Page 114 of The Battle of Maddox
The detective typed everything up and gave me a copy of the report. She grabbed my hand before we stood and smiled at me. “It takes real balls for a man to come in and report an assault. Most men would just have brushed it off as a free blow job.”
Letting out a breath, I shook my head. “It wasn’t her I was hoping for. I knew it was bad when I felt like I had to scrub and cover up.”
“And I wasn’t going to let this go,” Rand said.
It was nearly five hours later when we left the police station. I was exhausted, and Rand made us stop for a bottle of water each on the way. We both needed it.
“I need a shower. A hard cleansing, with lye and bleach.”
“Please don’t bleach your dick,” Rand said.
I chuckled. “No, I’m just going to use soft scrub on it. God, this is humiliating. I can’t believe she did that.”
Rand started to say something then stopped. He tipped his head. “I was going to say that I can, but this was really beyond anything she’s done with you before. The money was one thing, the using you to look good, even the trips around the world to shop. That’s all her. But this was…she didn’t even consider what was going on.”
“She didn’t. I mean, I had every intention of talking to her and ending things the right way. Once I realized how much Aaron meant to me, how awesome we could be together… there was no going back, and I had to cleanly end it. I didn’t expect to be called a fag and have the key thrown at my head.”
“You’re going to have to get used to the F word.”
“I don’t even care about that. I don’t. It doesn’t affect me. I don’t think it’s right, but this is the first time I ever had to deal with it, and I realized after she spit it out, I didn’t care. I cared that I was losing Aaron.”
He bumped my shoulder. “You’re not losing him.”
“I know.”
“How’s the eye?”
I touched the area gently. The detective had managed to get me a cold pack when I explained what happened to my face. “I got hit by a human mountain and I can’t even get mad at him. He was defending his friend. It’s going to be black for a while, but I…don’t care. I’ll ice it more when we get home.”
“Mel is going to want to make it up to you.”
“He can buy me a beer.”
“Good deal.” Rand laughed.
My key slid into the door, but it wouldn’t turn to unlock. I raised an eyebrow. “They were already by to change the lock?”
“There’s a reason you pay stupid association fees, my friend. That,” he pointed to the doorknob, “would be one of them.” He pounded on the door.
The door opened and Ora stood there. He stared at me a moment, then started laughing. “Jesus, Mel! You really socked him hard!”
Someone pulled the door open the rest of the way, and I found Holland standing there as well. “Holy shit.” He laughed and walked away. “Lemme get some ice for that, Doxx.”
Mel peered around the door and cringed. “Oh, man. I am so sorry about that. I really was just trying to help Aaron.”
“By socking him in the face?” Rand shook his head.
“I’m fine.” I stepped into the apartment and we shut the door. “I’ll be just fine.”
“How can I make that up to you?”
“A beer,” Rand and I chorused.
“You didn’t rehearse that, did you?” Holland held out a bag of peas.
“Maybe a little.” Rand made a pinching motion.
I looked around. “Where’s…”
