Page 48 of Home Brewed (The Perfect Cup #1)

“Shut the fuck up!” shouts Justin. He walks away and I hear more sounds, crashing and shattering and whimpers.

I haven’t caught my breath, and I can’t sit up to look around to see what he’s doing.

The one thing I can hear is him tipping a table, destroying everything I’ve worked to help create for myself, for Beck.

I hear the crunch of glass under his boots as he stalks towards me. I curl around myself tighter, waiting for another blow, but he grabs my arm and hauls me up to look in his eye.

“You’re going to come with me, you’re going to let me back into our apartment, and I’m going to remind you who you belong to,” he snarls into my face.

I can’t stop myself from shaking as panic starts to set in, but hopefully if I can at least let him take me out of here, someone else can call the cops.

He begins dragging me through the shop, and I don’t have the strength to fight him.

I look around at everything he’s destroyed, feeling the aching crush of the loss.

All the work we’ve done, now gone to waste.

Mel, Beth, and Nessa are huddled in a corner, with Nessa’s back to us, protecting them.

She looks over as I’m being pulled away, hopelessly looking around for anything to fight back with.

As we reach the front door, Justin shifts me so he can move the chair out of the way.

I hear something from behind, and then see a large hand reach up behind Justin’s head and crash it against the glass door.

His grip on my arms weakens enough for me to throw myself out of his hold and onto the ground.

I land on my ass and scoot away in a way that is definitely not dignified, and I couldn’t care less.

Beck has Justin’s head pressed up against the cracked glass, holding him there as he rips the bat out of his hands.

A sob rips its way out of my throat as Beck pulls Justin’s arms behind him painfully and takes him to the ground, resting his knee on his back while Justin hurls every insult in the book at him.

I look over and see James checking on the girls before helping them stand.

He embraces Nessa, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

I try to pull myself up, but the pain in my side makes me crumple.

A slight whimper is all it takes to bring James over to take Beck’s place in holding Justin.

Once he’s secured, Beck throws himself down next to me, collecting me into his lap.

“Hazel, please tell me you’re okay!” Beck’s checking me over frantically, running his hands over me, looking for any indication of further injury. I grab his hands, stopping him in his tracks.

“I’ll be okay, I promise.” I run my hand through his hair, grounding myself as my adrenaline wears off. The pain in my side gets worse as I start shaking. “Actually, I might be in shock, is this shock?”

Justin is still shouting on the ground where James has him pinned. Words start to sound muffled. Time doesn’t seem to be moving at the same pace. It’s choppy, disjointed.

Nessa walks over and goes to stomp on Justin’s hand, only for James to stop her.

“There’re cameras, Ness. No sense getting assault charges along with him,” he says sternly. All the girls look up at the ceiling. Small black spots I never noticed before dot the space, and I look back at Beck.

He shrugs. “I figured he would come by at some point or another. I wanted to know you’d be protected.

” He looks at me and his eyes become teary.

“You should have been protected; I should have been here. I’m so sorry.

” He pulls me into a hug, and even though it hurts, I return its ferocity with my own.

“ The cameras connect to my phone, I wasn’t looking.

Wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t think he’d come here today. ”

“It’s okay, you did enough, Beck. You did enough,” I collapse into him and let him carry me to one of the couches, sitting with me in his lap.

The girls come and join us, looking worn out and shaken.

Mel grabs my hand and squeezes, and Beth and Nessa cling to each other.

None of us speak. James is still basically sitting on Justin when the police arrive.

I guess Beck or James, or someone called them, but I didn’t notice, my brain too fried to take in any more information.

When they arrive, Beck gets up to speak to them, and I lean over, putting my head in Mel’s lap. She gently plays with my hair. She’s saying something to me, but I don’t hear any of it.

“What are we going to do about the boxes?” she asks quietly, her voice carefully pushing its way through the fog. I’ve never heard Mel speak meekly before.

“I don’t know, I guess we’ll have to push back everything,” I venture. We worked so hard to be ready for today, and all that effort is down the drain. I can’t think about anything more than ten minutes in the future right now, though.

“Thank you,” comes Beth’s small, sweet voice. I look at her tear-stained face quizzically. “For keeping him busy, for keeping him away from us. You were going to let him take you.” Her voice hitches. I nod. I don’t know what else to say.

“You were really brave,” agrees Nessa.

“I didn’t feel brave. I felt fucking terrified. I never want to feel that scared ever again,” I shudder, and when my voice breaks, all three of them congregate around me, holding me as we all fall apart together.

Beck comes back after a short while; I couldn’t say how long. Time has no meaning anymore. He reaches into the pile of women on his couch to take my hand, rubbing his thumb over it therapeutically.

“The cops want to talk to you, sugar. I showed them the video tape and the audio recording, so you won’t have to say much, just answer a few questions.

” I’m so grateful to him for the precautions he took.

They might have saved us, alerting Beck when they did, even if it wasn’t right away.

And the footage will be useful to the police for the report.

I might stand a chance of never seeing Justin ever again.

A small chime comes from the front door as Kyle walks in with a stack of pizzas.

“What the fuck happened here?”

Beth laughs at him through her tears and goes over to talk to him. As I speak with the officer, Justin is escorted out. James is shaking the hand of the other responder. I’m grateful for him, too.

As soon as I’m done giving my statement, I walk over to James and hug him without a word. He stands statue still for a moment before wrapping me up in an engulfing hug.

“You’ll be okay,” he says softly into my hair.

When he lets me go, Beck leads me out the back and drives me home.

I disconnect from myself as he does, letting him lead me into the ensuite and peel off my jeans and top.

His hands graze the already forming bruises that wrap around my ribs.

He tries to get me to go to the hospital, but I don’t have the strength for anything else today.

I promise him that I’ll go tomorrow if it’s worse.

He leads me into the shower, gently lathering my hair and rinsing it out.

He’s thorough as he grabs my shower oil, going over every part of me like I’m delicate and precious.

And I know what I am to him. He holds me under the water, letting it run over us, not wanting to break our connection.

I don’t want him to, either. I don’t know if I want him to let go of me at all for the rest of the night.

The warm water soon turns cold, the only indication of how long we’ve been in here. Beck takes a fluffy towel and bundles me into it before scooping me up and carrying me to bed.

“Do you want anything, sugar?” Beck asks, setting up his laptop to put on a movie to fall asleep to .

“I’m just hungry,” I say sleepily. Now that the shock has worn off a bit, I realize that I never got pizza from Kyle.

I saw Beck text Nessa to say each of the girls should take one and head home, we were done for the day.

Tiny little cracks appear in my heart as I think about everything that’s destroyed at the shop.

Our entire launch will have to be pushed back at least a few weeks.

“I ordered us some food, it should be here soon,” he kisses my brow. “Do you need anything? An ice pack, pain meds?” His concern mends some of the little cracks as I lean into his warmth.

“Maybe some pain killers. He got my side hard,” I mutter, placing my hand on my ribs, which are already turning purple.

Beck stiffens, and I can almost see the memory flit through his mind, of him finding me on the floor.

But he doesn’t say anything as he pulls himself up to get what I’ve asked for.

I hear the doorbell and assume our food has arrived, but I’m asleep before Beck comes back up the stairs.

My body knows it can relax. It knows I’m home.