Page 113 of First Chance

“You had everything,” he screams, trying to dislodge his leg from under my boot.

“I’ve been through hell and back to get where I am. And, being where I am still isn’t great.”

“You got her.”

Her?“Jo?”

“You told us we couldn’t talk to her, we couldn’t look in her direction, but I saw the way she looked at you. It wasn’t fair,” he slurs.

“You’re confused and drunk.”

“I’m not.” He jumps up, blindsiding me with a rock. The stone pierces my flesh, and I stumble back a step, but he swings again, clipping my cheek with it.

I stare at him as the tang of iron coats my tongue and the warmth of blood trickles down my temple. My rational behavior goes out the window.

He charges me, attempting to take me down from my waist, but I hold him off easily, not letting him get me to the ground. When my elbow connects with his spine, he howls in pain and falls back onto the pavement.

“You’re a stupid son of a bitch.” I grab him by the collar of his shirt and throw punch after punch, the impact of my fist against his face sends blood spraying, but I don’t stop.

It isn’t until someone hooks their arm under my shoulder, preventing me from swinging, that I let my arm go limp.

“Dammit, Loch. You’re going to get your ass thrown back in prison,” Hayes scolds angrily. He drags me back to mytruck and throws me up against the side. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“He attacked us.” I spit blood onto the concrete.

“Yeah, you better hope the law sees it the same way.” He nods towards the road as the Sheriff pulls in. Jo must’ve called her brother, too, but I don’t fault her for it.

An innocent mind like hers only goes down one path when it comes to inflicting justice.

“I need an ambulance to my location,” Malec talks into his radio as he walks over to us. “Are you hurt?” He asks, surveying the blood covering me.

“He got me good on the side of the head, but the rest of the blood is Frank’s.”

Malec folds his arms and sighs. “Jo told me someone rammed the gates, and you went after him. Did he say why he did it?”

“He was angry after I fired him. He wanted Jo.”

His normally cool exterior stiffens briefly at the mention of his sister, but if you blinked, you’d have missed it. “That doesn’t make sense. He’s not the instigator of all your trouble, then?”

“No, there has to be someone else.”

“Let me chat with Frank. See if he’s more forthcoming in a holding cell.”

“What do you need from me?”

“Lay low. I’ll have a lawyer get in touch about pressing charges. And, get some stitches in your head, you’re bleeding like crazy!” He yells as he walks away.

This is the most blatant violence I’ve been a part of in front of a cop, but the most mediocre shakedown. He didn’t even try to make me sweat or question my actions.

He believed me.

He and Jo have their perceptive tendencies in common, I guess.

Jo.

Chapter Forty-One

Jo

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