Page 16

We might have had to push Zoe a little bit to get her to agree to give us a real chance, but it was worth it. The guys and I have been all in since the beginning, but now she’s finally on board, and she loves it. She put up a good fight, and I get it. She doesn’t want to let herself be vulnerable again, after what she went through who would, but we aren’t Adam. We would never try to control her or hurt her; we love her. Even if she isn’t ready to hear it yet.

We fall back into our same rhythm, because even if she didn’t want to admit it we were already together before we had it out. Nothing has changed except her willingness to admit to our relationship, but it is nice to have that and get back to normal.

After a few busy days of Fright Night and working none of us feel like cooking so we go out for pizza. We don’t give a shit what people think about us, so we agreed not to hide our relationship, if people want to whisper about it who cares. They’re going to be whispering about one thing or another anyway. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy though.

Knowing people are whispering about you behind your back is one thing, having your girl’s ex-husband demeaning your relationship to your face is a whole other ballgame. This asshole just doesn’t know when to quit.

Adam noticed us as soon as he walked in and immediately headed our way. Lucky us. Now he’s standing at our table hissing hateful things at my girl and he’s about to catch a fist with his face.

“So, you’re just going to keep parading around town with these three? I guess you don’t care what everyone is saying about you.” His eyes narrow as he continues, like he expects her to jump up at his command. “You need to stop this childish behavior. Everyone is talking about how you’re shacked up with them, acting like their whore, it’s embarrassing really.”

Nate is sneering and Liam has Zoe tucked under his arm protectively, I know they have my back. They’re just as protective over our girl as I am, even if they are a little less violent. My hand is already curling into a fist on the table, but before I can knock this bastard out Zoe surprises the hell out of all of us.

“That’s enough, Adam.” Her voice is strong as she slides out from under Liam’s arm to stand in front of her abuser, the man who tormented her for years, who is still refusing to let go. “What I do is none of your business anymore. I’m not yours and I never really was, it’s time you realized that. I’m not shacking up with them, I’m dating them. All three of them actually, but that doesn’t make me a whore, it makes me happy. Which is something you never did.”

His scowl deepens, but I couldn’t be prouder. She’s finally standing up for herself. No one says anything but when his jaw ticks I slide my chair back, letting it squeak across the floor in a clear sign that I’m more than happy to jump in if needed. He doesn’t have his buddies with him though and he’s too much of a coward to take things too far without backup.

“Takes three guys to make you happy huh, sounds like a whore to me.” He throws out his final insult under his breath as he walks away.

I start to get up to follow him, but a small hand lands on my shoulder, pushing me back into my seat and keeping me there.

“He’s not worth it, Reynolds.”

Grabbing her hip I pull her closer and nudge her into my lap. “He might not be, but you are, Red.”

She leans into my chest, calming the anger building in me without even realizing what she’s doing. I don’t want to upset her, so I’ll let him walk away, for now, but no one calls my girl a whore and gets away with it.

His time is coming.

After the incident at the pizza place I knew we hadn’t heard the last out of Adam. Guys like him don’t just disappear. They have to prove they’re the biggest and toughest, even though they never are. That’s why they prey on women. Adam would never face us alone, not even one on one, because he knows he wouldn’t win.

He leaves me with a bad feeling in my gut the next day. I know he’s not going to drop it, I should have just beaten him senseless when I had the chance. Instead, I let him walk away. Fuck being the bigger man, next time I see that asshole I’m knocking him the fuck out. He more than deserves it for everything he put Zoe through before, and the stress he’s putting her through now.

She said she was fine after we got home last night, but we could tell his words struck a nerve. Today she locked herself away at her place to work, staying late to catch up on some things. She’s processing, I get that, we all do, but we won’t let her hide out forever.

We’ll give her today, but he doesn’t deserve to take up any more of her time .

Every cell in my body has been pushing me to leave the shop and go bang on her door all day. I don’t want her to fight this alone, but Liam keeps saying she needs time, and Nate agrees. As much as I want to comfort her, I know they’re right. So instead of smothering her we give her some space, for today, and stay at the office later than normal. She’s still at her place, and none of us want to go home to an empty house. Instead of doing that we hang around, after we close the office up we bring Nate’s truck in the shop. His hunk of junk always needs something fixed.

We’re never here this late anymore, not with Zoe waiting for us at home most nights. In the past we would stay here half the night, go sleep for a few hours, and then come back the next morning to do it all over again. She gave us more. More to live for, to look forward to. I’m not an emotional man but having her in our lives has changed everything for the better.

Now I’m counting down the minutes waiting for her call like a middle schooler. None of us want to go back to the house to wait so we just keep shooting the shit and finding things to look at on Nate’s truck, until we hear something crash outside. The sun has been down for a while now, it’s not unheard of for racoons to show up at night to dig through the dumpster, but they don’t normally make this much noise. Another bang follows the first crash, and the others look just as confused as I feel.

Pulling up our security monitors in the office we find Adam and his friends vandalizing our building. With the doors locked up and Nate’s truck inside it looks like we’ve gone home for the night. These dumbasses. Not only are we still here, but we have a full security system surrounding the shop and they aren’t even wearing masks.

What kind of men vandalize a business when people are still awake and don’t even have the good sense to keep their identities hidden? There are other businesses on this street, cars still on the road, even if we weren’t here it would be so easy for them to get caught.

Looking over his shoulder from his seat at the desk Liam asks Nate and I want we want to do. “We have two options here. We can call the cops and let them handle this, or we can go out there and handle it ourselves.”

I know he would probably rather let the police handle this the legal way, but I’m itching for some revenge and Liam knows it. We’re a team, always have been, so I’m not surprised when Nate’s smile darkens.

“I think it’s time to teach Adam some manners.”

Liam nods at Nate before turning towards me, but he doesn’t even have to ask. My intentions are written all over my face.

“Ok then, let’s go find these bastards.”

Cracking my knuckles and rolling my neck I follow my best friends outside, itching for a fucking fight.

Like the little weasel he is Adam jumps back and screams when we open the office door. Joining them outside I roll my eyes at the vandalizers stunned expressions. How had they not even considered the fact that someone might catch them? Idiots, all of them.

Stepping forward I grab the crowbar Adam was swinging at our sign and snatch it from his grasp. I should beat him with it, but I don’t need a weapon to wipe the floor with him, so I throw it across the parking lot instead. I might not need it, but I don’t want him to be able to reach it. He’s definitely the type who would use it if he thought it would help his cause.

He uses the split second I’m distracted to throw a pitiful punch and I can’t help but smile. I didn’t even have to goad him. Anything that happens now is self-defense.

His friends both start babbling a bunch of bullshit, but when I throw a right hook and catch Adam right on the jaw they both shut up, it’s silent for a split second before all hell breaks loose. There are three of them and three of us, but they’re no match for our brand of fighting. These three have probably never been in a brawl in their lives.

We’re all careful not to take things too far, I don’t want to spend my life in jail for murder, but it’s time they learned a lesson, Adam most of all. The other two need to pick better friends, but Adam needs to pay for his crimes. He gets a few lucky hits in, but they’re nothing compared to the ones I’m landing.

He’s fighting out of fear.

I’m fighting for my girl.

Each hit I land is payback for the times he hurt her, scared her, made her doubt herself. None of it will ever be enough, but that doesn’t stop me from doling out what I can now. Karma will catch up with him one day. For now he can answer to me.

Liam calls my name when Adam falls to the ground before me. I pull back, but not before delivering a message. “Call my girl a whore again and this will seem like a day at the spa compared to what I will do to you.”

His friends are sporting bloody noses and black eyes of their own, but they don’t look quite as bad off as their ringleader. Adam stumbles when they help him up and one of them grumbles about pressing charges until Liam cuts him off.

“Just so you know, we have video footage of you vandalizing our building and Adam starting the fight. If you try to press charges I’ll be more than happy to turn it over to the police to press charges of my own.”

They might be well known and liked, but no one could dispute that kind of evidence. We have them in our pockets, and they know it.

Adam wipes the blood from his lip on his overpriced sleeve and spits on the ground in front of him, probably imagining spitting in my face but he doesn’t have the balls to try. He looks like he’s about to say something, but his buddy grabs his arm and pulls him away.

“Come on man, she’s not worth this bullshit, just forget about her.”

Adam is all about saving face, and as far as everyone in town knows he’s the one who left Zoe, so he agrees and limps away. At least they had the forethought to park down the road and not right in front of the shop. Not that it matters, we have all the evidence we need already, but I don’t think they want this getting out. They won’t go to the cops, but that doesn’t mean this is over.

We’re almost done getting cleaned up back at the house when Zoe walks in. She freezes in the door, taking in our haggard appearances in horror. The others took much worse beatings, but we didn’t walk away unscathed. Her eyes widen as we all stand in silence before I have to break the tension.

“You should see the other guys.”

Liam rolls his eyes and goes back to bandaging his knuckles while Nate tries to hide his laugh behind a cough. Zoe isn’t as amused.

“What happened? Are any of you hurt?”

She lets the door slam closed behind her as she rushes in to check on us. We all agreed there was no way we could hide this from her, and we shouldn’t, if we want her to be honest with us then we need to do the same.

“We’re fine, just some bumps and bruises mostly. Nothing that won’t heal.” Liam is better at these kinds of conversations, so I happily let him take the lead on this one. “Adam brought some of his friends to the shop after closing, they thought we were gone so they started breaking things but when we confronted them it turned into a fight. ”

She’s spinning around fussing over all of us, but the pain in her eyes cuts me deeper than any hit Adam landed. Catching her chin softly I tilt her face up towards mine.

“We’re ok Red, it takes more than this to knock us down.”

I wanted to reassure her, but when her lower lip starts to tremble I panic. Moisture fills her eyes, and her breath starts to catch as she tries to fight back tears. Shit. I didn’t mean to make her cry. Nate moves to step in, but I shake my head and pull her to my chest, the need to comfort her overwhelming. Softly running a hand up and down her back I hold her to me while her tears make a wet spot on my shirt.

“I’m sorry Red, I didn’t mean to upset you. We’re ok though, really.”

“This isn’t ok, Reynolds.” She sniffles and pulls back to look up at me and the tears falling down her cheeks break my heart. “You shouldn’t be getting hurt because of me, that’s not what I want. Why can’t Adam just leave us alone and let us be happy? Why does he have to try to destroy everything I love.”

Zoe gasps when she realizes what she just said, her hands fly to her mouth like covering her lips will somehow take the words back, but there’s no taking it back now, we all heard her. She said love. Zoe loves us.

“I… um…” Wiping the tears from her cheeks she stutters as she tries to back track, but I stop her.

Moving her hands out of the way I cup her face tenderly and press a soft kiss to her still trembling lips. “I love you, Red.” Hope fills her eyes as I keep going. “I will take on any fight, face any threat, if it means you don’t have to. I would do anything to keep you safe. You deserve nothing but happiness and love, let us give you that.”

Her soft smile is all I see before she’s kissing me again, pouring her love for me into each touch. The others give us a moment together before Nate jumps in to declare his love for Zoe too.

Part of me wants to keep her to myself all night, but she needs this, she needs reassurance from all of us right now. Adam took her love when she was younger, he twisted it into something ugly and broken. Now we’re going to show her what love is really like.

“You’re everything good in the world Zoe, the brightest sun in dark. I couldn’t even tell you when I fell in love with you, in a way it’s like you were always there in my heart.” He peppers her with his own kisses as she giggles softly. “Say it again Hot Rod, I need to hear you.”

“I love you, all of you.”

Looking over her shoulder Zoe steps away from Nate and goes to Liam. They wrap their arms around each other as he buries his face in her hair and whispers.

“I love you more than I ever thought was possible. When you left last year I realized what my life was missing, and I can’t live without you now. I won’t. My heart belongs to you Zoe, and it always will. ”

After their moment together Zoe reaches her hands out towards us, taking the hint Nate and I join them. All of us wrap our arms around her, holding Zoe like our world ends and begins with her, because it does.

I don’t know what the future holds but I know we’ll face it together.