Fight of Life (Perception Book 3)

by Shandi Boyes

  “Don’t ever play poker Jacob” he laughs, before he walks out into the hallway

  Chapter 19

  Lola

  “Guys are such pigs” I huff in disgust as I exit the bathroom at Mavericks.

  I had just finished cleaning the male bathroom as part of my continued punishment from Maggie. After our disagreement two weeks ago, she has been giving me every shit chore she can possibly find. But because of how bad I need this job, I have to put up with the unfair punishment I am receiving. Maggie isn’t being fair as she doesn’t know the agreement Jacob and I have. I didn’t technically cheat on him when I got friendly with Flynn as we were never dating to begin with.

  Just as I turn the corner to walk back into the main bar area, I crash into a solid and hard chest.

  “Sorry” I mumble quickly, as I attempt to manoeuvre past the person.

  “I knew I would eventually find you” states a deep voice I instantly recognize, forcing my heart to start racing a million miles an hour as my eyes open wide in shock.

  As my gaze lifts from the blue shirt covered chest, I stare directly into the blue eyes of Callum.

  “Hello Callum” I greet quietly, trying to keep my composure calm.

  Callum’s gaze narrows down to my tight red Mavericks shirt and my white denim jeans, before his eyes eventually look back to stare at mine.

  “Still dressing slutty as normal I see” he declares as his face morphs into anger and disgust.

  I attempt to walk past him, but he suddenly grabs a hold of my left wrist, making me freeze just inches away from the exit of the hallway. I go to call out for help, but then I realise it is only Maggie and I rostered on this afternoon and as much as she is being unfair to me right now, I don’t want to put her in any danger.

  “I didn’t say I had finished talking to you yet” he spits angrily, before he commences dragging me back into the hallway. He is gripping my wrist that tight, I am certain he is going to leave a bruise.

  “Callum, let me go” I request calmly, even though my heart is racing a million miles an hour.

  “If I don’t go out to the bar soon they will come looking for me” I advise, hoping I could scare him into letting me go, but he only starts laughing as his grip tightens on my wrist.

  “You think the little old lady behind the bar is going to come and save you” he taunts, before he moves his body in closer to mine.

  Callum certainly isn’t the height or width of Jacob, but he is definitely taller than my five-foot-five frame and weighs more than my one hundred and twenty pounds. When he pushes up against me, I become trapped between him and the wall.

  “What do you want?” I question as my gaze turns to down the hall, seeking assistance from anyone that may be walking around, but there is no one in sight.

  “I want you back” he replies, before he grabs my face roughly with his hand forcing me to look into his dangerous blue eyes. His fingers dig roughly into my cheeks, causing my eyes to start watering.

  “In my bed, where you belong” he breathes angrily before he lowers down his mouth onto mine. He attempts to force his tongue into my mouth, but I keep my lips together tight, denying his kiss.

  “Get off me” I whisper angrily against him lips, once he stops licking the seam of my mouth.

  Callum then lowers his hand down and wraps it around my neck. When he squeezes my throat tightly, my eyes open wide in fear. I attempt to remove his hand with my hands, but when I fight against his hold, he increases his grip.

  “You don’t think you owe me some kind of explanation as to why you packed up everything in the middle of the night and vanished. Nine fucking months I gave you and I don’t even deserve a proper goodbye” he whispers angrily as his fingers wrap tighter around my neck.

  “Callum please” I plead scared, as tears slowly start dripping down my face.

  “You think you can just walk out of my life like that” he replies angrily as his grip stays tight around my neck. I shake my head in panic, while looking into Callum’s blue eyes pleading with him to loosen his grip. Just as my panic starts to surge that I am not getting enough air, Callum’s grip starts to loosen around my neck.

  “Get off her right now” Maggie screams. When my eyes flick towards her, I watch as she swings a baseball bat hard at Callum’s arm. This time, her swing has enough force in it that she successfully dislodges his grip on my neck.

  Callum’s furious gaze turns away from me to Maggie, who is standing in the middle of hallway. She is holding a baseball bat up in the air, ready to swing at him again if needed.

  “It’s okay Maggie, I can handle this” I say, trying to get Maggie out of Callum’s radar. His jaw is ticking with anger as he slowly commences walking towards her.

  “This bat isn’t the only weapon I am carrying” Maggie advises sternly as her eyes narrow at Callum.

  “If you don’t leave my bar right now, I will have no hesitation in shooting you” she informs firmly, as her arm moves to behind her back, making Callum freeze.

  Callum’s furious gaze turns back towards me and I see nothing but pure hatred and disgust settled in his blue eyes.

  “This isn’t over” Callum whispers dangerously, before he slowly walks past Maggie holding his hands up in the air.

  Mine and Maggie’s gaze follows Callum as he exits the hallway and the instant he disappears back into the main bar area, I swiftly slump down onto the ground, as a stream of tears start to flow down my face.

  Chapter 20

  Jacob

  “I think you nearly gave that old lady a heart attack” Noah chuckles, as I jump into the passenger seat of his truck.

  “Me! You’re the one that got her all flustered” I reply while laughing.

  “Here let me help you young man” Noah says while impersonating the old lady’s voice at the Café. “Oh so hard young man” Noah laughs loudly, as he fires up his truck and starts driving back to my house.

  We drove into town this morning to collect some new parts for Noah’s truck. He had finished rebuilding the motor over a month ago and we are going to commence on the interior and body this week. Since it was a little after lunch, we decided to stop at a café to grab a bite to eat. When the waitress was refilling coffee into my cup, she peered over towards Noah, who smiled brightly at her, causing her to become flustered that she moved the coffee pot from pouring coffee into my cup to directly into my crutch instead.

  I abruptly jumped up out of the booth, as the scolding hot coffee started seeping into my trousers. The waitress quickly apologized, before she grabbed a wad of napkins and started trying to soak up the coffee. To say I was embarrassed that a sixty plus year old lady was currently dabbing a wad of napkins against my dick, would have been a major understatement. When I peered past her to look at Noah, I noticed he was laughing, but he had managed to keep the chuckles quiet as he was biting down hard on his fist. But the instant the waitress said “Oh so hard young man” Noah completely lost it and started laughing hysterically, encouraging everyone’s eyes in the café to turn towards us. I quickly took the wad of napkins off the waitress and sat back down into the booth mortified. The waitress then looked between Noah and I, causing her cheeks to go bright red, before she mumbled out another apology and bolted back into the kitchen.

  “She was talking about my thigh muscle” I reply as Noah continues to laugh while he starts to head out of town.

  “Sure she was” Noah laughs, while waggling his eyebrows.

  “Asshole” I retort, just as I notice my cell phone ringing in my pocket. When I peer down at the screen, I don’t recognize the number but do note it has a local area code.

  “Hello” I greet into the phone apprehensively.

  “Hi Jacob, it’s Maggie” Maggie advises quietly.

  “Hey Maggie” I greet back friendly, causing Noah’s gaze to turns towards me. He seems as surprised as I am that Maggie would be calling me. I have Maggie’s cell phone number stored in my phone, but I have never had a reason to utili
se it before.

  “Umm, I was wondering if you could do me a favour Jacob?” she requests concerned.

  “Sure Maggie, anything” I reply without hesitation.

  Maggie has always been there to lend an ear to me when I vent my frustrations about my ‘dates’, so I am more than happy to help her back. Maggie stays quiet while she takes in a few deeps breaths.

  “Are you okay Maggie?” I question concerned, triggering Noah to pull his truck over to the side of the road.

  “Yeah I am ok” she replies softly “It’s Lola” she whispers, causing my heart to instantly drop into my stomach.

  “What’s wrong with Lola?” I question concerned. When I look over at Noah I notice he has his eyebrows pull together closely.

  “She is a little bit rattled Jacob and I don’t want her to drive home. Can you come and take her home?” She requests quietly.

  “Yeah, I can do that” I answer without hesitation, while also panicking over what has Lola so rattled.

  “Thanks Jacob” Maggie replies hesitantly.

  “I’ll be there in around five minutes” I promptly reply before disconnecting the call. My gaze lifts from the phone to Noah’s concerned gaze.

  “Maggie asked if I could pick Lola up and take her home. She said she is too rattled to drive” I inform Noah.

  “Can you take me to Mavericks and then follow me back to Lola’s house?” I question.

  “Yeah no worries” Noah immediately replies, before he executes a U turn manoeuvre and heads back into town.

  The instant I walk into Mavericks I notice that the whole place is pretty much deserted. Maggie is standing behind the bar and she offers me and Noah a small smile when she spots us entering.

  “Where is she?” I question, as I quickly stride towards the bar.

  “In the storeroom” Maggie replies and I notice that her blue eyes are full of unshed tears.

  I look back at Noah, nodding my head towards Maggie. I don’t want to leave Maggie while she is upset, but I need to check on Lola. Noah nods his head in understanding before he walks around the bar and heads towards Maggie. I then quickly head into the storeroom.

  “Lola” I call out as I enter through the large wooden door.

  I hear the sound of sniffling, before I eventually spot Lola sitting down on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees. I quickly move over towards her and squat down in front of her.

  “Lola are okay?” I question gently.

  She slowly lifts her tear stained face to look at me and then she throws her arms around my neck, sending me falling backwards onto my ass. She snuggles in close and starts to softly cry.

  I pull her in close to my chest, while I try to offer her comfort. My heart is racing in turmoil trying to work out what has made Lola so upset. During the day Mavericks normally has only a small handful of regulars, but you can still get the occasional drunken idiot that may get a little grabby with the bar staff. But I have seen Lola handle those types of patrons before without a concern, so I don’t think she would get this upset over a customer getting a little handsy.

  It takes several minutes for Lola’s sobs to eventually lessen and when she finishes crying, I lift her tear stained face to look at mine. There is no doubt she is rattled and her normal sparkling brown eyes now have a haunted look to them.

  “Can you please take me home Jacob?” she requests quietly, while her tear filled eyes stare directly into mine.

  I nod my head as I stand up and slowly place her down onto her feet. As we walk out into the main bar area hand in hand, Maggie looks over towards us and gives Lola a sad smile. Lola quickly runs over to Maggie and wraps her arms tightly around her. Maggie appears stunned to start with, but then she hugs Lola back just as tight.

  The only sounds I hear in the cab of Lola’s mom’s car on the drive to Erkinsvale is the occasional sniffling of Lola. When I reach over and grasp her hand in mine, her gaze turns from peering outside to look over at me sadly. I silently plead to her to tell me what is wrong, but she only offers me a small smile, before returning her gaze to the road outside. I look down at our joined hands and that is when I notice a large red mark on Lola’s wrist.

  “Who did that?” I question concerned as I lift her wrist closer to me so I can properly inspect the mark. You can easily tell from the way the bruise is forming that it is a hand mark from being grabbed too tight.

  Lola suddenly pulls her arm away from me and pulls down on her long sleeve shirt in an attempt to hide the mark.

  “Lola who did that to you? Is that why you are upset?” I enquire angrily.

  I am not angry at Lola but my anger is rapidly gaining at the fact that someone had put their hands on her rough enough that it has caused her skin to get marked.

  “I don’t want you in the middle of this Jacob” she answers quietly.

  “In the middle of what?” I question as I pull into the driveway of Lola’s family home.

  Lola hastily opens the passenger door and briskly walks to her house. I quickly jump out of the car and turn back to look at Noah in his truck, signally that I will be out in a minute. Once he nods his head, I quickly catch up with Lola as she unlocks the front door.

  “Please tell me what happened” I plead into Lola’s sad eyes the instant we enter her house.

  Chapter 21

  Lola

  “Please tell me what happened” Jacob pleads concerned as he walks over towards me and cups my cheek with his large hand.

  “Please Lola” he begs as his concerned blue eyes stare at mine.

  This is the reason I chose not to date. I don’t want Jacob to feel like he needs to save me. I can take care of myself and I don’t want to drag him into my complicated life.

  “Can I get changed first?” I question. Jacob looks down at me with his eyebrows pulled together before he slowly starts nodding his head.

  He follows closely behind me as I walk to my room and observes me cautiously as I change out of my work clothes. My stomach won’t stop swirling as I can smell Callum’s aftershave imbedded in my shirt. Once I pull one of my singlets over my head, I sit on the edge of my bed and motion for Jacob to sit down next to me. He seems to hesitate to start with before he eventually sits down.

  “I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone what I am going to tell you” I request into his tormented blue eyes. Jacob instantly starts nodding his head.

  “No, I need you to promise me Jacob” I request more firmly, a shake of his head isn’t enough of a promise for me to accept.

  I don’t want anyone in my family to find out what had happened to me. I am extremely grateful that today my parents are both at work and Emily is at school so they won’t have to witness firsthand my disastrous life. I haven’t kept this secret for the past nine months for it to be brought to the surface now.

  “I promise” Jacob replies roughly as he swallows harshly.

  I am hesitant in telling my story, but when I look into the concerned eyes of Jacob, I try to remind myself that he is different than most of the guys I date. I feel like I can trust him with my secret and I just hope that he can handle what I am about to tell him.

  “I use to think my ex-boyfriend Callum was the love of my life. He seemed like a really good guy when I first met him. He used to have a similar personality to yours, he was cheeky and loveable. But as the months went on I noticed a lot of changes in Callum’s personality. He started to become more withdrawn and began isolating us from our friends. After I moved in with him, his moods could shift from devastating lows to infuriating anger in a matter of minutes”

  Jacob remains quiet as he listens carefully to me speaking, but I can see the veins in his neck have started to bulge, that my hesitation resurfaces.

  “Tell me” he whispers roughly as he grasps my hand in his, offering me moral support.

  “To start with he used to just taunt me and call me names, until one night he took it further” I advise, causing Jacob’s grip on my hand to tighten.

/>   “His brother Curtis was over and I had noticed any time that he would visit us, Callum’s behaviour was even worse than normal. I don’t exactly know what made him snap, but it was only once” I confide quickly, like I was trying to rip a band aid off in one quick motion.

  Jacob releases his tight grasp on my hand and roughly runs his hand down his face, like he is mentally preparing himself for the rest of my story.

  “What exactly do you mean by snapped?” he questions, his voice sounds so rough and slightly cracks as he questions me.

  I can feel the tears rapidly building in my eyes as Jacob’s gaze stares directly into mine. I have never said the words out loud to anyone before. If I never admit it; doesn’t that mean it never happened? Jacob lifts his large hand and gently runs it down the side of my face, begging for me to tell him.