I shook my head hard and turned the volume on the radio up. That was a bit more doom and gloom than I really wanted to deal with. There was no point in the negativity when she was right here with me. I was getting way ahead of myself. I needed to take this one day at a time. She wasn’t chomping at the bit to disappear quite yet. With any luck, being with me in Green Valley would make Gia feel safe. And maybe, if things went well, she would settle down with me one day.
That lingering thought in my mind, I pulled up in front of the cafe. I turned off the truck and got out. It wasn’t until I was walking toward the door that I noticed the open sign and the lights were still on. I glanced at my watch. Gia should have locked up almost half an hour ago and just be getting everything cleaned before leaving.
She mentioned it was her first time closing up alone, but I didn’t think that would make her leave it open later. Something felt wrong. I couldn’t see Gia through the front windows, so I took out my phone and called her. When she didn’t answer, I went for the door.
My muscles were tight, on alert. The door was unlocked, so I let myself in and called for her. She didn’t answer and I went farther inside. I called again. Suddenly from the back room, I heard a shout.
“Clayton, help!”
My blood ran cold. I rushed down the hall to the storage room. The door stood open and I found Gia cowering behind a stack of stored goods. Looming over her was a big, mean-looking man. She didn’t have to say anything. I already knew it was Matteo.
The man turned around to face me and the sick smile on his face made my rage flare up inside me. This ass was getting off on scaring Gia and watching the tears stream down her face.
My teeth grinding against each other, I rolled up my sleeves.
Chapter 30
Gia
I dove under the table holding the computer Missy used to make inventory orders and curled up in a ball as Clayton tackled Matteo. I cried out as they smashed into the back wall. OSHA signs and reminders and other various papers fell to the floor around them as they tussled and threw rabbit punches at each other. Finally, Clayton had turned his back to me, getting between me and Matteo, and shoved Matteo backward to the door.
“Stay away from her,” he shouted.
“Or what?” Matteo responded.
There was a single silent moment and I could feel the rage building in the room. Like a powder keg, Clayton exploded forward, looking to tackle Matteo again, but this time, Matteo dodged him at the last second and Clayton spilled out into the café. The door was knocked off its hinges or I would have slammed it shut and locked it. Instead, I ran for it, diving out into the seating area and trying to make my way toward the door. But something didn’t let me leave. I wanted to be there to witness Matteo getting his ass kicked. My feet were rooted into place, and I had to force myself to breathe.
Clayton and Matteo crashed into a table and Matteo ended up on top. He laid in a punch to the jaw that forced a stream of blood out of Clayton’s mouth and seemed to take the fight out of him momentarily. Matteo yelled something unintelligible in the chaos, words filled with the grumbling anger like a thunderstorm that I knew so well.
But he shouldn’t have given Clayton those precious seconds to recover. Suddenly, Clayton kicked up and caught Matteo in the side. It was enough to move him to the side and Clayton rolled to safety, getting to his feet and diving back at him. His fists flew furiously, laying into Matteo’s ribs and stomach. Matteo grabbed for the back of Clayton’s shirt and yanked it up, trying to pull it over his head, but Clayton stood quickly, smashing the top of his head into Matteo’s nose. He cried out in pain and surprise and they tumbled toward the front of the café.
Matteo shoved him to the side and reached behind him. He grabbed a booster seat from a stack and tossed it at Clayton’s head. Clayton got his hands up just in time, but it was enough to distract him, and Matteo threw another. This one hit Clayton in the stomach and Matteo charged. Something bright flashed in the light of the dimly lit room. The lights had been flipped off as I was breaking the restaurant down, and now I wished I had kept them on.
“Clayton, he has a knife,” I forced out.
Matteo swung wildly with the blade and Clayton ducked it. It stuck into the wall of the restaurant and Clayton grabbed his wrist to keep him from wrenching it out. An elbow to his jaw sent Matteo stumbling backward and Clayton yanked the knife out of the wall, tossing it away to the back of the restaurant. I momentarily thought of running after it, to secure it before Matteo could get it again, but Clayton’s eyes met mine, and I could sense his instruction.
Don’t. Get outside. Run.
I didn’t look behind me as I brushed past Matteo. A scream filled the air as I reached the doorframe and fingers clenched the back of my shirt, ripping it at the neck so it choked me for a second. I fell, landing hard on my behind as the tension released from my back and the sounds of struggle resumed. I scrambled to my knees and half-crawled, half-stumbled onto the sidewalk. It was closing time for most of the businesses, and there weren’t too many people walking the street, but a few were out and about. I saw their surprised faces when I tumbled out and landed, spinning back toward the restaurant.
I wanted to shout for help and call the police, but I remembered what I had been told about law enforcement in this town. Not to mention my phone was still inside in the back room anyway. And what stranger would get themselves involved in this? It was a fight at a café. They were just as likely to call the cops about the disturbance if my experience was any indication.
My eyes had barely scanned the slowly forming crowd when Matteo and Clayton burst through the doors in a clump, landing hard on the pavement. They rolled for a moment, struggling for an advantage, when I heard a voice in the crowd. It made me turn to see the slightly portly owner, wearing a black and white flannel and suspenders holding up his khaki pants. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, but that didn’t make him old or look less intimidating when he began rolling up his sleeves and removing his red ballcap.
“Clayton, by god,” he said as he ran over. “I’ll help you. I’ll help!”
A few more boys crowded around them, and Clayton, who had gotten to his feet, pushed them away. It was a forceful enough push to get them to stop their advance on Matteo, but one that had an air of familiarity to it. Like some of these boys had been in a scrap or two on Clayton’s side before.
“Get off. Back away.” He looked around at the men who were clearly ready for a rumble. The old man particularly looked like he was itching for a fistfight. “I said back off!”
They all seemed to take a step back, and Clayton eyed Matteo who now got to his feet and wiped blood away from his nose with the back of his hand.
“Yeah, back off,” Matteo yelled.
“Shut up,” Clayton told him. Then he turned to the older man and nodded. “I’ll take care of this asshole myself.”
The older man stared at Clayton for a moment, then nodded and put his arms down. “Get him,” he said.
Matteo seemed puzzled by this display, almost as much as I was. Maybe more. He looked around wildly as if he assumed one of them was going to attack him from behind but Clayton walked calmly up to him, closing the space between them. He got within a few feet of him and stopped.
“Don’t worry. They aren’t going to hurt you. I am.” He swung a big looping right fist.
It hit Matteo hard on the jaw and he stumbled back, almost to me. Hands wrapped around my shoulders and beckoned me to move back with them. Soon, I was engulfed by a sea of legs as someone tried to comfort me. I recognized one of the legs blocking me from Matteo as those of the older gentleman with the red hat. He seemed like he was still ready to jump in if he needed to but was giving Clayton the respect he asked for.
Matteo had recovered and swung a punch at Clayton, who ducked it and hit him hard in the stomach as he moved around him. Matteo doubled over and Clayton waited until he straightened back up before hitting him with a combination of punches that sent Matteo
to the ground. He shook his head in disbelief and spit out blood as he tried to woozily get to his feet.
“Get up,” Clayton said. “Get up, you son of a bitch.”
Matteo got to his feet and threw his leg out in a kick aimed at Clayton’s crotch, but Clayton saw it coming and swatted it away. Throwing a jab that hit Matteo in the jaw, Clayton rushed forward and shoved him so he went down hard. Jumping on top of him, he pinned his arms down by his sides and smashed him in the face with his elbow.
“He’s done,” Clayton said to the crowd in general. Then to Matteo directly, he grumbled, “You’re done.”
“I’ll call the law,” someone said from the crowd, and I could see Clayton grimace. He seemed about as thrilled at the prospect of cops showing up as I thought he would be.
Suddenly, I realized I was still curled up in a ball, my mouth open and my lips dry as I watched. My heart was beating so hard I felt like it would pound out of my chest and I tried to breathe to calm down. It was over. Or at least it was mostly over.
Matteo seemed to get a second wind and struggled under Clayton’s grip. Calmly, methodically, Clayton grabbed at one of the arms as it got free and wrapped it up in an armbar, bending it back down toward Matteo’s face. Matteo was breathing heavily and grunting out swears as Clayton bent the arm back toward him, turning the anger into howling pain.
“One more move, and I swear to God I will break your fucking arm,” he said, and Matteo, seemingly realizing he was truly beaten, stopped fighting.
My first instinct when I felt hands touch my back was to buck them off and scramble away. I turned to see who had come after me and noticed it was a soft-eyed woman. She carefully reached for me again.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” she said. “You don’t have to be afraid. Come on now. Come with me.”
I let her help me up to my feet and sagged against her. She led me away from where Clayton was holding Matteo down. A group of other women gathered around me like they were sheltering me from seeing the men or from Matteo looking up and seeing me.
“Are you okay?” one of them asked. “Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” I said, trying my hardest to keep it together in front of them. Spilling my emotions and my private business out to a group of strangers wasn’t something I was particularly keen on in that moment. “Clayton got here before he could do any real damage.”
“Sugar, it’s all right for you to not be all right,” another woman said, resting a comforting hand on my back. She was probably my grandmother’s age but she had a sparkle in her eyes. “I’ve seen men like that before. What they do to your body isn’t near as bad as what they do to your mind and your heart.”
The words made the tears well up in my eyes and I choked back a sob. I didn’t know these women, yet right then, I couldn’t really think of them as strangers. They were compassionate and caring, wanting to protect and comfort me, and not for a second questioning Clayton. In fact, no one was. In the entire crowd that gathered, not a single person condemned Clayton for his actions or questioned if he was in the right.
Without needing an explanation or a story, they assumed if Clayton did something, it was justified. The trusting, supportive people amazed me. As I stood there surrounded by the reassuring women and watching the men stare down Matteo, just waiting for him to try something, I remembered the safety I felt in Green Valley. Maybe it wasn’t completely ruined.
Chapter 31
Clayton
It was taking every bit of restraint I had in me not to completely pummel Matteo into the ground. I’d gotten pretty close already, but he was still moving around and making too much noise for my taste. The only thing keeping me back from it was knowing Gia was only a couple of yards away.
Some of the women from town had surrounded her and were fawning over her. Even still, I didn’t think she would handle it well if she witnessed what I actually wanted to do to her ex.
As I held Matteo down, my mind went to the law heading my way. I had no idea how things were going to go down once Roy showed up. It hadn’t even gone through my mind when I launched into it with Matteo or when I chased him out to the street. But now I was dreading dealing with the shitstorm coming.
He would be the only one who would report to something like this. The sheriff was too busy and a bit too high on his horse to respond to things like bar scuffles and street brawls. For things like that, he sent his deputy. And that meant tonight’s adding insult to injury meant adding a Hayes brother to the smackdown.
I was far too familiar with the shady ways of Roy Hayes and his brothers to think for a second this was going to go easy on me. Any other town, any other deputy, he would roll up and haul Matteo’s sorry ass in after hailing me a hero. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind Hayes was going to find every way he could to hassle me over this.
I was certainly glad I had witnesses. There was a whole crowd of people around here who would be able to tell the deputy exactly what happened. I was also glad I got to kick that sorry ass of Matteo’s. Whether it actually got hauled in or not, he deserved every second of what happened to him. And a hell of a lot more.
He shifted around on the ground and I shoved him down again. “I suggest you lay still. You’re going to need all the energy you can muster to deal with the boys down at the jail. They don’t take too kindly to men smacking around women.”
I taunted him a bit more to remind him who was in charge. It wasn’t just so he heard it. I wanted him to know every person gathered around us heard it, too.
“And while I’m at it,” I said, “you stay the hell away from Gia and Gabby. Don’t you ever get anywhere near them again.”
“Don’t you tell me what I can do,” Matteo said. “That’s my daughter and the woman who had her. She’s mine.”
“Stop talking about them. They’re done with you. You might have made her, but Gabby isn’t yours. And you aren’t her daddy. You never were and you never will be. And Gia wants nothing to do with you. Nothing at all. I don’t want to see you even looking at her.”
“Who do you think you are? Some dirty hick who probably thinks coming out to this absurd street is going to the big city. You’re nothing. You don’t even have the right to look me in the eye, much less speak to me.”
He acted like he was trying to get up again, but I was easily able to push him back down.
“You sure do have a big mouth. But you’re not putting up much of a fight. I might just be what you think of as a hick, but at least I’m not the one licking pavement. Now give your jaws a rest. You’re pissing me off.” He huffed and thrashed again. I grabbed onto him tightly, pulling him up so the collar of his shirt cut into his neck. “I’m warning you. This town has nothing for you but trouble if you stick around.”
That seemed to shut him up, at least for the time being. He was a lot of talk but couldn’t put up much of a fight.
It only took a few more minutes for Roy’s deputy vehicle to skid up to the curb and he climbed out. I braced myself for whatever reaction he was going to have. His eyes narrowed when he glared at me and he looked around like he was trying to evaluate the situation.
“Right there, deputy,” a man from the crowd said. “That’s the guy. The one Clayton took care of because he was scaring this lady.”
Roy looked at him with a hint of distaste, like he really didn’t need the rundown of the situation. Especially considering he could see me standing over Matteo and both our bloodied faces. The deputy swaggered up and scanned his eyes over both of us.
“I’m going to bring you in,” he said to Matteo, then looked at me. “Help me load him up.”
That was the only time in my recollection a Hayes brother had ever asked me to help with something and meant it genuinely. This definitely wasn’t the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and I highly doubted we would be exchanging Christmas cards this year, but at least I didn’t have to deal with his usual attitude.
Roy and I grabbed Matteo under the arms and hauled him up to
his feet. He resisted, giving us dead weight like he was making a social-justice statement. It was a good thing for him the car wasn’t far away. He was getting into that back seat one way or another, and the more of a fuss he put up, the less gentle we were going to be.
We finally managed to drag Matteo over to the deputy car and stuff him into the backseat. Roy slammed the door closed and turned a glare in my direction. I waited for him to say something, but he walked over to Gia instead. I was close behind. There was no way I was letting him get anywhere near her without me right there. I still remembered the look on her face that first day when he cornered her on the sidewalk and tried to get her to go to dinner with him.
“Can you tell me what happened here?” he asked.
That was it. No checking on her to see if she was all right. No asking if she needed any help. Gia looked a little startled, but I stepped around to stand beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Just tell him what happened,” I said.
Gia nodded, wiping tears away from her cheeks. “Matteo is my ex-boyfriend. He’s Gabby’s father. We haven’t been together since before she was born. He has always been controlling and abusive, which is why I’ve tried to stay away from him. He came into the restaurant while I was closing up and threatened me. I tried to get away from him, but he chased me into the stock room. That’s when Clayton got there.”
“Did he have a weapon?” Roy asked.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “He never has before. Not that it stopped him from hurting me.”
“Does he have visitation with his daughter?” Roy asked.
The judgment was clear in his voice and Gia looked at him like she couldn’t believe he was even asking those questions.
“No,” she said. “We’ve never been to court and there are no agreements. He also doesn’t pay child support. He has never had anything to do with her, and he never will.”
His Dirty Hands (The Montgomery Boys Book 2) Page 18
