Page 19 of Playing Hard to Hate

GRIFFIN

PRESENT

The supermarket was empty, considering it was a Sunday night.

Most people were either partying at bars and restaurants or chilling at home on their couches.

Not sure why Mom insisted I come for milk and ice cream, but she pushed me out of the house and tried to give me a credit card like I couldn’t afford it.

I filled a shopping cart with enough ice cream to sate a rowdy group of kids, as in I picked at least five different flavors, and then skimmed the other aisles, looking for anything else I might need.

I really didn’t want to go home just yet.

I’d rather still be at the gym with Tatum or anywhere else.

I had a bad feeling about tonight’s dinner.

I’d rather be at a dingy supermarket, pretending that I needed groceries, than having dinner with my parents. How sad and pathetic was that?

My phone buzzed with a text, my smartwatch vibrating with the notification from my mom now asking for chips. This was so unlike her, but the text read dipping chips. I chuckled and shook my head, heading for the chip aisle to grab her favorite kind. What kind of dinner was this going to be?

I walked past the chips. At the end of the aisle, there was a BOGO offer for protein-packed snacks, so I grabbed cans of two white albacore tuna and two beef sticks, unable to shake Tate from my mind. I was hoping just maybe she would one day ask me if I had anything “healthy” in my condo.

With all the requested party food—chips, ice cream, and carton of milk loaded into the cart—I pushed my cart toward the checkout lanes, but I paused at the commotion before me.

Standing there, her chocolate-brown hair longer than I remembered from the gym and perfect body, toned to perfection, now in a pair of tight black leggings and a soft-looking sweater, was none other than Tatum Grace.

The girl I was severely crushing on stood only a few feet away from me, her body stiff, eyes locked on a masked man dressed in black, pointing a gun straight at her chest.

My heart froze.

The world seemed to hold its breath, as if no one dared to move or even breathe at the scene unfolding before them. Shit like this didn’t happen here, not in our small town.

To have a group of men in masks waving guns around the grocery store was utterly haunting.

I assessed the scene like a fucking predator as I locked eyes with my prey. I wanted to break every bone in his body for not only holding that black piece of metal to her chest, but for the fear and trauma she would later have to deal with.

I’d never been filled with so much rage. All I wanted to do was rip the guy’s face off and destroy him forever for looking at Tatum.

I had to think fast. Her life depended on it.

“You! Come here now.” He crooked a finger at her, beckoning her forward, and she visibly shook, turning her head side to side, looking for help but receiving none.

My hands tightened around the handle of my cart, rage pulsing through me.

Just who did he think he was, putting my girl in danger?

Pointing a gun at her like her life wasn’t valuable?

I took two steps back behind a fat old white guy who looked like a clone of Santa Claus as he was shivering in his big gray matching hoodie and pants. I needed a distraction, and I needed one fast.

About five aisles over was a big glass light fixture the size of a small car illuminating the entire scene. Perfect.

I pulled a can of tuna out of my cart, hoping the gunman wouldn’t see me lunging over the fat old guy as I got ready to throw the can. “Shh, don’t move,” I whispered to the man as I reached above his head. I almost dropped the can in my panic, but I quickly caught it.

“Did you hear me? Make your transaction!” His body shook with rage, the gun trembling in his fist as he pointed it at her. He was scared.

My heart sank, and adrenaline coursed through my veins as I ditched my cart and edged closer, needing to save her.

I couldn’t stand here and do fucking nothing while her life was in danger.

The cops weren’t getting here fast enough, and no one else seemed to be able to move out of their own fear-induced trance to do a damn thing.

This moment would haunt me for the rest of my life.

I wouldn’t survive if I saw her eyes completely lifeless, staring back at me, not when we had so much still unsaid between us.

So much I wanted to say but never had the fucking courage to because somehow, after all these years, this woman still made me nervous.

There was so much I wanted to talk to her about. So many things I had to apologize for.

I had spent so many years torturing her, trying to hide my feelings in the most pathetic way.

All for it to come down to this. To this moment.

I would have to throw away all the years I spent painting a completely different picture of who I was in her eyes.

Everything I’d tried hiding from her would now come to light.

But none of that mattered. It couldn’t end like this. She couldn’t end like this.

“Don’t make me pull the trigger. I didn’t come here to hurt anyone, but I will if I must.”

That’s what they all say, I bitterly thought. He couldn’t even try to be original. And the way that gun was trembling in his hand—he was new at this. Didn’t really know what he was doing. And he was just as scared as the girl he was threatening to kill.

She pushed her cart forward, her feet sticking to the ground as she moved, forcing herself to drag them. She walked straight into a bin of discount items, sending it to the floor, the noise loud in the eerily quiet store.

I focused on the man’s face, mostly hidden by a black ski mask, doing my best to take note of important facial features. The police would be here soon. They would need some characteristics. I would make sure this fucker ended up behind bars. Even if I had to hire someone to do it myself.

Blue eyes like the clear sky on a sunny summer day. Scar just under his right eye before it disappeared beneath his ski mask. A hint of a tribal tattoo peeked out from beneath his mask before disappearing into the hoodie he wore.

He rushed forward and yanked impatiently on Tatum’s cart, pulling her along, her gasp of shock loud and painful. I barely bit back a snarl at the way he was handling her.

“Hurry up!” he sneered at her, his eyes darkening as they drilled a hole into her pretty head. I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands for looking at her, for speaking to her, for making her scared. She was an innocent woman just trying to buy groceries. She didn’t deserve this. No one did .

Her hands shook as they latched onto the fruit in her cart, and she raised it slowly, putting it down on the conveyor belt.

My heart beat heavily against my chest, every beat thrumming loudly in my ears.

But my focus was homed in on them all while I kept a check on my surroundings, making sure no one important was paying attention to me—like the other robbers he’d come in with.

“Scan the items!” the robber barked at the clerk, his voice echoing around us. The clerk merely shook his head in refusal, and I clenched my fists, waiting for the robber’s next move.

If that clerk survived this, he’d be lucky if I didn’t break his jaw. The money in that register was not worth Tatum’s life.

I wanted to rip the mask from the robber’s face. I wanted my face to be the last one he ever saw.

The gunman didn’t hesitate to press the gun to Tatum’s temple, and her body turned to stone. Lava flowed through my veins, tinting my vision red. Fucking hell.

“Scan them, or I’ll blow her brains out!”

I crouched over to get a clear shot at the light about twenty yards away.

If I miss it, we all could die. Time slowed as I imagined I was in a championship game, and it was the ninth inning with bases loaded, seats filled, cameras flashing in all directions.

Taking in a big breath and focusing my eyes ahead, I twisted my torso and threw the can with all of my strength.

BANG.

Hundreds of pieces of shattered glass fell to the ground creating the perfect distraction.

The clerk blinked slowly at the robber while I inched closer, swallowing past the lump in my throat. She wasn’t going to die. I wouldn’t let that happen. Not a fucking chance in hell. Her life rested in my hands, and I wouldn’t be the one to fail her. Not again.

“The cops will be here any minute,” the clerk whispered like an idiot. I gritted my teeth, narrowing my eyes at him for a moment before I focused back on who was important—Tatum. But it took a lot of restraint to bite back the urge to strangle the dumb man.

I didn’t hesitate to move when I saw his finger slip over the trigger. He was willing to kill her over a few bills, and I wasn’t allowing that to happen.

Wrapping my hands around Tatum’s wrist, I yanked her backward with all my strength and immediately took up position in front of her. Small hands instantly curled into the fabric of my shirt, her fear seeping into my skin as she shook behind me.

“Shoot me instead.” I looked the robber straight in the eye, daring him. But I could see the wariness in his eyes. I was lean, but I had bulk on my side. Strength. Determination. I wasn’t shaking and afraid.

I was an opponent he didn’t want, and his baser instincts recognized me as a predator. But that didn’t mean he didn’t open his mouth and say something stupid.

“How sweet,” he crooned. “I always love a pathetic hero. How about I just shoot you both?”

Tatum whimpered and tried to pull me back, but I remained steady, glaring the coward down. In this moment, I was an immovable mountain.

“Leave now, or you’ll be leaving on a stretcher!” I yelled, rage boiling inside me.

And I also knew he wasn’t going to shoot. He might’ve shot Tatum, but not me.

“Time to go!” another voice yelled, and the man turned, seeing the red and blue lights flickering in the distance. He glared at me one last time before fleeing the scene like the coward he truly was.

They’d left empty-handed, and no blood had been spilled .

Tatum’s blood hadn’t been spilled.

I turned just as the woman in question started to crumple to the ground. I quickly settled my hands around her slim waist, holding her up as she sobbed, breaking my heart.

The cries tearing from her plump, pink lips tore my soul apart. Pain sliced through my chest as I did my best to console her through her fear. Blinking slowly, she opened her beautiful, vibrant green eyes.

God, I could look into them forever. Her dark lashes were wet from her tears, those lovely, green eyes glassy, and her cheeks were red from fear and crying. Even in such a fragile state, she was the definition of raw beauty.

“I’ve got you. You’re okay now. You’re okay, Tate.” I looked over her face, then her body, checking even though I knew she was okay. My adrenaline faded, and I began to shake as I went over the last five minutes in my head.

“Fin?” she cried, her angelic voice breaking on my name.

“Everything is okay. You’re okay.” I need to reassure her and myself because I could have lost her.

The girl I wanted for as long as I could remember was standing in my arms, but she had nearly been shot right in front of me.

I was given a second chance—a second chance to win her over the right way.

To right the wrongs of the past and prove to her I could be the man she needed me to be this time.

I was no longer a kid. I was a man who knew what he wanted. And I was going to go after it.

I wasn’t going to mess it up this time. I was going to fight. I was going to show her the man I had become in the last four years. I wasn’t a kid afraid of loving a girl anymore.

I was a man looking for the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And she was standing right in front of me.

“We almost died. There was a gun. A gun. Pointed at me. At you. A gun,” she cried, her words incoherent as the police entered the supermarket, coming to our rescue almost too late.

I barely heard the sounds of everyone beginning to panic, crying and yelling, and the police officers trying to contain the situation.

“You’re safe. You’re alive,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. I ran my hands over her hair before bringing them to her sweet face, cradling her damp cheeks in my hands. Using my thumbs, I brushed some of her tears away, but more only fell to replace the ones I swiped away.

“Because of you,” she whispered back, her voice shaky and trembling.

Before I could say a word, two police officers strode up to us, wanting our statements.

They wanted to question us in private, but I wasn’t allowing that to happen.

Tatum was a mess, her words almost incoherent through her tears and sobs.

I did my best to console her while I gave my statement and whatever characteristics I remembered from the robber who’d held Tatum at gunpoint.

“Tate,” I murmured as I led her to her sedan. She wasn’t in any state to drive. She was still shaking, and I could see exhaustion weighing down her shoulders. Tiredness lingered in her green eyes as she looked up.

“Thank you. Thank you, Griff.” She looked away before she finished speaking, focusing her green eyes on her car.

“What are you doing tonight?” I blurted before I could stop myself. But I didn’t regret my question.

For me, there was no more waiting around. I wanted her as mine. I was done wasting time. I just needed to convince her of how I truly felt. And fuck dinner with my parents. I’d almost just watched the girl from next door, the one I’d always been so madly in love with, die .

She snapped her head in my direction, and I smirked despite the situation we’d just left and the crazy, nightmarish night we’d just experienced together. A night that bonded us in a way we could never ignore.

“Me? Going home and thanking God that I am alive,” she said softly, not an ounce of teasing in her words. She truly meant what she said. My heart clenched in my chest for her and everything she’d gone through tonight.

“How about some pizza, and we thank Him together?”

She bit her lip and started to shake her head. A lump formed in my throat, and I roughly cleared it. I wasn’t letting her walk away tonight.

“My treat,” I coaxed, and she sighed before looking back at her sedan for a moment.

She was going to deny me. I was sure of it. I couldn’t expect this night and our trauma bond to suddenly make her want to be around me. So I was surprised when she quietly said, “Come to my place, and we can order something.”

My parents would just have to have dinner without me. Tatum was more important than a weekly dinner.