“Dammit, Jayne!” He comes over to stand right in front of me. “How do you not see your pattern? I’m trying to save you from yourself and your terrible taste in men.”
“I have terrible taste? That’s rich coming from the guy who started fucking his wife while she was still married to someone else!”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Dad hisses.
Before I realize what he’s about to do, he uses the flat of his hand to smack me across the face. The sting is both shocking and painful, and my hand flies to my cheek. Even Lourdes looks shocked, but the biggest surprise comes next.
“Coach.” To my surprise, Blaze steps out of the shadows, his brow furrowed.
“Son, this is none of your business.”
“Maybe not, but I was raised to understand that you don’t ever put your hands on a woman.”
“She’s my daughter—I can do whatever the fuck I want. You need to get to practice.”
“Not until you leave.”
“Don’t make me regret moving you in here and taking you under my wing,” Dad snarls at him. “You want to keep enjoying the perks of being my favorite, get going.”
The two men stare each other down, and I take advantage of the opportunity to get away.
I whirl and practically run for the stairs, taking them two at a time and then locking my bedroom door behind me. I press my back against it, still reeling from the events of the last few minutes.
My father never laid a hand on my mother and certainly never on me.
And the picture of Bodi is worrisome, even if I keep trying to tell myself it’s not what it looks like.
With shaking hands, I pull out my phone and call him. It rings three times, four, and finally he picks up.
“Babe?”
The line is full of static and it’s hard to hear him.
“Bodi? Can you hear me?”
“Jayne? Is that you?”
“I have to talk to you,” I whisper.
“Honey, I can’t hear you. Do you want me to call you back?”
I hear footsteps on the stairs, my father calling to me.
“Bodi, I think I’m in trouble. My dad slapped me!”
“Jayne, I can barely hear you. I’m almost—” The line drops and he’s cut off.
Dammit.
Tears sting my eyelids as my father suddenly pounds on the door.
“Open up, Jayne.”
I don’t say anything, hoping beyond hope he’ll go away.
But he doesn’t.
“Open the fucking door, Jayne. Because I’ll break it the fuck down.”
