Marin shoved past me, a ball of fury and indignation.
30
Pierce
She didn’t give either of us a chance to speak as she stormed onto the front porch. My mother and I had no choice but to follow, and by the time we did, it was clear Marin was geared up for a fight. Her hands were on her hips. One was cocked, and she was tapping her foot in agitation.
“Who do you think you are, bossing me around like—?”
“Shut it,” Marin snapped so sharply my mom went silent. “What happened to Frank was his own goddamn fault,” Marin hissed. “He earned that shattered knee because of what he’d done to me.”
“He got a little carried away,” Mom defended like she always did, but I couldn’t even be annoyed by that because what they were saying was starting to seep through my skin, turning the blood in my veins to sludge.
“He made a mistake and he took things too far, but he didn’t mean anything by it,” my mother insisted, her voice sounding like it was coming from the end of a long, dark tunnel.
Marin reared back. “Are you kidding me? Suzette, your son beat the hell out of me because I told him I was leaving him!”
“He made a mistake!” my mother cried.
“He hit you?” My voice came out in a growl so ferocious the two women on the porch jerked their attention to me.
Seeing the rage simmering beneath the surface, Marin’s face wiped clean of all her anger. In its place was worry. “Pierce—”
“Frank hit you?” I repeated, barely hearing my own voice over the blood rushing through my ears.
“He was just upset,” my mother started, but swallowed the rest of her pathetic excuse when I cut my eyes to her.
“There is never a reason for a man to put his hands on a woman. Not. Fucking. Ever. There is no excuse, and the fact that you would stand here and attempt to make one for him blows my fucking mind.”
“Pierce, sweetie—”
“Get off my porch.”
She staggered back at the impact of my words. “What?”
“You heard me. I want you off my porch and off my property. Your relationship with Frank is toxic, and I’m done sitting back and watching it. The fact that you’d not only excuse him taking his hands to a woman, but place blame on the woman he hit?” I shook my head, completely dumbfounded. “That makes me sick to my fucking stomach. I don’t want that shit near me, and I definitely don’t want it around my son. I’m busting my ass to make sure I raise my boy right, and it’s clear you and I don’t share the same opinions on what that means, so until you get your head out of your ass and see what a monster Frank really is, I’m done.”
She attempted to lift her chin in indignation, but the tremble in it gave her away. “I hope, for your sake, when you call me to apologize I’m in the mood to be forgiving.”
I let out a bark of laughter that sliced through the air like a knife. “Don’t count on that happening, Mom. You’ll be sorely disappointed.”
I watched in silence as she stormed down the front steps to her car. It was only once her taillights disappeared that I felt calm enough to turn around and face Marin again. The storm was still raging inside of me, but I had a lock on it, at least for now.
“How often?” I demanded.
“Pierce, listen—”
“How often did that fucking piece of shit hit you, Marin?” I clipped. “Was it just that once?”
The way she curled her lips between her teeth was all the answer I needed.
I didn’t realize I was moving until her voice slashed through the air. “Pierce! Where are you going?”
I didn’t stop. I still had my keys in my pocket, and I was in my car, peeling out of the driveway before my brain engaged with what I was doing.
I was moving on autopilot, not registering the drive through town until I was pulling up in front of Frank’s house.
I barely had the car stopped before I was out and storming up his front walk, my fist pounding on his door so hard it was a wonder I didn’t crack the wood.
“Dude, what the fuck?” Frank barked as he whipped the door open. As soon as he saw it was me, he narrowed his eyes into hateful slits. “What the hell do you want, asshole? You here to tell me again I need to grow up and get my shit together? Is that it? Well you’ll be happy to know the bitch was never really pregnant. Just wanted to trap me.”
I didn’t register a single word he said over the blood rushing through my ears. Placing my hand in the center of his chest, I shoved so hard he went stumbling backward, the backs of his legs slamming into the coffee table. I moved inside, shutting the door behind me.
“Motherfucker,” I seethed. “You hit her?”
Frank puffed his chest up, trying to look big and bad. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“Marin,” I growled. “You put your fucking hands on her?”
“Is that what that bitch is sayin’?”
“Yes or no, Frank. Answer the question. Did you put your goddamn hands on her?”
“It’s not that big a deal!” he shouted. “Besides, what her cunt friend did to my knee is worse than anything I ever did.”
I was seeing red. There was a beast under my skin clawing to get out, and like the dumb fuck he was, Frank didn’t notice.
“What do you care anyway? You barely even know her.” His eyes turned shrewd and a twisted grin pulled at his lips. “Wait. Are you fuckin’ her now?” He let out a brittle laugh. “Man, that’s classic! How do you like my sloppy seconds, big brother? I wrecked that snatch before you even had a chance—”
His words cut off of a garbled shout of pain when I plowed my fist right into his face.
“Jesus Christ!” he bellowed, cupping his hands to his nose as a guiser of blood spurted out. “You broke my fuckin’ nose.”
I was too far gone to care. I hit him again. And again. And again. My knuckles split and I couldn’t tell what was his blood and what was mine.
He was on the ground, my fist in the collar of his dingy shirt so I could hold him up as I continued to pummel his face into pulp. By the time I was finished, I was breathing like I’d just run a marathon, like a dragon ready to spit fire and burn the entire fucking world down.
“You will never go near her again. Do you understand me?” He made a pathetic noise, choking on his own blood. I gave him a violent shake. “Confirm you get me, asshole!”
“I get you!” he rasped.
“If I ever find out you so much as looked in her direction, I’ll end you. Fuck blood. Fuck being brothers. I will. End. You. Tell me you understand.”
“I understand!”
Dropping him to the floor, I wiped my fist on the front of his shirt and stomped out of his house while he writhed on the floor in pain. Not that I gave a single shit.
Marin
It had taken everything I had not to lose my grip on the panic attack that was clawing at my chest, desperate to get out as I waited anxiously for Pierce to return from wherever the hell he’d gone.
By some miracle, Eli hadn’t heard the exchange between me, his dad, and his grandmother, and when he came downstairs after Pierce had taken off, he was none the wiser.