"I will kill you!" my boyfriend roared as he rushed Austin.
So I turned on Derek. A punch to the gut made him stagger, but he was swinging back. I took one in the ribs, but it was my good side. Beside me, Tanner was trying to get that tire iron out of Austin's hands, so I turned to help. Two against one were a whole lot better odds, after all.
My fist landed on Austin's nose, making his eyes well up fast. Tanner had one end of the tire iron, Austin still clutching the other, and their other hands were flying, but that hit in his face? It made him jerk back and lash out.
And I saw it too late. His flinch was just hard enough to break Tanner's grip. On the backswing, that tire iron caught me right in the temple, and my knees just buckled.
I hit the ground, and darkness took over.
Chapter 70
Jake didn't wantto talk about Cody, but he was all in with the idea to pick our own winners this time. He also pointed out the big issue with our plan, but I was ok with it. The judges were still picking, but the way we were doing it, they had to decide what was worse, being a woman or not being straight.
I honestly didn't know which way they'd go, and I knew Austin and his friends would still ride - so one of them would likely be this weekend's winner. But we still had to try. We had to dosomething, and Jake was completely on board.
But since I went to his room to explain all that, I didn't get the chance to get ready. That put me arriving to the arena a little later than I wanted. I debated parking closer, but when I saw J.D.'s truck under one of the few trees out here, I decided to pull in beside him.
As I turned to claim the space on his passenger side, I saw something under the truck. It looked like a hat. Fuck, one of them would be missing that. I turned off my truck and hopped out, intending to grab it before it blew away, and heard Tanner.
"C'mon, babe!" he was begging.
Shit, that did not sound good at all. Forgetting about everything else - even closing the door to my truck, I rushedaround J.D.'s truck to find Tanner knelt over J.D.'s body, patting his face with the man halfway cradled in his lap.
"What the fuck happened?!" I demanded.
Tanner looked up to reveal blood streaming down his face from a busted nose. His knuckles were raw and scraped. I could see a stain on his shirt, but couldn't tell if that was mud, blood, or something worse.
"Austin and Derek jumped us!" he growled.
And damned if I didn't take a step back. I'd seen J.D. pissed before. I'd seen Cody that way, but in that split second, I realized I'd never once seen Tanner enraged. That was the only word I had for the feral look in his eyes, and it made me realize J.D. was no longer the scariest thing I'd ever seen.
But I wouldn't run this time.
"Can you walk?" I demanded.
"Limp," Tanner said as J.D. moaned, proving he was with us, but hurting. "They fucking kicked him in the ribs, Ty!"
"Then you get your hat from under the truck," I ordered, moving in to scoop J.D. from Tanner's arms. "Close the door to mine and get my keys while you're at it. The two of you need to go to Sports Medicine!"
"I can't pick him up," Tanner admitted. "Got hit in the back."
So I lifted J.D. up, shifting him so I could carry him for the long haul. That? It was what made him wake his ass up - and his hand shoved out, coming much too close to my face.
"It's Ty!" Tanner snapped. "J.D., they're gone. That's Ty."
"Fuck!" J.D. groaned even as he tried to curl around his middle.
"Stop that!" I told him. "Enjoy being treated like a damned princess, and let me carry your ass without killing us both."
"I can walk," J.D. demanded.
"Not right now, you can't," I told him.
Thankfully, Tanner was already moving. And that limp he'd mentioned? It was more like a hunched-over shuffle, but he was working it out. Yeah, someone had put a hurt on these two, and I couldn't imagine how that was possible. I also couldn't wait to see what those fuckers looked like, if these two looked this bad.
"Keep up, Tanner!" I yelled, heading to the entrance without him.
"Go!" Tanner called, hurrying around the back of J.D.'s truck to get to mine. "I know where you're going."
