Dad had taught me that if I found myself in a bad situation, I’d likely only have one shot to fight back. Everything had happened so fast, I wasn’t sure what I could do to fight Porter. Then it hit me. If there was anything I’d learned from the Riot Ol’ Ladies, it was how to be dramatic.
I raised my voice loud enough so that the next door neighbors might hear me. “Get away from me, now! Stop!”
Confusion swam in his eyes. “What are you doing, Lexi?”
My gaze caught on the empty cake stand tucked away in the corner of the opposite counter. It reminded me of Ines and her marble rolling pin. When we first moved in together, she’d told me it was a weapon. I’d told her a rolling pin wouldn’t mean shit to an intruder. Then she’d made me hold it.
“That’s five pounds of dense weight I can wield at a motherfucker. Cave his head in, bust his lip, I don’t give a fuck.”
I’d never thoughtIwould need to use it to save myself.
“I asked you a question,” Porter said, cutting into my thoughts.
“I told you to leave,” I shouted, as calmly as one could shout.
Advancing on me, he shook his head. “Hear me out. Please.”
I edged left along the counter toward the area where Ines kept her rolling pin.
“Get out, Porter,” I repeated.
He stopped advancing -finally!
“I never meant to tell the cop that you had anything to do with the crash.”
I gripped the edge of the counter and leaned back. “Intention doesn’t change what you did. Hell, Brantley said similar shit, it’s almost like you two planned to accuse me.”
He shook his head. “No, plenty of people would conclude that if we hadn’t stopped we wouldn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Arguing about this wasn’t worth it, even if stopping the car was the only way to stop Porter from being so damn handsy.
What had I ever seen in him?
“If that’s why you’re here, you can go now.”
A sly expression entered his eyes as he gave a slow shake of his head. “Alexandra - now that I know your story, I want a second chance.”
“No,” I stated emphatically. “Now leave.”
“I’ll be gentle,” he said.
Ines kept her rolling pin on a free-standing holder on the counter. Porter edged forward, I casually reached backward and grabbed the handle. I raised the kitchen tool between us.
“Get the fuck out, Porter.”
His eyes darted to the pin and back to me. Then he laughed.
“A rolling pin, Lexi? What do you think you can do with that?”
I hefted it to the side for more momentum, swung, and caught Porter on the shoulder. He cried out in pain and grabbed his shoulder. Then suddenly he wasn’t in front of me, and I realized Rafferty had grabbed him and slammed him against the opposite wall. He held him there with a hand to Porter’s throat.
Porter’s eyes burned with outrage, then shifted to retaliation. He threw a fist at Rafferty’s stomach, but Rafferty twisted his hips, dodging the attempt.
“Let me go,” Porter bit out.
Rafferty’s lips curled into a sinister grin. “That’s funny. You want me to let you go. Stop… touching you… like Lex asked you to stop touching her yesterday.”
For a split-second, Porter’s eyes darted to me. “Not the same thing.”
