I needed him in that very second, though.
I needed Tanner.
The man holding his hand up as if he were trying to calm a wild animal was his brother, the oldest one I think, but I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t met them all, but I knew he was a Brooks brother, and he was telling me to calm down.
To stop making a scene.
To be small.
To be quiet.
Fuck that.
I turned back to the two women standing in the center of the aisle, Marsha looking like she swelled up with the support of Tanner’s brother while Cindy sunk even smaller in on herself. “Shame on you!” I threw out. “That’s disgusting behavior, and you’re far too old to know better!”
I whipped myself around and sidestepped Tanner’s brother, grabbing my forgotten purse from the basket of my cart and left toward the front of the store with my head held high and my spine on fire from how stiff it was as anger flooded through me like an inferno of poison.
It burned everything inside of me, disintegrating all the joy and love I usually carried with me. The very things that I spread into every interaction, like fresh flowers and warmth.
But no one in that damn store stood up for me.
No one stood up for Rhea.
They all just watched.
They all just stayed silent.
And that hurt more than I ever imagined.
The bangingon my front door rattled the wood on its hinges as I popped my head out of the shower to listen for a clue as to who it was.
“Damn it.” I cursed, stepping out onto the bath rug as I heard what suspiciously sounded like someone slamming my front door shut.
Whoever it was had better be prepared for an angry naked dude with shampoo burning his eyeballs because now I was pissed.
“Tanner!” A frantic voice called out, and my blood ran cold as I ripped the bathroom door open to find Goldie all but running down the hall. “Tanner!”
“What’s wrong?” I barked, catching her as she flung herself at me, tears running down her cheeks as we slammed into the wall in the bathroom. “Goldie, talk to me, what’s wrong?”
“I hate them!” She cried, nails digging into my skin as I forced her face away from my chest so I could check her over for injuries. My brain and body were working purely on first-responder autopilot. “I hate every single one of them and I swear to God I’ve never been so close to scratching someone’s stupid, ugly eyeballs out of their stupid, ugly face before I was just now!”
“Who?” I demanded, a little less worried about her physical well-being now that she had started talking. But I still didn’t know who or what had her so worked up.
“Them!” she screamed, slapping my chest as she broke down, more tears falling from her angry eyes. “The stupid people in this town with small minds and prejudice so ingrained in them they’d cut off their noses to spite their face!” She tipped her head back again and screamed out at the ceiling, and the noise ripped my heart out.
“What can I do?” I asked, changing tactics, recognizing that she was on the edge of a breakdown and knowing what caused it was no longer a priority for me. Stopping her hurt was.
“Fuck them!” She screamed, nails scraping across my skin again as she finally stopped moving and looked at me clearly.
“What can I do?” I repeated.
“Make it stop.” She whimpered, pleading with me with her frantic eyes. “Make the anger stop boiling inside of me.” Shaking her head back and forth, I saw the panic taking over. “I can’tmake it stop; I just want to—” She shook her angry fists, “I want to hurt them!”
“Shh,” I said, turning her and pushing her to the wall, pinning her arms out wide so she couldn’t hurt herself anymore, angry red marks already formed on her palms from her nails. “Stop.”
“I can’t.” She cried, chest heaving. “I can’t make it stop. Help me. Please!” Her body arched into my wet naked one, and even in her frantic state, I could see her mind shifting, driving her on instinct for something else to stop her unraveling. “Make it stop, Tanner. Please.”
I kissed her, silencing her pleas, and she bit me, even as she pressed her hips into mine, making my cock jump between us, hardening. “Fuck.” I growled, fire burning through my veins as something tried to take over inside of me.
