Page 35 of Out Of A Fix

“You’ve always been so nice to me, Griff,” Christine continued to sob. “I’m so sorry.”

There were squealing tires then, and an Eena police cruiser pulled up in front of the house, followed closely by a sedan. One man got out of the cruiser—had to be the chief—and three got out of the other car. I did what was second nature and assessed all four men quickly, determining who was the greatest threat, to make certain I took that one out first. I wasn’t as worried once they were out of the cars. I had height and muscle on all of them, but there were still four of them and one of me. Surprisingly, the anger and volume that came from the chief were not directed at me.

“You stupid little slut! I’m gonna beat your ass!”

“No, Gere,” his wife pleaded. “Please don’t hurt her.”

“Stay out of this, Lori, or you’re fuckin’ next!” he roared, charging up the pathway.

Of course a man who beat a defenseless sixteen-year-old boy would also hit his wife and daughter. “Griff, take Christine and her mother inside,” I ordered, striding forward and shoving Lori behind me.

“Come on,” Griff barked, and in moments, I heard the deadbolt lock.

“You’re Nash, aren’t you?” Wilson thundered. “Well, you need to get the fuck outta my way or⁠—”

“You’re not welcome here, and I’m warning you not to come any closer.”

But he didn’t listen. They never listened.

Originally, I was going to tussle with them in the front yard, which raised the odds on me getting hurt as well as leaving the front door unprotected, so I quickly scratched that idea. The concern then became, where best to make my stand. What amazed me was that they made it easy for me when they all started up the steps to the porch.

Between the stairs and the railing, they basically walked through a funnel to reach me. What that meant was that when Chief Wilson threw a punch at me, and I blocked it and then hit him, hard, with my right, his momentum hurled him backward into the others. It was like bowling, and when Wilson slammed into his buddies, the motion sent them all down the stairs together. Now, there were not a lot of stairs, only six in total, but still, to fly through the air and land on your back on the flagstones had to hurt. The fact that there was lots of moaning and whining told me the fight was over.

Seconds later, a Newcastle PD cruiser rolled up, and the first thing one of the officers said as he got out of the car was, “Are you kidding me?”

I waved from the porch, and the officers both waved back. When I sat down on the top step—there would be questions for me—I heard the deadbolt unlock, and Griff joined me, taking a seat beside me.

“Good job getting them inside like I asked you and locking the door.”

“I didn’t want to lock you outside, but I figured you would want me to.”

“You figured right,” I praised him, putting my arm around his shoulders.

He leaned hard. “One punch, and that was it.”

“Yeah, but you saw why, didn’t you?”

“They didn’t spread out. They came up the steps bunched up. That was dumb.”

“Yes, it was.”

“Still. One punch. That was pretty good.”

“Violence should not impress you,” I stated flatly.

“Does your hand hurt?” He ignored my comment.

“Just a bit,” I said, flexing it and making a fist before relaxing. “I’ll be fine.”

“Tatum is making Christine and her mom some chamomile tea to calm their nerves.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“She learned that from our mom. She made a lot of tea. She used to have so much, but Dad threw it out first thing after she left.”

“It probably hurt him to see it around,” I offered.

“Yeah,” he said, and his head bumped my shoulder. “But it smelled really good, especially the Earl Grey with lavender.”