A Heart Not Easily Broken

by M.J. Kane

  * * * *

  “Do you want me to call the cops?” Kaitlyn asked. She held her cell phone in one hand and gripped the door handle with the other.

  I drove wildly, trying my best to catch Brian at the hotel before someone got hurt. I struggled to keep from running red lights.

  “Come on, come on…” My palm ached from pounding the steering wheel.

  “Never mind. The way you’re drivin’ the police will just follow us in.”

  “Kaity, I don’t know what to do. This is all my fault. I should have said something as soon as it happened.”

  “Why didn’t you?” I saw her turn to face me in my peripheral.

  I glanced at her, then burned rubber the moment the light turned green.

  “Honestly, I didn’t think she’d stay with him this long. You know how Yasmine is, always with a new guy every few months. Brian didn’t need the distraction while he was on the road. He would have dropped everything and come home; it would have ruined his career. Plus, I was scared he wouldn’t want me anymore.”

  “That’s just plain stupid,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Another quick glance revealed hurt feelings on her face. “We’re friends, Ebony. I could have helped you. You shouldn’t have dealt with this by yourself.”

  Another wave of guilt hit me. “Honestly, Kaity, I didn’t want you to keep it from Yasmine. It wouldn’t have been fair to you. I’m sorry.”

  She reached over and gripped my hand. “And you were pregnant?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know, I could have been. Before Brian left we had a moment…and well, both of us were willing to accept the consequences. The next night Javan raped me and didn’t use protection. It scared me. I thought about what would happen if I ended up pregnant and the baby was his instead of Brian’s. I couldn’t live with that, so I did what I had to do. And I hate myself for it.”

  Her grip tightened. “God, Ebony, I am so sorry. Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

  “What I need is to stop Brian from doing something stupid and destroying his career. I’ve got to get to him. I need him.”

  “I’m gonna call the police.” She placed the call with her free hand.

  The lights of the hotel loomed in the distance. I released her hand to grip the wheel and pushed the pedal to the floor.

  * * * *

  “What the fuck, man!” Javan scrambled naked from the bed and reached for his pants. He hopped around on one leg to get them on. Only the king-sized bed separated us.

  My mind went all over the place taking everything in. The fact Yasmine gripped my arm and shouted at me was insignificant to the hum of anger that buzzed in my ear.

  I took one look at the bed and felt sick to my stomach.

  This was the same room where Ebony and I spent the weekend. The room she cried in the moment I opened the door.

  And then it hit me, a full shot to the chest.

  She’d made love to me after she was been raped.

  How was that even possible? How could she want to be with me after that violent act? After having her will of what happened to her body stripped from her?

  The hatred for the man I considered my friend for the past ten years blazed out of control. The logical part of my brain clicked off and went primal.

  I scrambled across the bed, grabbed him, and threw him against the wall with force I prayed felt twenty times worse than what he’d done to Ebony. I held him in place and with my free arm, reached back as far as I could and pounded his face.

  “Brian! Oh, my God! Stop, you’re hurting him!” Yasmine grabbed my fisted arm and put her full weight on it, slowing me down.

  “You son of a bitch! How could you do that to her? Why?” I got a few more licks in and a kick to his groin before Yasmine managed to knock me off balance.

  Javan slipped out of my grasp and slid down the wall, groaning and holding his sack. It wouldn’t be long before his jaw, eye, and lips were black and blue. The sight of blood pouring out of his nose and cut lip gave me a small amount of satisfaction, but it wasn’t even close to what I wanted to do.

  “Oh, no, Javan, baby…” Yasmine pushed past me, ripping the sheet from the bed to blot the blood running down his face. “Brian, what the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Whatever she said, the bitch is lying,” he spat out along with blood.

  “Call her bitch one more time and you’ll be picking teeth off the floor,” I growled while I paced the room. I wanted to push Yasmine out of the way and get to him again, but there was no way I’d put my hands on her.

  “What the hell is going on?” she shouted.

  “Brian’s woman is a liar.” Javan struggled to get up.

  Yasmine looked at both of us in confusion. “Ebony? What are you talking about?” When Javan didn’t supply an answer, she turned to me.

  “He raped her.” Saying the words again shot a pain to my stomach and chest. Anger like I never felt before flared before my eyes. I wanted to do nothing more than grab Javan’s throat and keep him from breathing.

  Yasmine’s eyes flashed in disbelief.

  Javan moved to get up again.

  “Sit your ass back down before I put it down for good,” I warned.

  Yasmine turned to him, an expression of confusion on her face.

  “Your girl is a ‘ho. She wanted me to─”

  I stepped over to give him another helping of personal justice, but Yasmine beat me to it by giving him something akin to a bitch slap. His head spun around, dreads swinging through the air as his head hit the wall. I wanted to punch his teeth in, but her slap sufficed for now. “Don’t talk about her like that. Why would Brian burst in here and say that? Did you rape her?” she asked.

  I could not see her face, but her voice sounded pained.

  “Because the bitch─”

  Yasmine’s hand shot out again, but this time he caught it and twisted her wrist. She yelled in pain.

  “Don’t ever hit me again, bitch,” Javan growled.

  I got in his face in two strides. “Let her go,” I said through gritted teeth.

  My hands fisted in a handful of his dreads as I snatched him up off the ground, thankful for the excuse to exact my revenge. He released her, shoving her away; she stumbled to the floor. Javan swung at me, his fist connected with my face and doubled back for my gut. Adrenaline pumped through my veins; I didn’t feel a thing.

  His next swing missed as I dodged, leaned down, and rammed my head into his chest. I wrapped my hands around his waist and slammed him back into the wall. He pounded my back while I retaliated, throwing punch after punch into his gut.

  “Brian!”

  In the midst of the yelling, grunting, and crashing of hotel furniture as we fought, Ebony’s voice rang crystal clear in the room. I managed to turn my head enough to see her standing horrified in the doorway with Kaitlyn on her heels.