Page 98 of Loving Wild

I don’t even bother replying to Jess, instead, I grab Dani’s hand, lean into her ear, and say, “Will you come to the loo with me? I think I just spotted my ex-husband in here.”

It’s a blatant lie but it does the trick. Dani looks at me wide-eyed.

“Of course,” she replies.

“Get rid of them,” I tell Jess as we pass.

Holding hands, Dani and I walk towards the toilets.

“Where did you see him,” she asks, looking around. I’m hit with a little pang of guilt at her concern at my lie.

“The other end of the bar.”

“Wait. Wait. I thought your husband was in prison?” Dani questions.

I come to a halt. When I told her the lie, I had in fact, totally forgotten that was the case, so the look of shock on my face is real.

“Oh shit, yeah. Forgot about that,” I tell her honestly.

It takes a second of us staring at each other in disbelief before we collapse into each other in fits of laughter.

It’s as we’re making our way back from the toilet that everything suddenly goes to shit.

I’m walking arm in arm with Dani when my free arm is grabbed, and I’m swung around by the force, to face Jarrod. He leans right in, his nose almost touching mine and speaks through gritted teeth.

“Not sure who the fuck you think you are, but don’t you ever . . .”

“What the fuck, Summers,” Dani shrieks as she pushes Jarrod away from me. He still has a hold of my wrist, and I start to move with him before Dani pulls me back. Jarrod keeps going before crashing into a table filled with empty bottles and glasses.

The bar is often frequented by bikers and notorious for fights, so always has a number of doormen both inside and out.

At the sound of smashing glass, I see them start to move from where they’re positioned around the room towards us, but not before Jarrod rights himself and takes a swing at Dani. He catches her right on the corner of her chin, but instead of going down, she launches herself at him.

Her arms and legs flying as she wades in, they both crash into the table. It all happens so quickly my brain takes a moment to catch up and move in to pull her off. When I do, the table collapses, and the three of us land in a pile of broken glass and bottles.

As I stand and grab Dani’s arm to pull her up, Jarrod uses the moment to take another swing at her, and that’s when I lose my shit and launch myself at him.

For a few seconds, I don’t know what comes over me as I punch, kick, and claw at him.

“Hit a fucking woman? Hit a fucking woman, would you? You fucking coward,” I screech while kicking at him, throwing my fists, and clawing at anything I come into contact with.

A hand comes around my waist, and I’m lifted into the air, arms and legs still flying.

“He came at us. He fucking grabbed her and tried to punch me,” I hear Dani shouting as I’m set on my feet.

“You gonna stop swinging if I let you go, Blue?” I turn to see a huge and very good-looking Maori bouncer staring down at me. Breathing heavily, I nod.

“Thank fuck for that, bro, you was going at it like a Tassie Devil, ay.”

“Sorry,” I pant out. “He grabbed me, and swung a punch at her . . .” I trail off as I try and catch my breath.

“Yeah, he’s a fucking pest.”

* * *

Twenty minutes later,I’m outside just having given a statement to the police because Jarrod, the whiney little bitch, is claiming we assaulted him and wants to press charges.

A couple of the cops are inside looking at the security footage, and until they can corroborate our version of events, Dani and I have been told to sit our arses on the wall opposite the bar and wait.