with the police chief.
Which I realized was complicated since she was pregnant with another man’s baby.
But from what I understood, their lore went deep.
Before I could try to gently pry more out of her, her posture stiffened.
“Oh no,” Lori’s eyes widened as she looked out the window.
“Oh no, what?” My eyes followed hers, and I found a man dressed in a dark green bomber jacket, beanie down low on his head, stalking toward the bakery entrance. Nervousness instantly filled me, seeing that his eyes were on Lori.
Not because he looked bad. He was conventionally attractive—if you went for a possibly coke-addicted rock star aesthetic—but totally not Lori’s type.
There was something sinister about the way he moved, how he pushed past an elderly woman on his way in, the glint in his eyes. I was good at spotting dangerous men.
“That’s the baby daddy, I’m guessing?” I didn’t wait for her to respond, already standing up. I didn’t like the way he made the tables clatter as he walked past them, gaze intent on Lori.
I glanced toward the counter. It was nearing closing time. Nora had just served the lady who’d walked out, telling us she’d be baking in the back. Fiona was on a run to the bank.
It was a rare day when only a couple of people remained in the bakery—it was usually packed to the gills.
I looked for a brawny type that would help protect a pregnant woman from the baby daddy, who did not look like he was there to gift her a onesie.
Only a girl younger than both me and Lori and an older woman reading a battered paperback were left.
This place was normally filled with more muscled alphas than you could shake a stick at. Where were they when I needed one?
“I know you have a thing against Finn right now and how overprotective he is, but I’m thinking you should give him some kind of SOS text,” I told Lori.
All of the color drained from Lori’s face. “Yeah, I think I should.” She tapped at her phone.
“You bitch,” the man spat as he made it to the table, scowling down to the pronounced swell of Lori’s stomach.
The way he stared at her, at his baby growing inside her, made my heart spike with warning. He was a horrific reminder of Waylon and why I’d never let him impregnate me.
“Hello to you too, Jacob,” Lori replied, staying seated. I admired her for the strength in her voice, the way she held eye contact with him even though I saw her hand shaking.
“I told you to get rid of it.” He gestured aggressively toward her stomach.
Lori flinched, and I angled myself between them.
“Contrary to what you think, Jacob, the world doesn’t revolve around you and what you want,” Lori returned, her back straightening.
His attractive face turned ugly, twisting into a petulant scowl. “My dad said my trust is void until I ‘step up’ and become a father. I’m not letting a brat or some bitch drag me down. How much?”
“How much what?” Lori massaged her temples. “How much of an idiot I must’ve been to have even entertained the idea of sleeping with you? A lot, I’m thinking. By the way, it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with trying to forget a man who is twenty times the person you are.”
I restrained my smile, proud of my friend.
Even though Lori was afraid, unsettled, she didn’t back down.
It was immensely horrible that men like him existed and worse still to have to be on the receiving end.
Lori was rightfully scared. Men like him were dangerous. She had two people to protect now.
But she was still speaking up. Still alluding to the man I hoped she’d get her happily ever after with.
A vein in Jacob’s neck pulsed. “To get rid of it. How much? I’ll write you a check right now.”
Lori gaped at him. I did too. Even though I knew what men were capable of, it was sickening to hear it firsthand. The true arrogance and ownership he thought he could wield over a woman’s body. Her choices. Her child.
She shook her head slowly, lip curled in disgust. “No amount,” she said quietly. “No amount on this earth. Though I’ll admit I wish he had a different father, I’ll never regret this choice.” She rubbed her stomach protectively.
“Bitch,” he seethed again.
I rolled on my heels, noting the change in temperature in the exchange, the thickness in the air. This was going from bad to worse.
“You should leave now,” a voice said from behind Jacob.
Jacob turned, sneering to where Nora was standing, glaring at him. I’d never seen Nora glare before. She was soft-spoken, kind, always offering a smile.
To gain a glare from Nora, you had to be a pretty shitty person.
“I’m not listening to you, fat bitch. Fuck off.”
Nora didn’t bat an eye at the insult, though I knew she recognized how dangerous this man might become. It was ingrained in women to sense that.
“Oh, you’ll wish you didn’t say that.” She shook her head.
“Now leave before my husband or the sheriff gets here. Both are en route, and one of them will merely treat you to the letter of the law. The other…” She trailed off, shrugging.
“I don’t condone violence, but my husband doesn’t always listen to me. ”
I smiled, big this time. Nora was naturally shy, but she was not afraid. Not when she knew her husband would always have her back.
“What are you smiling about?”
It took me a second to realize he was talking to me, his hideous expression pointed in my direction.
I continued grinning. “I just like it when bullies are shown what cowards they really are.” I looked him up and down.
“And I’m thankful that you won’t be able to buy yourself any more of those horrible clothes since it sounds like daddy is going to cut you off.
Have fun in the real world. May it grind you up and spit you out, overpriced sneakers first.”
I barely got the words out of my mouth before pain exploded in my nose, and the table smacked into my back.
It took me a second to realize I’d been punched. My eyes watered like crazy, and my nose was a burst of agony.
Warm liquid poured down the front of my face as I instinctively forced my hands upward.
I tried to breathe through the pain, acutely aware that we were now in the vicinity of a man who was not afraid to be violent toward women, and that the pregnant source of his ire was behind me.
I saw his shape moving forward and tried to stumble in between him and Lori.
“Oi!” an accented voice yelled, followed by a grunt. By the time I could see out of my waterlogged eyes, Fiona had, obviously, appeared and was now on Jacob’s back.
He was running around, trying to get her off, smacking into tables as he did so. Fiona held fast. She was pregnant. On the back of a vicious man.
Holding my nose with one hand, I picked up a chair, intending to do what with it, who knew.
But then there were more figures rushing into the bakery. Much bigger and decidedly more masculine than Fiona.
First was Kip, who grabbed his wife without pause. Then Rowan, who promptly punched Jacob square in the face, sending him toppling to the ground, out cold.
I was glad Jacob’s punch wasn’t as strong as Rowan’s. Otherwise, I would have had worse than a bleeding—hopefully not broken—nose.
Rowan was standing over the prone man, hands fisted at his sides, breathing heavily, with an expression that sent chills down my spine.
This was not the gruff family man who was impossibly tender with his girls. This was a truly dangerous person. I knew him, had plenty of evidence to show he was a responsible, good man. But I was afraid to be in the room with him.
He physically jolted when Nora placed her hand on his bicep.
He quickly turned to her, the two of them having a hushed conversation as he gripped the sides of her face.
The other married couple was not having a quiet conversation.
“Fiona!” Kip yelled. “You’re pregnant. What in the fresh fuck did you think you were doing getting involved?”
I’d never seen the usually jovial man so pissed off, unhinged. I hadn’t noticed the shadows beneath his cheery exterior until he was staring at his wife.
“I don’t know, Kip!” Fiona threw her hands up. “How about my best friend being bullied, my newly indoctrinated Jupiter wife being punched in the face, and only a pregnant Lori left to go against the asshole?” She was shouting too, and it made me realize she was talking about me in the “wife” term.
Lori handed me some tissues, looking extremely pale. Tears were still running down my face as I pressed them to my nose, reaching out to squeeze her hand in comfort.
“I’m not a wife.” Crazily, I interrupted their tense conversation, one I wasn’t meant to be a part of.
Fiona smiled at me with a brilliance that should not have existed after all that ruckus, and especially not with her husband glowering at her.
“Oh, don’t worry, honey, you will be. Just a matter of time.” She waved her hand at my nose. “That’ll speed things along.”
I didn’t have a chance to ask her what the heck she meant by that because, apparently, Kip was done listening.
“We’re going to the hospital. Now.” He pointed to the door. “And as soon as they tell me our baby is okay and they clear you for sex, you’ll be getting a long, naked talking to about how you’ll never pull that shit on me again.”
He grabbed her arm then dragged her—gently—out of the bakery. Fiona finger-waved at everyone, still smiling.
Kip was not a danger to her. That much was clear. He loved her so much that his worry was unearthing a side of him he’d obviously tried to keep buried.
Just like the side of Rowan I hadn’t known existed until I saw him heaving over Jacob’s body like he wanted to kill him.
My body stiffened as Rowan came forward, in my direction. I was only now beginning to process what had happened to me.