Page 81 of Family Affair

Dan shoved her away mid-air, accidentally or not she didn’t know, and hit the wall with a dull thud, shaking the entire room. Coco stumbled, her foot caught on a chair leg, and she fell to the floor on all fours.

The fall didn’t hurt her so much as it left her stunned. Growing up among scientists, art lovers, and literature admirers, with a librarian for a mother, she wasn’t accustomed to physical violence in any form. She certainly never found herself in the middle of a physical altercation. Even during their marriage, tempestuous as it had been, Mike had never raised a hand on her, preferring to inflict pain with words rather than blows.

The Sheffield males assigned little importance to words exceptfuck. They were cavemen in modern clothes, and she just got exposed to their preferred method of conflict resolution: fists.

Must be nice, she thought wildly,to have that much physical strength to throw around.

Behind her she could hear shouts and angry growls, punctuated by Dan’s obscenities, overlapped by Willis ordering to stop the fight this instant, underscored by the sounds of a scuffle. Afraid to look, she nevertheless twisted her head back to see what was happening.

What she saw was a garden variety brawl, the likes of which she had seen many times on TV.

Dan, clearly intent on beating Cade to the pulp, kept swinging at him repeatedly but with little success. Cade appeared to be deflecting the blows more than hitting Dan back. Jeff, latched onto Dan’s jacket, was ineffectively pulling at him, trying to dislodge him from his brother, and Willis hovered nearby, using his most commanding voice and threatening to call in uniformed officers to no effect.

And plastered flat to the opposite wall, Jonas Radkin, with eyes as round as silver dollars, was creeping inch by inch toward the door escaping for his life, even though no one paid him any attention.

Quickly picking up the contents of her purse off the floor, Coco got up determined to beat Radkin to the door.

Her movement must’ve distracted Cade. He glanced in her direction, and Dan’s fist connected solidly with his jaw. Coco cringed at the sound of Cade’s teeth snapping together. She took a step toward him to… do what? See if he was okay?

The blow ended Cade’s patience with the fight, and just like that, it was over. Dan doubled over from a precise hit in the solar plexus and gasped for breath in short bursts of foul language.

Quick as a snake, Cade pivoted toward Detective Willis and calmly punched him in the face.

Cartilage crunched. Blood spurted. Willis howled.

“That does it, I’m calling the security!” Willis swung at Cade but stumbled over a chair, his bloodied nose interfering with his aim. “You overstepped all the lines here today.” He abandoned his attempts at retaliation and produced a radio. “Send help over, fast!”

The entire front of Willis’s light shirt, his tie, even his pants were smeared in blood. He looked down at himself and cursed.

“Detective Willis, I confirm that it was, indeed, me on that tape with Cade. As for the written statement, we’ll have to reschedule.”

She made another attempt to leave. Dan lunged at her, still clutching his stomach, but Cade was right there, blocking his way.

“Come back here, cunt!” Dan tried to grab her but she jumped back. Cade snarled and rammed into him with his shoulder. They slammed down on the table, sending it sliding, the chairs toppling and rolling drunkenly, going at it again, harder, faster, with more angry energy saturating the air around them.

Jeff jumped out of the way. Willis’s nose still bled, splattering bright red drops everywhere he turned.

Coco reached for the door and grabbed the handle. It was wrestled out of her grip as the door smashed open and two uniformed officers nearly mowed her down, their riot batons at the ready.

Willis pointed at Cade, and the batons descended on his back. He let Dan go and struggled to stand up but they forced him to his knees. Dan sat up slowly and then got to his feet. Instead of moving aside, to her utter astonishment, he hit an officer in the face. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a good dose of the same baton treatment, and he fell to his knees right next to his brother.

“It’s all your fault, you filthy bitch!” Dan twisted to yell at her.

Without turning Cade slugged him hard, bringing a fresh flurry of police batons on his back. He was dragged farther away from Dan, and a pair of handcuffs clicked closed…

Air, she desperately needed fresh air.

Shaking from head to toe with adrenalin and distress, she got out to the hall making her way toward the exit, but it wasn’t easy. The melee had attracted attention, and she had to battle the oncoming traffic of people, some in uniform, others in plain clothes, running in the direction of their meeting room.

Bumping shoulders and chanting a litany of excuses, she fought her way to the elevators. Blindly groping for the button, she pressed hard and didn’t let go until the elevator arrived.

She was the only passenger. Using this solitude, she tried to compose herself, to take deep breaths. Her throat was parched.

How she got out of the elevator and made it past the clerk on duty and to the glass doors never registered. Finally, she stumbled outside.

Instead of fresh air, the ninety-degree heat of Atlanta’s summer embraced her.

The blue sky darkened.