by Shandi Boyes
“He hit me” I slowly answer before shifting my gaze to look down at the floor. The instant the words escaped my lips I can feel a change in my persona.
Jacob jumps up off my bed and starts pacing back and forth in my small room. This is why I never wanted to tell anyone. I can just tell that Jacob will now look at me differently. I won’t be the strong opinionated Lola he used to know; I will be forever seen in his eyes as a victim.
“Was it him that made you so upset today?” Jacob questions sternly.
I lift my eyes from the floor to look up at Jacob. He stops pacing back and forth and his remorseful gaze turns down to look at me.
“Yes” I whisper, as tears drip down my face from seeing the sympathy marred all over Jacob’s.
“Where does he live?” Jacob questions angrily as he clenches his fist tight. His face has gone from being sympathetic to furious in an instant.
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone” I instantly rebut.
“I am not telling anyone; he already knows what he fucking did” Jacob replies furiously, his deep voice rumbling through my room.
“I don’t need you to do anything Jacob. I can handle this. It was only once, then I fled and never returned. Today was the first time I have seen him in months.” I explain, as I hastily jump off my bed and move over towards him.
“Stay with me” I whisper quietly as I stand directly in front of Jacob. I gently cup his cheek in my hand, like he always does to me. My eyes pleading with him to stay with me. I want him to comfort me, I want him to look at me like he did only yesterday.
“I can’t let him get away with doing this to you” he whispers hoarsely.
“I want you to stay with me, please Jacob” I plead, before I slowly move my mouth to his lips and give him a slow and tender kiss. He is hesitant to start with, but once he starts to feel the love and passion in our kiss, his defences start to drop. This is the very first time I have kissed Jacob so heartfelt, causing my heart to now race with excitement instead of fear.
When I pull away from our embrace, Jacob looks down at me and I can see that the torment in his eyes appears to have soften from our kiss. He lifts his hands and gently rubs away the tears that have stained my face with his thumbs.
“Stay with me” I request, while staring into his ocean blue eyes. The relief I feel when he nods his head is immense. He has chosen to stay. He has chosen to stay with me. He gently lifts his hand and tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear as his eyes stare into mine, allowing me to see how much he cares for me. Suddenly, his gaze flicks down towards my neck and I feel him exhale a deep breath against my face.
“What the fuck is that?” he questions harshly, as he quickly moves my hair away from my neckline. When his eyes look back into mine, the fury that has settled behind them is unnerving.
“He is fucking dead” Jacob yells furiously, before he turns and storms out of my bedroom, leaving me standing in the middle of my room dumbfounded. He had gone from staring at me lovingly to storming out of my house in under thirty seconds.
I immediately run over to my mirror in my room. When I pull my hair off my neckline, I can see the commencement of a bruise from where Callum had held his hand against my throat. I quickly run out of my house to catch up to Jacob, who has already jumped into the passenger seat of Noah’s truck.
“Jacob, don’t do this” I beg as Noah’s truck reverses out of the driveway.
When Jacob’s eyes turn to face mine, I know there is no chance of stopping his rage, he is already too far gone. The loving eyes that were staring at me mere minutes ago have been replaced with a pair of eyes I no longer recognize.
Chapter 22
Jacob
“I’m going to fucking kill him” I declare angrily, as I jump into the passenger seat of Noah’s truck.
That fucking piece of shit. Who does that? Who puts their hands on a woman? Fucking scum, that’s who. I can feel my anger surging to a new level, that I throw several punches at the dashboard in Noah’s truck. I needed to punch something and it was closest thing, so it would have to do for now.
Noah fires up his truck as Lola comes running out of her house, quickly closing the distance between us.
“Jacob, don’t do this” she pleads as Noah starts reversing out of the driveway.
I look into her concerned light brown eyes hoping it would help to calm down my anger. I want to stay and offer her comfort, but I cannot reign in the fury that is surging through my body. I have never had to handle this type of aggression before, but I know a great person that I can unleash it on. What type of guy would I be if I just stood by and watched the person I have fallen in love be attacked and not do anything about it? I can’t let him get away with putting his hands on her.
“What do you want to do Jacob?” Noah questions concerned, while driving down Lola’s street.
“I’m going to fucking kill him” I respond, before grabbing my cell phone out of my pocket.
I quickly scroll to the recent calls list and hit call on the last call I had received.
“Mavericks, this is…” Maggie attempts to greet into the phone quietly.
“Where does he live Maggie?” I question abruptly, interrupting her greeting. Maggie knows every local in our town and she would know where Callum lives.
“This isn’t a good idea Jacob” she replies with concern in her voice.
“Where does he fucking live?” I yell furiously down the phone.
Noah punches me hard in my bicep and when I flick my gaze towards him, he has his eyes narrowed at me angrily, before he removes my phone from my ear.
“Maggie it’s Noah….no I haven’t talked to him yet…I know…Maggie…I will make sure. Bye” Noah states, before he disconnects the call.
“He lives in Ravenshoe” Noah advises as he hands me back my phone.
“What did she tell you?” Noah questions, as he starts our drive back to Ravenshoe.
“That he only hit her once, then she ran and today was the first time she has seen him in months” I advise, while I grind my teeth together, trying to keep my hatred under control.
“What about what happened today?” Noah question as he looks over at me.
“She didn’t get a chance to say. But she has bruises on her neck and her fucking wrist” I answer angrily, clenching my fists that tight that my nails are digging into my palm.
“What did Maggie say?” I question, realising that I have no clue on what actually happened today to cause Lola to get bruises on her wrist and neck.
“Maggie thought Lola was taking a lot longer to clean the bathroom than normal that she went to check on her. She found Callum holding Lola up against the wall by her throat” Noah commences, making my anger surge even more.
“Maggie and Lola were the only ones rostered on, so Maggie grabbed the baseball bat from behind the counter and went up and swang it hard against his arm, dislodging his grip around Lola’s neck” he continues. Fuck, I now feel guilty for swearing and yelling at Maggie when she was the one that had protected Lola. I will be sure to apologize to her the instant I am done dealing with Callum.
“Maggie said he turned towards her and just from his eyes she could tell how dangerous he was. She threatened him by saying that she was carrying a gun and wouldn’t hesitate in using it against him” Noah advises as his dark eyes flick between looking at the road and me.
I stay quiet for the rest of the trip, while I try to absorb everything that has just happened. I am not normally an aggressive person, so even I am surprised with how wound up I am right now. Callum hasn’t just done this once, this the second time. I may not have been able to protect Lola the first time, but I can now and I am not going to let him get away with putting his hands on her. Around twenty minutes later, Noah’s truck pulls into an old brick house on the outskirt of town.
I quickly jump out of the passenger door and start to briskly walk towards the rundown house.
“Jacob, don’t kill him, just rough him up a littl
e” Noah pleads, as I finish the last few strides to the front porch.
Just as I am about to knock on the door, a blonde haired, blued eye man walks down the long white hallway and stands in front of the screen door.
“What, she sent her bitch to fight her battles” he sneers angrily.
“Are you Callum?” I question as I open the unlocked screen door.
“and if I am” he replies cockily.
“Then I am going to teach you a lesson on how you don’t put your hands on a woman” I reply, grabbing a fistful of his shirt to drag him to within an inch of my face.
“Are you Callum?” I question sternly into his blue eyes.
When he arrogantly nods his head while smiling, my anger reached breaking point. The fact that he thinks he can physically harm Lola like it is a fucking game causes me to snap. I rear back my head and head-butt him hard, sending him flying backwards. He lands on his ass on the white wooden porch.
I spot Noah in the corner of my eye moving off the side of his truck to commence walking towards me.
“Wait” I instruct Noah sternly. His dark eyes watch my every movement, but when he notices that I haven’t place a hand on Callum yet, he stops halfway down the concrete path.
I move over towards Callum and place a furiously hard kick into the side of his ribs, causing him to start coughing as his lungs fight to fill with air. I drag him back up onto his feet by the scruff of his shirt, before I wrap my hand around his scrawny neck. I want him to experience the fear that Lola just had to go through. I push him backwards until his back hits the outside wall of his house. Squeezing his neck hard enough that it causes his eyes to open wide in shock, panicked that he isn’t getting enough air.
“If I ever see you near Lola again, I will come back and finish this” I advise angrily, before I slowly release my grip from his neck and start walking back to a relieved Noah.
“She always comes running back for more of this” Callum states cockily, causing me to freeze, before I turn around to face him.
“She just can’t get enough of it” he advises arrogantly as he continues to grab at his crutch. I can feel my furious anger starting to climb again.
“Let it go Jake” Noah instantly retorts “He isn’t worth it”. I agree with Noah, he isn’t worth it and the more time I stay here dealing with him, the longer it will take to get back to comforting Lola.
“You can’t make a hoe into a housewife” Callum’s declares while laughing, forcing me to once again snap.
“Do you have a fucking death wish?” Noah questions, as I charge towards Callum.
It only takes one direct hit on his left temple for him to be knocked out cold, but that doesn’t stop my onslaught on his unprotected body. I can’t see anything in my fury, it’s all just a blur, as I continue to pummel his body with my fists.
“That’s enough now Jacob” Noah advises, slapping me hard on my shoulder, as the sounds of sirens start to fill the air.
“Jacob” Noah yells roughly, before he wraps his arms around my shoulders and starts pulling me away.
“That’s enough, you taught him a lesson, we have to go” he yells panicked into my ear as he successfully pulls me off Callum.
My hazed gaze turns from Callum’s bloodied face to Noah’s dark intense eyes, before flicking down to my blood covered hands. I am shocked by own rage, that I quickly stumble back from Callum’s lifeless looking body, panicked that I may have actually killed him. Fuck, I hadn’t meant to kill him. My anger was just too much for me to be able to control.
Noah moves over to check on Callum and just as he is about to check if he has a pulse, a police officer moves towards Noah with his gun drawn.
“Get down onto the ground now” he instructs nervously, while he points his gun directly at Noah’s back.
Noah’s panicked gaze flicks over to mine, before he slowly lifts his hands and kneels down on the ground as instructed. The police officer rushes over near him, holstering his gun, before he handcuffs Noah and pushes him forward so he lands on his stomach. In my dazed state, I attempt to stand and slightly stumble, catching the attention of the police officer who quickly redraws his gun.
“Stay where you are” he yells nervously while pointing his gun directly at my chest.
The police officer is only young and if I had to guess, I would say he was a first year rookie. His eyes roam over my body, before they narrow in on my blood stained hands. I can tell he is nervous by my size, as the hand that is holding his gun is rapidly shaking. I lift my arms into the air, signally that I was not going to move, while my eyes plead with him to lower his gun.
“Jacob?” questions a male voice to my side.
Only moving my eyes, as I am fearful if I move my head the nervous police officer might shoot me, I spot Ryan standing in the middle of the concrete path.
I quickly flick my eyes back to the nervous police officer, hoping that Ryan will instruct him to lower his gun or at least get him to remove his shaking finger away from the trigger before he ends up accidentally shooting me.
Chapter 23
Lola
The instant I peer through the one-way glass window at the police station, I can see the torment marred all over Jacob’s face. I have caused his normal happy go lucky exterior to become faltered and now he appears full of torment and despair. Why didn’t I just keep my distance from him like I had originally planned. If I did, he wouldn’t be sitting in an interrogation room cuffed to the steel table right now.
“Lola?” questions a deep voice to my left.
As I turn towards the voice, I see a handsome man with dark short hair and blue eyes who is wearing a dark blue business suit.
“Yes” I confirm, as I offer him a small smile.
“If you could please follow me” he requests. I quickly flick my eyes back to Jacob and notice that he now has his head hanging down low, clearly feeling defeated.
As we walk into the small poky interview room, I spot Maggie sitting on a black steel chair positioned near a small rectangular table. My eyebrows pull together tightly, as I slowly walk over near her. When she spots me, she offers me a small hesitant smile, before her eyes dart back down.
“What are you doing here Maggie?” I question, as the detective motions for me to take a seat. Maggie’s eyes flick up to look at mine, but she doesn’t utter a sound.
“Lola, my name is Ryan. I am a detective at Ravenshoe’s Police Station. I was the one that called you earlier and asked you to come in” Ryan introduces, as he takes a seat on the other side of the table.
“I was hoping you will be able to provide me with a statement about an incident that happened earlier today at Mavericks bar” he informs, as his blue eyes stare directly into mine.
“You said you wouldn’t tell anyone” I whisper, turning my angry gaze to look at Maggie.
After Callum had attacked me at Mavericks, Maggie had promised me that she wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened. Only now is it suddenly dawning on me why Jacob turned up at Mavericks in the middle of the afternoon.
“You called Jacob, didn’t you?” I question angrily as my eyes start to fill with tears. Maggie keeps her gaze firmly planted on the wooden tabletop, unable to maintain my eye contact.
“Yes” she replies quietly as a single tear drips down her face.
“You promised” I whisper harshly. So some of the blame for Jacob sitting in that interrogation room right now should be directed at Maggie too.
“I know I did Lola and we will discuss this later, but Jacob needs our help now. He is in a lot of trouble” Maggie answers as her tear filled eyes slowly look over towards me.
“He needs your help” she declares firmly as her eyes plead with mine.
As I stare into Maggie’s concerned blue eyes I know I have to do the right thing, but I also don’t want anyone to find out the secret I have been hiding for the past nine months. Jacob doesn’t deserve what is happening to him, but that was the whole reason I didn’t want to tell him to star
t with.
“What do you need me to do?” I question, as my eyes turn from looking at Maggie to Ryan.
“Maggie informed us that Callum Parker assaulted you earlier today at Mavericks and that may have contributed to the reason why Jacob assaulted Callum, is that correct?” he asks sincerely.
“Yes” I whisper softly.
I hesitantly pull my hair away from my neckline to show Ryan the bruises that have formed there. Once his eyebrows pull together, I pull the sleeve up on my long sleeve shirt to show him the large hand mark bruise that has marked my wrist. Ryan breathes harshly out of his nose as he slightly shakes his head.
