Shouting caught his attention as he headed toward Sarah's cabin. It was coming from the blue barn, and he let out a long breath as he deviated his path and headed toward the noise. His mother's couple of days was going to be the death of him.
The yelling got louder as he reached the building. As he turned the corner and entered the interior, he caught sight of the beautiful woman he had seen previously. She was arguing with one of the portly employees, and it was clear that she was madder than an old wet hen. The man suddenly stepped toward a smaller woman standing close by and backhanded her. The woman screamed as she fell and laid on the ground holding her cheek.
Drake shouted but no one heard him. The beautiful woman exploded and pushed the man backwards. "What the fuck was that? Are you out of your goddamn mind?"
"You need to keep your uppity little nose out of my business," the man spat as he attempted to stand his ground. "This is between me and Cheryl."
"Not anymore. Does she look like she's capable of dealing with you, Mickey?" the woman asked. "Because I don't think so, so you will be dealing with me."
The man named Mickey snarled. "You think you're such a badass, don't you, Joey? Do you know how many guys around here would love to teach you a lesson?"
Joey? This is Joey?Drake moved faster as his temper hitched up a bit as he crossed the long barn to where they were. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this was only going to escalate. He was almost there when Mickey suddenly lunged forward and shoved Joey backwards. He almost shifted to burn the man to ashes.
"It's about time you learned a little lesson to keep your nose from where it doesn't belong."
Joey stumbled but didn't fall. Mickey stepped toward her and raised his arm to backhand her as he had Cheryl, but Drake whistled at him.
"I don't think so, asshole. You want someone to beat up instead of a woman? I happily volunteer." He cleared the remaining distance in a leap and his right hook caught Mickey right in the jaw. The man went sprawling as Drake locked eyes with Joey. It almost took his breath away as he stared into her deep brown eyes.
"Are you okay?"
She gave a quick nod and dropped down to Cheryl on the ground. "Come on. We need to get out of here."
Cheryl sobbed as she took Joey's hand. "All I was doing was looking for feed. He attacked me."
"I know." Joey helped her up. "Are you okay?"
Drake watched Mickey to make sure he didn't move. The man just writhed in the dust on the floor.
Cheryl embraced Joey. "Thank you. I was afraid he was going to kill me."
"That won't happen here, ma'am," Drake interjected. "Do you want me to call the law?"
Cheryl's eyes widened. "Oh, no. Percy would send me packing just like that. And I need to be here. I have a little girl."
Drake's hatred for the man intensified. At that moment, Mickey chose to lash out with a kick which missed Drake's leg by mere inches. "You bastard," Mickey growled as he rubbed blood from his lip.
"You want another round?" Drake hoped that he did. His inner dragon gnashed to be let loose, but he knew that this thug with a heavily exaggerated ego wasn't worth the shift.
Mickey launched himself off the ground and caught Drake around the knees in a football tackle. They crashed into a couple of hay bales and landed heavily in an awkward position. Drake had twisted before impact, so he was mostly on top of Mickey. He landed another punch in Mickey's face, who obviously didn't have much thug experience in fighting.
"Come on. Let's get you out of here and cleaned up."
In his peripheral vision, Drake saw Joey lead Cheryl out of the barn. With Mickey desperate to pin him down, he didn't have a chance to call out to them. But he let his gaze linger on Joey for a second too long.
Thwap!
Stars danced behind his eyes as Mickey landed a lucky punch right in his nose. Lucky for him, the man was at an odd angle and didn't have much force behind it. Drake blinked quickly to try and clear his sudden double vision so he could retaliate. He let out a roar that wasn't quite human and used a little of his dragon strength to send Mickey flying across the barn. The man crashed into one of the stalls, and the horse inside reared up and let out a loud neigh.
Mickey crawled away from Drake, who went and comforted the horse. "It's okay, buddy. Just a little trash bumping into the gate. You're fine." His soothing voice calmed the horse who nuzzled his hand.
"You don't know who you're fucking with."
Drake turned away from the horse and stared Mickey down. "I don't really care either. You think you can come on my property and treat women that way?"
"She was bitching about--"
"I don't give a shit what she did. You don't hit women."
