“What the fuck are you doing? Get off him.” She tries to grab Mitch, but I step in front of her.
“Don’t be stupid, Valerie.”
I’m not opposed to her getting her ass kicked. If you ask me, she deserves it. However, I don’t want her to get accidentally hit by Mitch, because this bitch would press charges.
The look she gives me could melt metal. In her eyes are years of hate and dislike. Like I give a crap. The feeling is mutual.
I don’t pay her any attention. Right now, Mitch is still beating the shit out of this man. Spinning around to face the men, I take in the scene.
James is not even attempting to fight back. In fact, if it wasn’t for Mitch holding him by the shirt, he’d be lying on the ground. I didn’t have to be a doctor or go to nursing school to know that if I didn’t get Mitch off James soon, I’d be an accessory to a murder.
Slowly, and with great caution, I placed a hand on Mitch’s arm as he pulled it back to land another blow to James’ battered face.
Those blue eyes, which have been so kind to me since the first day I met him in high school, turn to face me. The absolute feral anger glaring back at me makes me want to step back. If I didn’t have complete trust and faith in this man, I’d be terrified. However, I know Mitch. I’ve known him for a very long time and even at his angriest, I know he would never lay a hand on me.
“That’s enough. You’ve done enough.”
His gaze narrows before he turns back to a bloody faced, James. I can almost see the debate in his head play out on his face.
“If you continue to hit him, you will kill him. And although what he did was deplorable, you can’t kill him.”
His head swings to me, and though the words, ‘wanna bet’ don’t leave his mouth, I can practically hear them in my head.
I chuckle slightly. “Well, you could,” I correct myself. “But where will that leave Jacob? Where will that leave...” I cut the last part of the sentence off. I didn’t have to fill in the blank for him to know what I meant. Where would it leave me?
He releases his hold on James, and the poor guy immediately hits the ground with a thud. Mitch stands up fully and turns to face me. I attempt to turn my head to watch as Valerie runs to James, but Mitch’s hands on my cheeks have me turning back to him.
The way he stares down at me makes my stomach flutter. Although he does not say those three words, I can read them clearly.
The first time he told me he loved me, I felt weightless. My entire body tingled with happiness. And then panic set in. The tingling turned to numbness. What if this doesn’t work? What if he decides he no longer wants me? Being loved and then betrayed by Andrew was one thing, but being loved and then dumped by Mitchell would devastate me. You don’t walk away from a love like this without scars.
So, just like that day when he uttered those words, I changed the subject.
“Are you okay?” I tug his hand from my face to look at his bloody knuckles. After looking them over, I noticed that the blood isn’t from him.
“How could you?” Valerie’s angry cry has both Mitch and my heads turning to her. “I’m calling the police. I’m telling them what you did.”
“Are you kidding me?” I snarl.
Mitch handled James, but it was time I dealt with Valerie. How the hell could she let this man put a bruise on her child?
“Not only did you let this piece of shit of a man hit your son, but you also told him not to tell his father?”
Her face falls, and all the vitriol from earlier is gone. She had no idea why Mitch beat this man’s ass. The guilt on her face tells me everything I need to know. She pulls James’ head into her lap.
“He didn’t mean it, okay? Jacob was messing with his things and—”
Mitch takes a step toward her, and I quickly move to block him.
“You’re his mother. You should do a better job of protecting him.”
Look, I don’t blame Valerie for James hitting Jacob—not fully. However, I blame her fully for how she handled it. There is no way a man could still lie in my bed after he put his hands on my child.
Her face contorts in disgust. “Fuck you, Ella.”
“Hey, never disrespect her,” Mitch snaps, yelling at her.
Valerie shoots to her feet. “Oh, I forgot, no one can say anything to Mrs. Perfect, right?”
