Page 62 of Retaking the Shot
SeeingTim in that alley had me frozen in place. I could hear what he and Coop were saying, but their words weren’t registering in my brain. Next thing I knew, Tim took a swing at me, and I braced for the impact of his punch. Before he could make contact, Coop stepped in between us.
At that point, it was on, and I felt useless standing there watching them trade blows. I’d only seen Coop fight once, and that was during a game with all of his gear and pads on. But there were no barriers in a back-alley fight, and Coop was wailing on Tim. I knew I should try to stop the fight, but a part of me enjoyed watching Tim get his ass kicked, while the other part of me was frozen in place as I watched the fight unfold.
I debated if I should intervene, but then Butcher came barreling toward us, and shouted, “Enough!”
Behind him, I saw Sexton shielding Kaylee from getting too close to the fists that were flying.
Butcher stepped into the middle of the fight, and grabbed Coop.
“Let go, Butch!” Coop tried to break away.
Butcher had size on his side and shook his head. “No. I don’t know what this is about, but it’s not like you.”
Coop was silent as he glared at Tim. I knew he didn’t tell Butcher the truth about why he was fighting, likely because he didn’t want to blurt out my business in front of his teammate. Every single action he’d taken since we’d entered the alley had been done to protect me, and it made me want to go over to him, wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.
As I took a step forward, Butcher turned to Tim. “You better disappear before things get worse for you.”
“Disappear?” Tim chuckled, and the sound of his voice had bile rising in my throat. “Emmett Cooper just assaulted me. I’m calling the cops.”
Kaylee wrapped her hand around my arm and asked, “Ford, what’s going on?”
I couldn’t answer her because I needed to deal with Tim’s threat. Keeping my eyes on him, I yelled, “Don’t even think about making that call.”
He whipped his shirt over his head and held it to his nose. “Why the fuck not? He deserves to go to jail.”
Was he fucking kidding me?
“You threw the first punch. Coop was defending himself. Plus, the only person who deserves to see the inside of a jail cell is you.”
His eyes widened for a split second, but he quickly schooled his features. “Yeah? And why’s that?”
Although I was aware Kaylee, Butcher, and Sexton were going to hear what I was about to say, I no longer cared who found out. What Tim had done to me eight years ago wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t something I needed to be ashamed of. I was confident the three of them wouldn’t think less of me when they learned why Coop was fighting this asshole.
“Because back in high school, you got me drunk and raped me.” I heard the collective gasps behind me, but I continued. “Then you sent around a video of me and told everyone I was having sex for money. I spent the last two years of high school being bullied and made fun of all because you fucking raped me!”
I’d never said the word rape out loud before, and it felt freeing finally to use the correct terminology for Tim’s horrible actions that night.
“You fucking liar!” Tim shouted and rushed toward me.
“No,” Coop roared, and Butcher struggled to hold him back. At the same time, Sexton stepped in and pulled Tim away from me.
“It’s not a lie if I’ve got proof.”
“You’re lying,” he seethed. “You don’t have proof.”
“Am I?” I took a step closer to him. “Did you really think no one would ever send me that video?”
He stared at me, his face bright red with anger. “I saw the video of you. The guy you were with didn’t show his face.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Too bad you forgot about that birthmark on your hip. I’m pretty sure the cops can use that to ID you.”
“No. That’s impossible.” Tim began pacing and pulling at his hair. “I recorded you giving me a blow job. I didn’t record the rest of it. There’s no way you have any proof.”
“You’re right. I didn’t until just now.” I held up my phone to show him I was recording our conversation.
“You motherfucker?—”
“Tim, what the hell, man? We’ve been looking for you everywhere.” A guy walked toward us. “What the fuck happened to your face?”
