Page 61 of Sliding Into Love
His instincts screamed at him to get up but moving seemed impossible.
Another sound, glass maybe, and an ugly, rasping, mirthless laugh.
The machine moved again, its barrel pointed toward his head, and looking past it, Ethan noticed the figure of a man hunched behind it.
What the fuck?
“I should have left your useless ass to rot with your uncle.” Marshall’s voice projected from the shadows, punctuated by the crash of him tossing a glass bottle over his shoulder. “You’reworthless,” the old man taunted. “You were nothing! I made you! And now I’ve lost everything, and it’syour fault!”
Ethan stayed on the ground, silent, as he watched Marshall stumble out. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Ethan had been the recipient of angry drunken messages and calls from the man for years now, plus all the poisonous words at games and practices. He edged his fingers toward the bat he’d dropped, slowly grasping it, but remaining flat and otherwise motionless. Tensing his muscles, he hoped he wouldn’t have to defend himself against the angry old man stumbling toward him but expected the worst anyway.
“What do you want?” Ethan asked, the effort of speaking sending a white-hot knife of pain through his side. He wondered if it was worth trying to pull himself back to the gate of the batting cage. Marshall was unpredictable at best, volatile at worst, and Ethan wouldn’t have put it past him to do something worse than hit him with a ball.
“I built this team. Imadeyou. It’s all mine, and I am not leaving!You can’t take it away from me!”
Marshall was close enough that spittle flying from his trembling lips sprayed Ethan’s face.
Each movement sent lightning bolts arcing through his body, but he refused to let Marshall see his pain as he hauled himself to his feet, glaring at the old man straight in the eyes.
“Just becauseyou’reworthless,” Ethan growled, “doesn’t mean I am. I believed all of your bullshit foryearsbecauseyouwere never good enough, so you blamed it on me. You’re done, old man.”
Marshall snarled in Ethan’s face.
And punched Ethan right where the ball had hit him.
The adrenaline spike was enough for Ethan to swing the bat up to block the knife Marshall had pulled out of his belt. Sharp metal skidded across the bat, burying itself in the wood, and Ethan pushed the bat, and Marshall with it, away from himself before the knife hit him. The old man scrabbled backward and tripped over a stray ball, falling flat, splayed out before Ethan.
Chest heaving, Ethan glared down at Marshall, and for a moment, he considered how easy it would be to hurt the old man the way he’d hurt Ethan. An image of Marshall’s face, beaten and bloodied, swam in Ethan’s mind. It would beso easy. Marshall had attacked him after all, and Ethan had no illusions the old man had come for any reason other than murder.
ButIvy.
All the words he’d said to the coach echoed in his ears. Because of Ivy. And he knew he needed to tell her. Apologize. Grovel at her feet if he had to.
“I. am. not. worthless.” Ethan spat each word with the pent-up pain and anger of the past five years.
And then he noticed the flashing red-and-blue lights and the sirens at the same time Marshall froze.
“Ethan, are you all right?” Harkness’s voice echoed over the stadium’s sound system.
Knowing she couldn’t hear his response, Ethan held out a thumbs up.
“The police are coming into the batting cage, and you need to come out.”
After Ethan had given a statement to an officer and been directed to an ambulance by an EMT, Emily pushed her way through the small knot of officers and security guards to stand by Ethan.
“Well, this has been a more exciting first day than I expected.” Her tone was laced with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes and adjusted the hem of her knitted cardigan.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Security called.” Harkness waved her phone in front of his face. “They saw Gregory Marshall on the cameras and notified me, and I figured he wouldn’t do any harm prowling around, but then you showed up. We’ll talk about that later, by the way.” She patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll need an x-ray before you’re cleared to play. I’ve informed your mother you’re on the way to the hospital.”
For fuck’s sake. His mother?
“Emily,” he began, but she glared at him and arched a perfectly sculpted silver brow. “Emily,”he continued, staring right back, “I am anadult. Why the fuck did you inform my mother?”
“Language, Ethan. Laura and I were on the phone when I got the security alert. She was already at the hospital with Jimmy.”
“Fine, I’ll go.” He fished his keys out of his bag, but Harkness stopped him.
