I nod. “Cool.”
This might be the most awkward moment of my life. But if I’m being honest, there’s something about Mr. Montgomery that’s always been … off. He has this intense, off-putting way about him that instantly puts me on edge. Like he’s someone that’s dangling precariously from a cliff and one wrong word will send him off. I mean, I’ve never seen him lose his shit, but there’s something in his eyes—something that’s not quite right.
I’m finally able to get away from him and I join Thea at the table where she’s finishing her plate.
“What was that about?” she asks, her eyes shifting nervously from me to her dad behind me.
I shrug and pick up a plate. “He just wanted to congratulate me on making the team.”
“Ah, of course.” She rolls her eyes. “Football, the only thing he thinks about.” She then gives me a small smile. “Thank God you’re not that football obsessed. You love it, but it’s not an obsession.”
I glance back at her dad. “He’s really pissed about Cade not going pro, isn’t he?”
She snorts. “Oh, yeah. He would’ve been thrilled if Cade would’ve dropped out his junior year and gone pro. Like, I’m not kidding, I’m pretty sure the man would’ve done a dance and he doesn’t dance. Like ever.” She sighs and her eyes grow sad. “I wish he could accept Cade for the man he is, and not the man he wants him to be. But he has this idea built up in his head—” she waves her hand near her head to drive home her point “—of what Cade should be and Cade’s never going to measure up to that. I don’t think anyone can. It’s really sad.”
I finish fixing my hotdog and the two of us go over to the table Cade and Rae occupy. Cade rubs his hands on his shorts and his eyes shift around uneasily. Something tells me I wasn’t the first one to get cornered by his dad.
“We’re here,” Thea sing-songs unnecessarily since it’s pretty obvious that we are, in fact, here.
Cade chuckles and forces a smile. “Glad you could make it and no longer smell like swamp water.”
“Hey,” Thea scolds. Her anger is short-lived, however, when she takes a bite of her hotdog and moans. “Oh, that’s good. I’m starving.” She shoves some chips in her mouth.
I laugh. I love how one minute she can be girly, taking forever to pick out her outfit, and the next she’s a total mess and shoving food in her mouth like it’s going to disappear from the plate.
Nova and Jace show up a few minutes later and pull over two chairs, making the space at the table tight enough that we all bump elbows. None of us complain, though.
“Is there beer here?” Jace asks. “I need a fucking drink. There are too many happy people and I can’t deal.”
I snort. “Over there.” I point over my shoulder to the coolers.
“You want anything?” he asks Nova.
“Sure, bring me whatever you’re having.”
“You got it.” He drums his hands against the top of the table and then he’s gone.
Nova props her head up on her hand. “Is it bad that I’d rather be at home sleeping than here?”
Rae laughs. “I’m with you, girl. Socialization is not my thing. I brought my camera. Did you bring yours?”
Nova nods. “I figured I could get some cool photos of the fireworks. Maybe one of Thea shoving that hotdog in her mouth with ketchup all over her face.”
“Huh?” Thea asks, her mouth full. Sure enough, there’s a smear of ketchup on her cheek. “Isderketchuponmaface?” she slurs together.
I laugh and nod. “Yeah, right there.”
She groans and swipes furiously at her face, only making it worse.
“Stop.” I grab her flailing arm. “Let me get it.” I grab a napkin off the table and wipe her face clean. “There, all better.”
She gulps down her food and pants, “Thanks.”
Jace returns to the table and drops down into the chair with a loud groan. He holds a beer bottle out to Nova and she takes it gladly. Jace tips his back and takes a long drink.
“Ah,” he breathes out, “that’s better.”
“If you get drunk, you’re sleeping in the yard. I’m not driving you home,” Cade warns.
Jace winks. “I don’t want you to take me home anyway, sweetheart.” He then makes kissing lips and leans across the table toward Cade.
Cade mutters, “What? No.” And leans back in his chair trying to get away from Jace. Apparently, he leans too far because the chair falls back and he goes with it, dropping onto the ground. I’m pretty sure one of the plastic legs snap, but I can’t be sure because it’s hard to hear anything over the sound of Jace laughing his ass off. Okay, I’m laughing too.
Cade hops up and looks around. “No one saw, right?” he asks. I clutch my stomach, doubled over with laughter. He glares at Jace and me. “Fuck you and fuck you.” He kicks his broken chair aside and grabs one from another table. Rae sits with her hand covering her mouth, trying to hide her laughter.
When Cade plops down in his seat, mumbling under his breath, she loses it and starts laughing like us, which leads Thea and Nova to join.
Cade’s lips thin in irritation. “Ha-ha,” he mocks. “I get it. It’s so hilarious.”
We manage to sober after another minute, but it takes some effort. I see Cade crack a grin that he quickly tries to hide.
My parents and brother arrive and make a beeline right for us.
My mom wraps Thea in a tight hug before moving to me. I reach out for her and she gasps, grabbing my forearm. “Mom?” I ask, wondering what she’s doing.
“Is that a wedding ring?” she practically shrieks, not in happiness but in pure disgust and irritation. Thea very slyly tries to move her left hand under the table, but my mom catches the movement and turns to look. “I think I’m going to pass out,” she mutters and her hand flutters to her chest.
She lets go of my arm and rocks back a few steps.
I stand. “Mom, I can explain—”
“Explain?” she spits the word like it’s a curse word. “You’re my son and you got married and didn’t tell me? I’m your mom, I deserve to know something like that, Xander. First you didn’t tell us about football, and now this? I could understand the football thing, but this?” She looks from me to Thea. “You’re like a daughter to me, Thea, but right now I feel very betrayed by both of you.” She begins to cry and I reach for her.
“Mom, please—”
“No!” she shouts—and I mean shouts. Everyone at the party stops what they’re doing and the small show we were putting on suddenly becomes a much larger one. “Do not touch me,” she says coldly. “I’m leaving. I can’t be here.”
“Mom—” I call after her, starting to follow.
My dad catches my shoulder and stops me. My eyes meet Xavier’s and even he looks hurt and pissed off. Great, just great.
“No, just don’t,” my dad says, shaking his head firmly. He lets me go and heads in the same direction my mom left.
Xavier gives me one last disgusted look, shoves his hands in his pockets, and then he too is gone.
Unfortunately, the worst isn’t over.
Mr. Montgomery stands in front of the grill, pieces of burning meat smoking the air, and points those fucking tongs at me again. His normally calm, cool, and collected demeanor has been stripped bare and pure rage has settled on his face.
“Married. You two are fucking married?” The tongs swing from me to Thea and back again.
Thea’s mom stands by his side with a bowl of macaroni salad in her hands and she looks shocked and maybe a little wary.
Mr. Montgomery’s face grows red and a vein in his forehead throbs. The tongs swing again and this time land on Cade. “You,” he spits. “How could you let this happen?” Cade blinks, looking almost … scared? “Come here,” Mr. Montgomery yells, not at me, but at Cade.
I watch as Cade stands, head bowed like a scolded child, and he stalks through the grass and toward his father.
“This way,” he hisses, and like an obedient soldi
er Cade follows.
I stand there, wondering what the fuck is happening. I look back at the table and Rae looks worried. Thea does too.
Thea pushes back her chair and makes her way over to me. “This is so bad,” she whisper-hisses, glancing around at everyone who still stares at the soap opera playing out in front of them. “Come on.” She takes my hand and drags me up the deck steps and into the house.
Immediately, the sounds of her father shouting can be heard and she flinches. I can’t make out what he’s saying, but the gist of it is he thinks Cade should have stopped us.
Thea lets go of my hand, and I follow her through the house and down into the basement, which is her dad’s space. As kids we always knew not to go down there.
“You worthless piece of shit!” he yells. “You couldn’t even play football like you were supposed to and then you let this happen!” We round the corner and see Cade standing there, not saying a word in defense of himself and it’s obvious this isn’t the first time he’s been dragged off and yelled at like this. “Say something!” he yells in Cade’s face, but Cade continues to stand there doing nothing. It’s obvious Mr. Montgomery hasn’t heard us enter the room, and it’s made even more obvious when he cocks his arm back to punch Cade in the face.
I stare, frozen in horror.
But not Thea.
“No!” she screams and darts in-between the two, colliding with her father’s fist. Blood spurts onto the floor, Thea’s blood, and I see red.
My feet unfreeze and I barrel forward into a crouched position and tackle Mr. Montgomery to the floor. He’s not expecting it and goes down easily, his head colliding with the floor. That’ll leave a nasty bump, but he fucking deserves it. He punched Thea, and he was going to punch Cade, and it was obvious it wasn’t the first time.
I quickly roll off of him and stumble over to Thea. Cade has his hands on her shoulders, helping her to sit up and she clutches her nose, blood gushing between her fingers. Tears fill her eyes when she looks at me.
I move her hands aside and assess the damage.
“It doesn’t look broken to me, but I’m not a doctor,” I say, smoothing her hair away from her forehead and trying to comfort her as much as possible. Unfortunately, I only manage to get blood in her hair. Great.
Mr. Montgomery starts to stand and I whip around, pointing a threatening finger at him. “If you ever come near either of them again …” I let my threat hang in the air. I don’t know what exactly I’d do, but it would be bad.
A squeak by the stairs has us all turning and I see a kid there, maybe ten years old, and I vaguely remember her being a cousin of theirs.
“Bella, sweetie, don’t tell your mom,” Mr. Montgomery says in a sickeningly sweet voice.
I growl and turn to the kid. “Don’t listen to him. Tell everyone what a monster he is. He’s a bad man.”
The kid nods, but I don’t know whether she’s nodding at me or him, and suddenly she turns tail and runs up the stairs like her ass is on fire and she can’t get away fast enough.
Almost immediately, we hear the girl yell, “Thea’s dad hit her and she’s bleeding!”
I start to help Thea up, but Mr. Montgomery spits, “You fucker, you’ve ruined everything!” Suddenly I’m the one being tackled and since I wasn’t expecting it, I go down easily.
Luckily, I’m a lot younger than him and in much better shape, so it doesn’t take me long to gain the upper hand. Not before he slams his fist into my cheek, though. Pain blossoms across my face, throbbing in time with my heartbeat, and I hear Thea cry out.
I flip to the side and end up on top. I grab his flailing arms and stop his fists from flying.
I give him a nasty smile. “I want nothing more than to punch you in your too-smug face, but that’s too good for you. Much worse is coming for you. I promise you that.” I shove his arms back and stand.
Cade has Thea up now, her arms wrapped limply around his torso. Blood is smeared on his shirt where she leans her head against him, but for the most part the bleeding has subsided.
“Come here.” I take her from him, lifting her into my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck and leans her head against my chest, letting out a contented sigh.
When we reach the top of the stairs, I stop, surprised to find half the people from the party standing there. They take one look at Thea and gasp in horror.
I find Thea’s mom in the crowd and anger surges inside me. “Did you know?” I spit at her. “Did you know what a monster you married? Someone that hurt your kids and continues to do so?”
Tears spring into her eyes and she turns away, grief overtaking her face.
“We’re leaving,” I say, like it isn’t obvious already. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”
“Cade?” Rae calls out, pushing her way through the people. She appears a moment later. “Are you okay?” Before he can respond, she gasps and slaps a hand to her mouth. “Thea? No.”
Cade grabs my shoulder and I look over at him. “Get to the hospital. We’ll be right behind you.”
I nod. “Whatever you do, don’t cover for that bastard. He deserves to pay for this.” I look down at Thea, and her eyes are closed, but I know she’s not asleep.
Sweet Thea. The girl that always goes out of her way to make someone’s day better and put a smile on their face. She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.
Cade gives me a tight-lipped smile and nods.
I move through the crowd of people, down the hall, and out the front door. Thankfully, my truck hasn’t been blocked in and I’m glad we didn’t take the motorcycle because there’s no way Thea could ride on it now.
I manage to get the door open without dropping her and then set her inside. She buckles her seatbelt and looks at me sadly and a single tear slides down her cheek. I reach up and wipe it away as she gives me a sad smile.
“I couldn’t let him hit Cade again,” she whispers.
I swallow thickly. When I walked in on the scene, I suspected that their dad had been using Cade for a human punching bag. “How long has this been happening?”
“I didn’t know until I was in eighth grade,” she whispers softly, like she’s never spoken the words aloud and it hurts to do so. “I came home early from a friend’s house and they didn’t know I was home. I heard shouting and then I saw him hit Cade. It stuck with me, and then I started remembering all the times I’d seen bruises on Cade and it was easy to figure out it had been happening for a long time.”
I shake my head, horrified. I can’t imagine growing up in a household with a father like that. My dad was the kind who worked all day but couldn’t wait to get home and hang out with us. I even remember him playing dolls with Alexis. It was important to him to do things we liked.
I close her door and head for the driver’s side. I start the truck and get out of there as fast as I can. I can’t take being in the shadow of that house a second longer and I’m sure Thea feels that way more than I do.
After a few minutes of silence, Thea begins to speak again. “I always knew as a little girl that my dad had a quick temper. I remember once when I was about five, I dropped a glass of orange juice in the kitchen and he just went off, like a switch had been flipped. My mom said to him, ‘It’s just a little juice.’” She shakes her head, sadness clinging to her. “That pissed him off more. She was already down on her hands and knees, cleaning up the mess while I cried, and he grabbed her by the hair and shoved her head down and said if it was just a little juice then she could lick it clean.” I glance at her, horrified, and she wipes her tears away. “He’s never hit me before today, and we all know he was aiming for Cade, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t hurt me too. Words and actions are just as powerful as fists, if not more so. This will heal—” she points to her face “—but this—” now she points to her heart “—will always bear those scars.”
“Thea,” I say softly. I’m at a loss for words and I don’t know what to say to make it better. I don’t think there’s anything I can s
ay.
So, instead, I hold her hand and give it a small squeeze, silently reminding her that I’m here.
We arrive at the emergency room a few minutes later, and as per usual, it’s a major clusterfuck. The place is full of people in all different states—sick, bleeding, crying. You name it, someone’s doing it. There’s even a guy peeing in one of those potted plants.
Thea gives the woman at the front desk her name and insurance information and then is handed a stack of papers to fill out. Thea sighs heavily and we maneuver our way around, looking for a place to sit. We finally find two seats together near the back beside a woman with a crying infant.
Thea goes to work on filling out the information but I notice a slight shake to her hand and she keeps quietly crying. After another minute of this, I take the clipboard from her and fill it out myself. I know practically everything so it’s not a big deal, but she looks up at me with these big shining eyes like I’ve just done the greatest thing ever. It’s such a simple thing, but those things mean the most to someone.
I finish filling out the paperwork and return it to the front desk. I’m starting back to our seats when Cade, Rae, Jace, and Nova come in. I wasn’t expecting all of them, and I hope Thea won’t feel overwhelmed.
“Hey, guys,” I say. “She’s over here waiting.”
I lead them over to our chairs and sit down beside Thea. She forces a small smile for everyone.
“Whoa, you look like a star in a horror movie,” Jace says. Nova glares at him and gives his arm a smack. “Ow, I was trying to be funny. Lighten the mood.”
Nova rolls her eyes. “You’re such a guy. Keep your mouth shut, how about that.”
Jace’s lips thin and he looks to the ceiling. Nova is the only girl I’ve ever met that can shut him up.
Before much else can be said, they call for Thea and we follow someone down a long hall while the others stay behind.
She gets put in a room with three cinderblock walls and one all glass with a clear view of the information desk.
“Put on the gown and someone will be in to see you shortly.” The door closes behind us.
Thea hops onto the bed, kicking her legs back and forth. “I’m not putting that gown on,” she warns me. “I will fight someone if they try to get me to wear that.”
When Stars Collide (Light in the Dark #2) Page 17