Because someone was screaming. The sounds were all wrong, but when I came around the last corner, the first thing I saw was blood. The next was Austin, lying curled around the bottom of a bathroom stall. I scanned the room, trying to find her, and spotted Cody on the far side of the bathroom, huddled under one of the sinks.
Her black shirt was torn from the collar to her waist in a diagonal. The pink tank she had on underneath was stark in the bland room, and yanked out of place enough for half her sportsbra-covered breast to be hanging out. Her hands were bloody, and curled up by her side - and shaking.
It took me a millisecond to take in all of it. But the blood streaming down her face? The terror in those big blue eyes? The tears sliding slowly down the side of her nose? It all added up the same way.
"You motherfucker!" I roared, lunging for Austin.
But Jake blocked me, shoving me away. "Go help her!" he insisted, yanking Austin over on his back.
I had to try again. "I'm going to - "
Jake stood up and shoved, making it one movement. "Do it, Ty!"
I'd never seen him that pissed. The baby-faced boy had gone serious on me, and I didn't know what to do with any of this. His order cut through my rage, focused me, and changed it into something else. Something that wasn't easy to deal with. Something I'd always done my best to avoid.
Fear.
But Cody needed me, and I would not let her down again. Crossing the distance, I collapsed before her and opened my arms. "I got you, baby."
She surged into me. "He wouldn't stop!"
"Yeah," I breathed, but the others were storming in.
A glance back showed Renato, Jackson, Tim, and Wes crowding the entrance. They were also being shoved around.
"Let me in!" J.D. screamed. "I willkillhim! I will..."
He made it through at least three men, but Wes tackled him, pushing J.D. back into the wall. Four others piled on top of him, pinning him there, but his screams? They were not human. They were the sort of rage I'd expect from an angry lion. The kind of thing people didn't get to hear and survive.
"He didn't stop..." Cody said again, but her voice was rough.
"Hey..." I soothed, shifting onto my ass and pulling her onto my lap. "You're ok now. I got you, baby. I'm not letting go, and J.D.'s here."
And she broke. With every man in the PBR watching, the strongest woman I'd ever met in my life shoved her face into my chest and fucking sobbed. She gasped for air, clung to my shirt with both fists, and completely unraveled before me.
"I need a shirt!" Jake demanded, fumbling with his own buttons. "Two even!"
"Here!" Kaleb said, yanking his off to throw it over. "Why?"
Jake dropped his down with it, and pressed both into Austin's gut. "Because we're not letting him die. Someone call for help. Someone else get Doc!"
J.D. roared. There was a pause as the men trying to hold him all had to struggle to get control again, but Jake simply yelled louder.
"Cody willnotbe accused of murder, do you hear me?! That means he has to live!" Then his head turned to land on me. "Ty? Get her out of here."
"Where?" I demanded.
"Sports Medicine," he said, his voice going both cold and calm at the same time. "She needs help, and we need to make sure they can't blame her for this."
"I wanna go home," Cody whimpered against me.
"Gotta see Doc first," I told her.
Slipping my arm under her legs was easy. Going from my ass to my knees, and standing without letting her go? Not so much, and yet no one was dumb enough to get closer. Her shirt was torn. She was a mess. From the way it looked, none of us wanted to think of what could've happened, but crowding her was probably a bad fucking idea.
"Move!" I ordered as I headed to the door. "J.D., I have Cody. If you want to see her, you follow us."
"Let," J.D. growled, "the fuck," and he pushed, "go of me!"
