Mark stepped forward, tapping him on the shoulder. When Zane turned to look at him, he could tell by the look on his face, his words were going to have the desired effect before they were out of his mouth. “Fine, then let Austin have her.”
He roared and managed to swing fast enough to connect with Mark’s jaw. The big man stumbled back a step, more out of surprise by the power behind the punch, than anything else. He’d take that as a reminder, just because a man wasn’t as big as he was, didn’t mean they were weak.
He worked his jaw a little bit, trying to check for any lasting damage. “If you don’t know what you want to do, you might as well let her go.”
“I can’t,” he roared again, charging at his mountain of a brother-in-law.
The two went flying several feet before they landed in the dirt and went rolling around like a couple of fourteen-year-olds fighting over a bike or video game. Zane took several swings at him, managing to get several body shots in. Thankfully he managed to block all the ones aimed at his face, managing to avoid winding up with a broken nose. Not that he wouldn’t have gladly taken one if it would have helped Zane work past the furnace of pain and anger he was now stuck in.
Their scuffling continued for several minutes before they rolled to a stop and Zane crawled off, letting Mark up. He was crying, so hard, the tears were streaming down his face in silent rivers. He sat with his head down, his body racked with sobs.
After waiting several seconds for his sobs to slow, Phillip took a deep breath before asking, “Are you ready to go after her?”
Zane shook his head in anguish. “I don’t know,” he managed to say through the tears.
“Zane, out of all of my brothers and sisters, you were the last one I dreamed I’d have to have this kind of conversation with,” he chuckled, more at himself than at Zane. “Of course, maybe I should have seen it coming. Face it, you’re acting like a little boy, instead of admitting your true feelings and going after that woman. And you need to go after her before Austin seriously hurts her.”
“Phillip, don’t even start,” he sobbed. “I can’t handle it right now.”
“Zane, you know what’s going on. You need to face it.”
“I never once said I didn’t,” he huffed, standing to his feet. “No one actually asked me directly how I felt.”
“Then go after her.”
“She told me not to,” he said, shaking his head. “She doesn’t want me coming after her.”
“Use whatever excuse you want, but it’s already too late. If something happens to her, it’s going to kill you. Do you realize you haven’t made a single joke, or teased someone in the week she’s been gone?”
“She went back to him, Phillip. What am I supposed to do?” he asked in a near roar, all the pain and anguish coming out in the one question.
“I don’t think she wanted to go back,” he stressed. “She wants to be with you.”
Zane just snorted and shook his head.
“If you don’t believe me, ask Mom.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s time to have that conversation with mom,” he said, walking away to head to his bike.
He left the rest of them standing silently behind him, grinning at each other. Apparently, Mindi had been right. All they had to do was get him to release some of his pent-up anger and pain.
“Are we really going to just let him walk off like that?” Jeff asked, sounding confused.
“Yeah, after that scuffle, he’s sober,” Mark nodded, misunderstanding the other man’s concerns. “He was never really that drunk to start with.”
“I’m not talking about the alcohol.”
“We’ve done everything we can. Now it’s up to him to listen to Mom,” Mindi whispered.
“But is he ready to listen.”
She nodded her head with a small sad smile. “I believe so. He just had to get rid of some of the anger. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about the pain.”
“But it was the anger that was keeping him from seeing things clearly,” Luke added. “He still has a lot to work through, but he’ll be alright now.”
Jeff was starting to understand Luke’s strange quirks well enough at this point, he just nodded his head and said a silent prayer.
Chapter 23
Sunday, August 31
Zane walked into the house, heading straight for the kitchen. He knew his mom would already be in there waiting on him. He’d called her to let her know he wanted to talk before he even left the house and asked her if she could find the time to talk to him. Sure enough, when he walked in there, she was sitting at the table with her head bowed.
The second the doors swung open, her head popped up. She just looked up at him and waited for him to sit down. These days she was spending a lot of time on her knees. Amanda was living in Ruby Falls where Austin could get his hands on her and as far as any of them knew, was practically living with her. Zane hadn’t been his self since she had left.
She had never felt the desire to ask one of her children to walk away from the person they loved before, and she knew she couldn’t this time. If he did walk away from her, he’d never be the same again. Sure, he might manage to get some of his humor back, but she knew deep down there would always be something that was a little broken in him.
In the week or so since Amanda had been gone, she hadn’t heard him even laugh, much less try to irritate someone. That was the reason she knew he would never be able to walk away from this. If something were to happen to Amanda, she was afraid he would pretty much roll up in a ball and die. He would still be physically here, but he would be more like a zombie than the real living breathing Zane that they had always known.
“Have you finally realized you’re in love with her?” She sat there looking at him, waiting for him to answer.
She seen him try to smile. He almost laughed. Apparently, it was just too painful to do. “Mom, I’ve always known. Ever since high school. I just wasn’t willing to tell anybody. She was always dating other guys and I didn’t believe she felt the same way for me. And I didn’t want to take a chance in ruining our friendship. I just kept thinking at least I had that.”
She gasped when she noticed his knuckles looked a little bruised and scraped up. “Were you in a fight?”
He glanced down at his hands and chuckled. “That’s why I’m here now. All three of my brothers-in-law and their wives, along with Phillip, ganged up on me last night. And Jeff. He was the one that took me out to Mark and Jenny’s. They kept pushing at me, until I was angry enough to take a swing at one of them.”
“Did you end up fighting them all?” she asked, feeling only slightly relieved to find it was family he had been fighting with. At least she knew he wasn’t going to end up in legal trouble or losing his job.
“No, just Mark. I’m guessing he got the privilege of pushing me over the edge because he was the one that could take it the best,” he shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed at the memory. “I don’t remember him, even once, trying to take a swing at me. He just kept doing his best to deflect the ones I was throwing at him.”
“Maybe I better call Jenny to check on him,” she mumbled, starting to get up from the table.
“Mom,” he whispered, reaching out to take her hand. “If there was something wrong, she would have already called. You know that.”
She took a deep breath, nodding her head. “Of course, you’re right.” She was still going to call, as soon as Zane left.
“With the help of the others this time, I got Phillip’s ‘little boy’ version of his speech. He made me face everything. You know how good he is at that kind of thing. Makes me wonder when he’s going to face his own truths.”
“Are you going to go after her?” she asked, feeling a little queasy in her stomach. She wasn’t sure which answer would be the worst. No or yes. On one hand, he’d be leaving her in that mess and at Austin’s mercy. On the other hand, he’d be putting himself in the line of fire, yet again.
“I don’t know,�
� he sighed, rubbing his temples. “What if it’s not what she wants? What do I do then?”
“Zane, she doesn’t want to be with him. He has to be threatening her with something worse than her own death.” Jamie just sat there waiting to see how he reacted.
She knew exactly when what she had meant sank in. He said a couple of words she would have washed his mouth out for as a child, and she’d probably threaten him with it now if it wasn’t for the seriousness of the problem he was now facing. “That’s what everybody’s been telling me. You mean you really believe he’s threatened to come after me? You’re not just saying that may be a possibility?”
“You’re the only thing he has to hold over her. Even if she wasn’t in love with you, she would feel like she owed you. Because of all the help you’ve given her.”
His mind had grabbed hold of the one thing she knew it would. “You think she’s in love with me?”
“I know she’s in love with you,” she stated with absolute certainty. “She’s always been in love with you.”
“I have to go get her.” He stood up like he was intending to leave.
“Are you going now?”
“Yes.”
“Just be careful,” she added. “He views her as a possession, not a flesh and blood woman. He’s not going to be happy when you go in there to take his toy away.” She paused, then after a second thought added, “Again.”
“There’s something else,” he mumbled, rubbing his hands over his face. “It makes this all that much worse.”
“How could anything make this worse?” she grimaced from the seriousness in his voice.
He took a deep breath before finally looking back up at her. “This all started because of a girl in high school that liked me, instead of him. I never dated her. I had no interest in her that way. She was way too skinny for my taste. But he never wanted Amanda to start with, except for as a way to get at me.”
“Are you saying that sweet woman has suffered at his hands because of a girl in high school, that even if she hadn’t taken an interest in you, probably wouldn’t have wanted him anyway?” Jamie asked, her temper obviously rising.
“Yeah,” he answered dryly. “That sums it up quite nicely.”
“So, no matter who you had fallen in love with, you would have had to deal with something like this.”
“Yes, Mom,” he said with a nod of impatience. “And I really have to get going.”
She nodded her head thoughtfully. “Will you, please, take Mark with you? I’d ask you to take Jeff, but I know you won’t wait till he’s off work. At least Mark is in charge of writing his own schedule.”
“Yes, if it will make you feel better,” he said, turning to the doors once again. This time she didn’t stop him. She was still sitting there, silently seething. And praying.
******
“Come on. I know you’ve been giving it to him,” Austin growled, making a grab for her. “I’m tired of waiting. It’s my turn now.” He wasn’t that enthusiastic about touching her like that. That’s why he really hadn’t pushed before now. He just knew it would get at Zane that much more.
“Don’t touch me,” she screeched, swatting at him and taking a step back. I’m not going to sleep with you. I may not be with Zane, but I’m not with you either.”
She had been barricading the door for the last week to keep him out when she was there. She had even given him almost a hundred dollars when he’d showed up at the apartment a little after noon that first day back. She’d known when she gave it to him, he would go to the bar and spend the rest of the day in there. She had figured by the time he ran out of the money she had given him, one of his friends would be there to keep him in beer for a while longer. It had given her several hours to figure out what to use to block the door and get it set up to make it easy to manipulate. But last night when she had gotten in, she had obviously forgotten to block the door and about ten minutes ago he had just walked in like he owned the place.
There had been a couple of times in the last week she had gotten home from work to find him already there. She had waited across the street at her neighbors. She had even put her car behind there house. They were friends of hers, that Austin didn’t know about, or he might have looked for her there. They kept telling her to go back to Zane and let him deal with Austin. She just couldn’t explain why she couldn’t do that.
The first time she’d had to hide out, she had only had to wait about twenty minutes and he had left, and she was able to go home. The other time, it had taken nearly two hours. When he had come out of the house, she could tell by the look on his face, even from that distance, he was extremely angry with her.
“You came back to me to protect him,” he snarled, making another grab for her and snapping her out of her musings. “If you don’t give me what I want, I’m still going to shoot him. I don’t know, maybe I’ll shoot him for taking what should have been mine. I know you were still a virgin before.”
“I’m still a virgin now,” she said, smacking at his hands once again. “And you need to stop blaming Zane for you not getting everything you want.”
“Don’t try to lie to me,” he snarled. “I seen the way you to were going at it a couple of times. You couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”
“You were watching us through the window, weren’t you?” she asked in disgust. “You’re even more creepy than I had realized.”
“Yeah, I was watching you through the window,” he sneered. “So, I know there’s no way you’re still a virgin.”
Done talking, he reached over and yanked on her shirt, causing two of the buttons on it to pop off, and go flying across the room.
“Don’t touch me, you little creep,” she screamed in a near panic. “I didn’t come back here to be with you. You have no right.”
“Shut up, you little whore. You were sleeping with him, so he would protect you. Well, now you can sleep with me to protect him.”
“I wasn’t sleeping with him. He was bent on not taking advantage of me, like that. He is too much of a gentleman to do that.”
“Zane Townsend is no gentlemen. He’s the same as any other man. There’s no way I believe you weren’t putting out for him.” He reached out and shoved her, knocking her to the ground, causing her to scream once again.
******
When Zane and Mark reached the door to her apartment they could hear indistinct yelling. Zane didn’t bother knocking. He flung the door open and charged at Austin, knocking him across the room.
Mark followed close behind him. “Zane, get Amanda out of here. Let me deal with him.”
Zane turned to see Amanda curled up in the floor. He reached down and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, Baby. Let’s get your clothes.”
As they turned to walk out of the room, they heard Mark say, “Let’s see how you like being the smaller one in the fight.” The next thing they heard was a very heavy punch, and the sound of a body hitting the wall,
Amanda led Zane to the bedroom but didn’t immediately start getting her stuff. She turned back to him. “Zane, I can’t leave with you. He’ll kill you. I can’t even live with the thought of that.”
He cupped her chin in his hands and shook his head at her. “Stop. I love you. I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself to protect me.”
She burst into tears and buried her face in his chest. She didn’t think he even realized what he had said but knowing he finally had realized he loved her made all of this that much harder. “He’ll come after you,” she said, continuing to sob. “I can’t live with that.”
“Fine, I’ll get your clothes.” Zane stepped back from her and started going through dresser drawers. “Where are your clothes?”
“Still packed.” She pointed to where her duffel bag and suitcase sat together in the corner. “There’s a bag of dirty stuff in the bathroom,” she added before bursting into tears once again.
Once he returned from the bathroom with the bag of dirty laundry already over his shoulder
, he added the duffel bag to it and picked up the suitcase. He walked over and took Amanda by the hand and led her back out of the room. He didn’t even have to tug. She followed so close he could feel her brushing up against him. She was still shaking and all he wanted to do was get her out of there.
When they got back to the front room, they found Mark staring down at Austin, who was lying prone on the floor. “Did you kill him?” Zane sounded a little too hopeful for Mark’s peace-of-mind.
“No,” Mark said, giving his brother-in-law a hard look of concern. “I only hit him once. Just waiting to see if he woke up before you two were ready to leave.”
“He was drunk,” Amanda whispered. “I don’t know how hard you hit him, but I’m sure he’ll be out for a while.”
“What do you think? Should we wake him up,” Zane asked with a sinister look.
“Honestly, Zane, no.” Mark stood there looking at the man who had been one of his best friends since he started school for a few seconds. “You want to kill him too much. I’m not sure even I could stop you right now.”
Zane gave Mark a sour look. He didn’t like it when the big guy got in his head that way. “How would you feel if it was Jenny he had been hitting?”
“Like killing him,” Mark answered honestly. “And I hope you would be there to stop me. However, knowing how you are about your sisters, I’d probably be out of luck. You’d probably be helping me.”
Zane growled and stomped out the door they had never bothered to close on the way in.
“Just a minute, Zane,” Mark called from still inside. “This is her apartment and her stuff, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Give me a few minutes. I’m going to dump him outside somewhere, so we can lock him out. We don’t want him running off with half her stuff before we get back to get it.” He looked over at Amanda. “Does he have a key?”
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